The archive database lets you search the extensive Carl Th. Dreyer Collection. The collection consists primarily of text documents and archive materials, such as letters, contracts, clippings and screenplays. Do a basic free text search or specify your search in "advanced search." The archive database is in Danish, but quite a lot of the collection material is in English or other foreign languages.

On the home page of the Dreyer Archive, you will find a search box – "Search the archive database" – for free text search. If you do not find what you are looking for this way, click the Search button at the top of the search results screen for further search options:

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Individual search fields

Using the scroll-down function shows you the different search fields:

Free text: Search all searchable fields (not available in "Advanced search").

Content description/Book titles: All entries have a brief description field stating the most important information from the documents that are included in the entry, e.g.: "Correspondence with Tage Nielsen." This field also lets you search the titles of books from Dreyer’s personal library, e.g.: "Psychiatric study of Jesus, The".

Authors/Editors: Search here by the last name of the author/editor (of letters or books), e.g.: Pontoppidan, Clara.

Person subjects: Search here by the name of a person mentioned in the documents, e.g.: Davis, Blevins.

Titles (film, TV, video): Search here by the original film/TV title, e.g.: Gezeichneten, Die.

Organisation subjects: Search here by company, institution, etc., e.g.: Politiken.

Place subjects: Search here by geographic location, such as a country or city, e.g.: Israel.

Subject terms: Search here by subject term, e.g.: film prints, private relationships or actors.

Type of material: Search here by type of material, e.g.: letters, intertitles or screenplays.

Organisation: Search here by the material’s physical location in the collection (see diagram of the organisation system in About the Collection), e.g.: D I, C: Thorvaldsen. If you wish to view a specific document from the collection, it is important to note the document’s location classification code.

Search tips

• If you check "Yes" to “Sequence of words," you can enter the words "Day of Wrath" and the system will know that you want to be shown entries including the words "of Wrath" after "Day." 
• Write a ? at the beginning or end of a word, if you are not sure of the spelling. E.g., Lager?, Pär. 
If you wish to quote from the archive database, you must include the document’s classification code and, when possible, also the document’s unique number in the collection.

For further information, please contact the DFI Library.


By Birgit Granhøj