"In 1909, a ship arrived in Copenagen." "On board was the American explorer Dr. Cook, who claimed to have been to the North Pole." "A young Journalist is seen on the newsreel:" "Carl Dreyer, 20 years old at the time." "Fifty-five years later, in December 1964, the world premiere of his last film, Gertrud, took place in Paris." "My name is Henri Clouzot." "I know your films." "Well, it's mutual!" "This is my wife." "So we're to see a world premiere of Mr. Dreyer's film, right?" "And I believe we'll dine together Wednesday evening." "When is the screening?" "Friday." "He's a wonderful man." "I watched him as he spoke to the audience." "He has the profound shyness of the true artist." "I know he's a Danish filmmaker, but to me he is, above all, a great international filmmaker." "Mr. Dreyer's career was very difficult." "He was out for work for 13 years between Vampyr and The Day of Wrath." "But he stayed true to his ideals and explored them to the end." "He only made a few films, but each one is important in the history of film." "It's a dinner with other directors." " Will you be there?" " Perhaps." "Don't worry." "No one will make you dance." "Dreyer's world is a spiritual one, one ruled by love." "By means of the story on the screen, we glimpse another story behind the screen:" "the world of good and evil, the world of grace... and the world of tolerance." "Gertrud was Dreyer's 13th film." "It was made in Copenagen in the summer of 1964." "In the studio we are equals." "We discuss things back and forth until everything's in place." "It's my Job to take part in as much as possible." "Two things play a crucial role." "One is the script, and the other is casting the actors." "The entire film rests on those two pillars." "Dreyer always took great care with the style of his films." "THE PRESIDENT (1920)" "In my first film, The President..." "I strove for simplicity, especially in the set design." "My theory was that, when entering someone's living room, one could form an impression of the owner's personality." "The president's living room consisted of plain walls and very little furniture." "There were a few portraits with the black frames common in that period." "For the interiors" "I was inspired by Wilhelm Hammershøj, whose specialty was painting empty rooms." "They were very beautiful paintings." "I insisted that the older characters be played by old actors with their own beards." ""Condemned to death!"" "THE PARSON'S WIFE (1921)" "The style developed on its own as we worked in 1 7th-century houses." "The roofs formed part of the image, which was unusual at the time." "Ceilings are rare in studio-built sets." "And looking out the windows we could see the countryside, which lent the film exceptional authenticity." "He's raising his hackles, Steinar." "Could you calm him down?" "LOVE ONE ANOTHER (1922)" "Just outside Berlin, we had to reconstruct a corner of Russia." "We succeeded because I was lucky enough to find refugees who'd lived through the Russian Revolution." "They gave me hundreds of amateur photographs, which were a great help." "I also found two Russian artists - a painter and a sculptor - who still shook with fear." "They too were very helpful." "We created an authentic setting, and therefore a genuine style." "Herman Bang's book reflected a time when it was the fashion to have pulpits, baptismal fonts, and censers in the parlor as antiques." "It was a time of falsehood, and so the film too was in a false style." "Perhaps it was the first time that style was consciously applied." "We therefore ended up with a thoroughly false style." ""But it's you!"" "In a library we found a handwritten document decorated with small watercolor drawings from the 15th century, the time of Joan of Arc." "The characteristic traits of these watercolors were small, stylized houses in the background, and in the foreground, people of a normal, realistic size." "We imitated this style, especially in the exteriors." "We painted the decor white to create a distinct style." "The actors' faces stood out well against the white background... which kept the viewer's attention." "The flat white surfaces didn't distract." "The script was taken practically directly from the transcript of her trial." "Lines followed one after the other, like blows in a sword fight." "Translated to film, that meant that each line corresponded to a close-up." "The speed of the dialogue called for a stream of close-ups with corresponding text." "It was the only way to give the audience an impression of what really happened." "The public became part of the snide way in which the interrogation of Joan of Arc was conducted." "So it is God who orders you to dress as a man?" "And what reward do you expect from God?" "The salvation of my soul." "You blaspheme God." "We had planned on a rather heavy style, but by chance we discovered something much better, so we changed our plans." "Examining the first rushes... we stopped at a scene that seemed to have been shot in fog, a muddle of grayish white." "To us this was the solution, at least for the interiors." "Silence!" "At the end of the script, the village doctor, the vampire's accomplice... was to flee the village." "In the middle of a marsh he was to fall into a mire where, unable to save himself, he would lose his life." "One day we set out to find a suitable mire, and we drove around looking at marshes." "But we discovered a house by the road where strange white shadows danced around the windows and doors as though some white fire inside was throwing off clear flames through the openings and cracks." "We couldn't resist." "We had to explore that white fire." "We went inside and saw some dark silhouettes walking around a grindstone and making plaster of Paris." "The air was thick with fine powder." "When we saw that, we knew what our style had to be:" "black silhouettes against a white background." "So we had to think of the ending taking place inside a white mill." "We knew then how the doctor should die:" "He'd be suffocated under an endless stream of milled flour." "Listen to me!" "Please!" "Curse you, you bastard!" "Open up!" "Let me out of here!" "Open this gate!" "Over here." "This way." "THE DAY OF WRATH (1943)" "The period of this film coincides with the age of Rembrandt." "Both are characterized by white plaster walls, heavy oak furniture, candlelight and oil lamps." "The clothing is the same as that period too:" "long black garments with large white collars and cuffs." "So the two styles resembled each other, though it was never our intention to imitate." "I began using dolly shots to provide some variation to the heavy style." "Dolly shots give a feeling of life." "The aim was to follow the actors in their roles, including in close-ups as they moved from spot to spot." "That meant I had to take much greater care with the composition of the image, because it changed from second to second." "I wanted to be sure the style remained consistent." "The old one's giving in." "Will you confess?" "Finally." "Let her down." ""...after all she has confessed."" "In Ordet I began a radical simplification." "I would only accept things directly related to the story." "In old Borgers living room, there was only a portrait of Grundtvig, a barometer, and a grandfather clock." "There was a large kitchen that I wished to simplify, and I succeeded." "You can't simplify reality without understanding it first, so I asked the woman who ran the studio canteen to equip the kitchen as if it were her own, the way she would feel at ease in it." "She brought all kinds of kitchen stuff - plates and pots and pans - which she arranged as she wished." "When she'd finished, the cameraman Bendtsen and I began taking objects away one by one, until only four or five were left." "In this simplified form, the notion of a kitchen was much clearer than before." "Karen, run out with that to the hens." "You'll have to give me a bit of help." "With what?" "Well, you see, Anne and I, we're thinking of..." "Anders!" "You haven't fallen in love with the tailor's Anne?" "Yes." "Is there anything wrong with that, Mikkel?" "It's the worst thing you could do." "The worst thing?" "I don't mean anything against her." "She's a sweet girl." "But what?" "What would Father think?" "With Gertrud, right from the start..." "I attempted a process of simplification, especially with the dialogue, to find a more concise form." "I also turned my attention to the characters' figures, making them statuesque, to come closer to the style of tragedy." "Good-bye, Axel." "Thanks for visiting." "Thank you for your book." "Goodbye, Gertrud."