Gertrud
I have not blogged ever since “Snowpiercer” and I remember that it actually took me a month to blog about that one. The only time I broke this long pause was for “Coming Home”, which means that I didn’t even do it for “Boyhood”, perhaps my favorite film of 2014. Amazing. Movie-wise, these past summer months had been some sort of parenthesis in my life and it actually started with “Gertrud”. I wanted a dry love film, in which people muse about love and relationships in a desperately passionate but sexually cold-looking manner. With “Gertrud”, I got exactly what I wanted.
Perhaps because I read too much about him, but I have a strange fascination for Dreyer without having seen many of his films. More than anything, I am impressed by how “Day of Wrath” takes place in a single room. A minuscule set of characters (“Warai no Daigaku”), a small space (“Dogville”) – all these Kammerspiel-like limitations are awesome, and the more limited the better. “Gertrud” is less restricted, but somehow it was on Hulu and I was intrigued by the story. Indeed, Gertrud is a woman much after my tastes. Her high expectations for love are impressive, and her willingness to forsake a shiny life while delegated to being second place is plain unrealistic. I can’t believe how much it spoke to me when she eschewed a lover because he has preferred work over her in the past. That didn’t keep her up from falling for some young idiot, but that one at least had the decency to leave her.
As I mentioned before, the strangest thing about the film is how it is entirely about true, complete, fatalistic love between people, yet the characters barely even look at each other. They sit there next to each other, fully-clothed and talk into the camera with a blank face. It looks a little odd, but somehow it suits the topic. We are dealing with immense passions and very serious conversations on love, yet the most frivol thing you see on screen is a kiss between Gertrud and her good-for-nothing youngster. I was in the mood for just that, I felt heavy and yet I was trying to show the same restraint as the characters on screen. However, I suspect that any normal human being is more hot-blooded than that.
I really liked the ending. Gertrud failed gracefully at finding true love, and I liked that she did not regret it. I certainly didn’t regret seeing the film, even though I probably like it more in its idea rather than its execution.
Oh!
I’d rank the “Dreyer”s I’ve seen (and cared about) as follows:
1. Ordet
2. Gertrud
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3. Day of Wrath
I find the single most beautiful thing about his films (I guess specifically his sound-films) to be their quality of feeling at once so utterly ascetic/sparse in style, but in the same instance also completely sensual. It’s a quality few films can achieve and Resnais’ “Melo” comes to mind as well.
Probably it is tightly linked to these films having strongly “theatrical” aesthetics while concurrently employing uniquely cinematic effects, e.g. elaborate tracking- and panning-shots in both Dreyer and Resnais’ films mentioned above.
Simply, I love both “Ordet” and “Gertrud” and have watched both repeatedly. Actually I just re-watched “Ordet” for the fourth time a few days ago! Incidentally, it is the one film besides “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” that I enjoy most while being slightly tired and I can easily choose to watch them both superficially for their sheer visual beauty!
Hahahaha I noticed that you didn’t put “The Passion of Joan of Arc” into the list. Are there any more Dreyers you have seen but that didn’t deserve to be in the list? XD
I am a little sad that you didn’t like “Day of Wrath” that much. As I said, I am actually quite interested in it, but now I may have lower to my expectations.
I had no idea you liked “Gertrud” so much! It’s a film I randomly saw on Hulu without even knowing that you had seen it. I totally don’t see the sensual aspect in the film as you did, but just like you, I liked the dialogue and the ascetic style. I don’t really get the comparison to “Melo”, though maybe there are certain similarities in the subject of these films. I love “Melo” and thought it was very, very passionate in every aspect, whereas “Gertrud” has a passionate screenplay but sounds and looks very reserved.
I definitely want to see “Ordet”, perhaps we should rewatch it together sometimes, you know – when we are slightly tired after a day of sightseeing. :D