Gertrud

(Carl Th. Dreyer, DK, 1964)

Gertrud is in a passionless marriage to Gustav Kanning. She tells him she wants a divorce, that she has begun a relationship with a young artist, Erland Jansson. Jansson seems ready to give up everything for his love for Gertrud, but still he falls short. At a party she meets an old love, Gabriel Lidman, who never got over that she left him. Gertrud will only be in a relationship if both parties make love their top priority. She won’t tolerate that the man in her life equates his love for her with his love for his work – or for his Havana cigars. Thirty years later she is all alone, looking back on her uncompromising life, regretting nothing. For Gertrud there is only love.

Gertrud, based on a 1906 play by Hjalmar Söderberg, was Dreyer’s last film. The spirit of Söderberg’s play is naturalistic, while Dreyer’s film is exquisitely stylised, seeking tragedy. In a rare move for Dreyer, there are almost no close-ups. Instead, we are treated to long, elaborate camera movements in a film that consists of just 89 setups. The end result is an almost relentlessly stripped-down visual style, characterised overall by purity and simplicity. There is consistently distance, both visual and emotional, between the characters and, in turn, no eye contact, while the lines are spoken very much like lines. This is the ultimate of Dreyer’s many portraits of women. While Dreyer’s other female characters typically are suffering women or victims of power and men, Gertrud is a strong, free woman who chooses life without tepid men and half love.

Gertrud had its world premiere in December 1964 in Paris, and both the Danish and the French reviews of the event were virulently negative. The film was criticised mainly for its stiff acting style and slow tempo. When the film premiered in Denmark two weeks later, the critical reception was more muted. Subsequent discussion in the papers especially held up Dreyer’s portrait of a woman as significant and relevant.

Gertrud is still a film that divides audiences. It is remarkable that Dreyer, who always followed the beat of his own drummer without regard for the times or prevailing fashions, still, in this, his last film, stylistically and thematically, superbly inserts himself among the modern European films of his day.

DAN NISSEN


Credits / Gertrud

Production company Palladium
Distributor  Film-Centralen-Palladium
Censorship classification  No restrictions
Release date and place 1.1.1965 / Dagmar 
First screening at Le Studio Médicis in Paris 18.12.1964
Based on  A play by Hjalmar Söderberg (1906, in Danish 1967)

Directed by

Carl Th. Dreyer  Director
Jens Ravn Assistant Director
Solveig Ersgaard Assistant Director 

Screenplay

Carl Th. Dreyer  Screenwriter
Grethe Risbjerg Thomsen Poems 

Produced by

Niels Jørgen Nielsen  Producer
John Hilbard   Production Manager 
Erik Overbye  Production Manager

Cinematography by

Henning Bendtsen  Director of Photography
Arne Abrahamsen  Camera Operator 
Else Kjær  Stills 

Lighting by

Ove Hansen  Gaffer 

Editing by

Edith Schlüssel  Editor

Music by

Jørgen Jersild  Composer 
Gurli Plesner  Singing 
Peter Willemoes Recording

Production Design

Kai Rasch  Art Direction
Willy Berg Hansen  Set Assistant

Costumes

Berit Nykjær  Costume Designer 
M.G. Rasmussen Men's costumes
Fabielle Gertrud's costumes

Cast

Nina Pens Rode Gertrud 
Bendt Rothe     Gustav Kanning
Ebbe Rode Gabriel Lidman
Baard Owe Erland Jansson
Axel Strøbye Axel Nygren
Vera Gebuhr Kanning's maid
Lars Knutzon Student  
Anna Malberg  
Edouard Mielche   
Karl Gustav Ahlefeldt  
William Knoblauch  
Valsø Holm  
Carl Johan Hviid  

Director 
Carl Th. Dreyer

Release 
1964

Country 
Denmark

Category 
Feature

Running time 
115 min.

Technical data 
35 mm - 1,66:1 - b/w - sound

New documentary about Gertrud

Daniel Bødker Sørensen (Hunchback Media, 2022).

Film clip

Poster

Stills

Photos: On the set

Programme

 

The programme in Danish