Search results:

Biography - Extended

Carl Theodor Dreyer is the most important director in Danish cinema. In international film history, too, he ranks as one of the greatest artists of all time. Born out of wedlock, Dreyer was adopted…

Plot summary / Leaves from Satan's Book

In four episodes, we witness how Satan (Nissen), accursed by God, must walk the Earth and tempt men to do evil; he can only hope to be delivered from his curse if someone resists him, but few do.

Reception / Leaves from Satan's Book

Norwegian premiere: 15 November 1920.

Danish premiere: 24 January 1921.

Plot summary / Once upon a time

Once Upon a Time is based on a popular Danish nationalistic play from 1887, with a storyline that blends Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Swineherd with Shakespeare's

Reception / Once Upon a Time

According to Martin Drouzy (in Carl Th. Dreyer – født Nilsson, 1982), Once Upon a Time was shown 32 times at Palads and got mixed reviews.

Bibliography / Once upon a time

Dreyer and the national film in Denmark / Casper Tybjerg. In: Film History, vol. 13, no. 1, 2001, s. 23-36.

The Dreyer Family

In 1982, the film historian Martin Drouzy published the first major biography of Dreyer and his life, Carl Th. Dreyer født Nilsson (Carl Th. Dreyer, born Nilsson). Dreyer’s daughter, Gunni, the…

Preben Lerdorff Rye

Preben Lerdorff Rye plays Martin in "Day of Wrath" (1943) and Johannes in "The Word" (1955).

Dansk kulturfilm

When Dreyer made his first short film for Dansk Kulturfilm, he had been on involuntary hiatus from filmmaking for more than 10 years. From 1942 to 1949 he directed eight shorts and was in involved…

AB Svensk Filmindustri

Dreyer made two Swedish films 23 years apart, both for AB Svensk Filmindustri. The first production, in 1920, went smoothly. The second production, in 1943, was fraught with problems and…

Perilous Performance: Dreyer's Unity of Danger and Beauty

Carl Th. Dreyer has been called everything from misunderstood genius, to reserved bourgeois director, to “The Tyrannical Dane” as Paul Moor put it in his 1951 article in which, consequently, he also…

The Leap to Death

(Rasmus Ottesen, DK, 1912)