London Gets Passionate About Carl Dreyer
The BFI Southbank, London will continue to cast a spotlight on silent film with a celebration of the Danish master of light and shadow, Carl Dreyer, this March. His legacy will be celebrated with a complete retrospective of his films; from his seminal silent movies to sound features.
Carl Dreyer made fourteen films and, to many, at least half a dozen of them are rated outright masterpieces. With this complete retrospective – The Passion Of Carl Dreyer – audiences will be reminded why he is one of the greatest masters of cinema and of equal weight to Bergman, Renoir and Ozuc. His seminal silents have included comedies and presented audiences with iconic images – Jean-Luc Godard featured extracts from The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, 1928) in his debut À bout de souffle (1960) – and Vampyr (Vampyr: Der Traum des Allan Gray, 1932), Dreyer’s first talkie, is recognised as an innovative experiment with form.
Days Of Wrath (Vredens Dag, 1943) tells of 17th century witch hunts and is one of the greatest European films made during WWII, when Denmark was occupied by the Nazis. His subsequent short films, made during the 1940s, receive a rare outing, and feature They Caught The Ferry (1948) – an inspiration to Jim Jarmusch – and screen in their own programme.
There will also be a screening of the documentary Carl Th. Dreyer: My Métier (1995), and an extended run for Ordet (1955), which is also set for general release, between 9th and 23rd March. Ordet sees a Jutland farming family’s traditional values and religious beliefs challenged by a generation gap between father and children. For many this play-to-film adaptation is the very greatest of all Dreyer’s masterpieces and is also his penultimate film.
For more information on the Carl Dreyer season, head to the BFI Southbank’s official website.
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