Carl Theodor Dreyer

Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968) is the most significant filmmaker of Danish cinema and remains one of the most idiosyncratic artists to have worked in this medium throughout film history. Dreyer's aesthetically uncompromising stance meant that over the course of nearly half a century, he was able to create only 14 feature films in five different countries. If we consider only the most well-known works - 'La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc' (1928), 'Vampyr' (1932), 'Ordet' (1955), and 'Gertrud' (1964) - we can already see a thematic and formal diversity that is characteristic of his overall body of work. A common and special aspect of all his films is often identified by their spirituality. For Chris Marker, Dreyer's films were simply directed towards eternity. Paul Schrader even spoke of a 'transcendent style' that dissolves the familiar relationships of space and time. However, the mystery of what makes a Dreyer film unmistakable has yet to be solved. The contributions to this volume shine their own light on a body of work whose inner complexity and unwavering beauty are continually worth rediscovering.