Dreyer, Carl Theodor

Dreyer, Carl Theodor (kärl tā`ōdôr' drī`ər), 1889–1968, Danish motion picture director. He began making films in Denmark in 1919. His Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), widely regarded as a classic of silent filmmaking, made extensive use of close-ups and stark lighting to increase the film's dramatic effect. He experimented with innovative techniques in Vampyr (1931), his first movie with sound, which explored the power of evil and the horror of human suffering. His later works, usually adaptations of plays that employed a slow pace to build great cumulative power, include Day of Wrath (1943), Ordet (1955), and Gertrud (1964).

Bibliography

See studies by T. Milne (1971) and D. Bordwell (1973).

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Dreyer, Carl Theodor

Carl Dreyer

(credit: Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive, New York)

(born Feb. 3, 1889, Copenhagen, Den.—died March 20, 1968, Copenhagen) Danish film director. He entered the film industry as a writer of subtitles and became a scriptwriter and editor. His first film as a director was The President (1919); after several others, he made his most famous silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). He created a new directorial style based on extensive close-ups and the use of authentic settings. His other films include Vampire (1932), the celebrated Day of Wrath (1943), The Word (1955), and Gertrud (1964).

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Dreyer, Carl Theodor 

Born Feb. 3, 1889, in Copenhagen; died there Mar. 20, 1968. Danish director and scriptwriter.

Dreyer began his directing career in 1918. The film Leaves From Satan’s Book (1920) exhibits Dreyer’s striving for the maximal expressiveness of cinema language. In the films The Parson’s Widow (1920, Sweden), Michael (1924, Germany), and Master of the House (1925), whichcriticize the bourgeois way of life and morals, the basic theme of Dreyer’s films is presented—the loneliness of man, who defends his spiritual freedom and is at times doomed to death. This theme is most fully expressed in the film The Passion of Joan of Arc (1927, France), one of the most significant achievements of the silent film. In the films The Day of Wrath (1943, adapted from H. Wiers-Jenssens), The Word (adapted from the play of K. Munk), and Gertrud (1965, adapted from the play of H. Soderberg), Dreyer continued his experiments in cinema language and developed the main theme of his films, which increasingly lent themselves to a religious and mystical interpretation. Dreyer’s documentary films constitute a significant part of his contribution to the Danish art of the cinema.

WORKS

Om filmen. Copenhagen, 1964.
Fire film. [Copenhagen] 1964.

REFERENCES

Sémolue, J. Dreyer. Paris [1962].
Carl Th. Dreyer cinéaste danois, 1889-1968, 2nd ed. Copenhagen [1969].

V. A. UTILOV