2.3: Sound film and Dreyer's career as filmmaker, by Associate Professor Casper Tybjerg

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En provenance du cours de University of Copenhagen

Scandinavian Film and Television

302 notes

University of Copenhagen

Scandinavian Film and Television

302 notes

In many ways Scandinavian film and television is a global cultural brand, connected with and exporting some of the cultural and social values connected to a liberal and progressive welfare society. This course deals with the social, institutional and cultural background of film and television in Scandinavia and in a broader European and global context.

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Contemporary Scandinavian Film and TV Culture and Dreyer's Classical Cinema

This module consists of two lessons. The first lesson offers an introduction to main trends in the contemporary Scandinavian film and television culture, focusing – among other things – on how the national film and television cultures relate to ideas of the welfare state. The module also addresses the international impact of film and television from Scandinavia. The second lesson deals with the early years of cinema in Scandinavia and the work of the Danish director Carl Th. Dreyer, from a silent film classic such as 'The Passion of Joan of Arc' to the sound film era.ist

2.1: The establishing of early cinema in Scandinavia, by Associate Professor Casper Tybjerg11:11

2.2: The golden age of Swedish cinema and Dreyer, by Associate Professor Casper Tybjerg11:29

2.3: Sound film and Dreyer's career as filmmaker, by Associate Professor Casper Tybjerg13:57

Rencontrer les enseignants

Eva Novrup Redvall
Associate Professor
Department of Media, Cognition and Communication

[SOUND] This lecture will look at the consequences of the coming of sound for

Scandinavian cinema, and particularly for

Carl Th Dreyer following his career into the 1960s.

While American film production had converted completely to sound by the end

of 1929, in Europe, the conversion happened more slowly.

There were several reasons for this, but

one problem was that movies with spoken dialog were much more difficult to export.

The title cards in silent films could easily be replaced.

Spoken dialog could not.

It took several years for subtitling and dubbing technologies to be developed.

Dreyer was still living in France, but

had to have his next film financed outside the film industry, by a wealthy patron.

The film was Vampyr, vampire, an eerie horror film.

It was shot in 1930 before the Bela Lugosi Dracula went into production.

Dreyer wanted to make the film in four different versions,

a silent version and sound versions in French, German and English.

This turned out to be much more difficult than anticipated.

And it took a year and a half for the film to reach the cinemas, opening in 1932.

And Dreyer ended up suffering a nervous breakdown.

In Scandinavia, sound films were almost impossible to export,

forcing production companies to rely, more or less exclusively on the home market.

Fortunately, audiences flocked to films in their own languages,

making it possible to maintain domestic production.

The commercial imperatives were quite stark.

In Denmark, nearly 1 out of every 10 people had to buy a ticket for

a film to make a profit.

Light comedies with music and songs were the dominant genre.

Very clearly in Denmark, less so in Sweden and Norway.

[MUSIC]

>> Artistic experiments were unwelcome.

At Svensk Filmindustri, Charles Magnusson had been replaced in 1928 by Olof Andersson,

whose motto was said to be a good film is a film that runs.

In this relentlessly commercial atmosphere,

Dreyer wasn't able to find film work.

He had acquired a reputation for being difficult, uncompromising and artsy.

He had to make ends meet by writing humorous reports from police court,

for a tabloid newspaper.

In 1939, World War II broke out.

Denmark and Norway were occupied by Germany in 1940,

and Finland was attacked by Soviet Russia.

Sweden remained neutral.

In all countries, the war had a great impact on the film industry, too.

Wartime rationing meant that there fewer goods to spend money on.

And instead, a lot of people spent their money on amusements like the movies.

Giving many film industries a much needed boost.

At the same time, producers seemed more willing to make dark and serious films.

And so Dreyer was able to make a comeback in 1943.

He had been helped by an influential young civil servant, Mogens Skot-Hansen.

The Danish government had decided to sponsor the production of a very sizable

number of information and propaganda films.

>> I feel a lump in one of your breasts.

Yes, like a hard lump right?

What does the Professor think it is?

>> Well, I hope it is a benign tumour.

But we won't know before we do a proper examination

>> Then what professor?

>> The right thing would be for you to admit to the hospital so

can remove it immediately.

>> There were several reasons for the investment in film production.

It was partly to help maintain social solidarity and support for

the government's policy of cooperation with the German occupiers.

Partly to support the Danish film industry and

partly to offer exhibitors an alternative to German produced films.

Skot-Hansen hired Dreyer to direct a short on a program to aid unwed mothers.

Showing that he could work on a tight schedule and budget.

Even though he had not made a movie in more than a decade,

he was still the best known and most highly regarded Danish film maker.

So when his new feature film, Day of Wrath,

came out in late 1943 expectations were running high.

>> You've changed sine Herlof's Marte was arrested.

And now she has burned at the stake.

You've become so strange.

Did she denounce another?

And you're keeping it secret?

>> She denounced no living person.

>> No living person?

No one living.

>> Day of Wrath was an unrelentingly grim story,

about witchcraft persecutions in 17th century Denmark.

Showing how the dark religious fanaticism of the time warped the minds

even of good people, even the heroine comes to believe at the end that

the desires burning within her are satanic, that she really is a witch.

Perhaps because of the darkness and the hopelessness of the film,

the critical reception was overwhelmingly hostile.

Dreyer had tried to develop a new style,

very different from the rapid editing of his silent films, using,

instead, long, continuous takes, and slow camera movements.

>> [SOUND] >> Will you confess?

>> Yes.

>> Finally.

>> [SOUND] >> Release her.

>> Thereafter she consented to a confession.

>> This style fits the solemn and

oppressive atmosphere of the film very well.

And it is a big part of the reason why it still retains so much power today.

But many critics found it too heavy going and objected to it.

Despite the occupation, Dreyer was able to leave Denmark for

Sweden, where his old idol, Victor Sjostrom,

had just been appointed the artistic director of Svensk Filmindustri.

Sjostrom's talent as a director had translated poorly to the sound film, and

his career as a director had petered out.

But he continued working as an actor and was widely respected.

However, Dreyer had a very unhappy experience working for him.

In Sweden, Dreyer made another chamber drama, Two People.

But he was unable to cast the two actors he wanted and later, disowned the film.

Dreyer retained his admiration for Sjostrom as a filmmaker, however, and

always spoke highly of him and his exemplary importance.

In the post war period,

an international art film milieu coalesced around the international film festivals.

New journals devoted to serious writing about the cinema.

And the proliferation of art cinemas and cinematheques.

Dreyer benefited from this when Day of Wrath was distributed

internationally after the war, and hailed as a great film.

And Passion of Joan of Arc was re-released in 1952 to international acclaim.

He made a number of government sponsored short films, but

only in 1955 did he come out with a new feature film.

It's title is usually pronounced Ordet in English.

But in Danish it's actually [FOREIGN] meaning simply,

The Word, The Word as in the first verse of the Gospel of John.

>> Are you one of those in need of a house?

>> I am the new minister.

My name is- >> My name is Jesus of Nazareth.

>> Jesus, but how can you prove that?

>> Thou man of faith,

whose own self lacks faith!

>> The film was based on a very well known stage play written by Kaj Munk.

A minister and celebrated dramatist,

who was killed by a Nazi death squad in January 1944.

It is a drama of faith, and at the end, a miracle occurs.

Kaj own religious beliefs are unclear, but

were probably rather unorthodox, judging from his public statements.

Nevertheless, he sought to imbue the film

with an atmosphere that would make the miracle emotionally credible.

He did a great deal of research and shot his exteriors on location,

seeking to create a stylized, abstracted realism.

Even more than Day of Wrath, the film relies on long takes, and

slow camera movements.

He wrote to his actors that he sought to create a solemn, funereal atmosphere.

That would not only prepare the spectators for the miracle, but

also, by reminding them of their own deaths, make them hope for it.

The film was both a popular and a critical success, and

at the Venice film festival in 1955, it won the top prize, The Golden Lion.

Dreyer was able to make only one more film, Gertrud, from 1964.

It's based on a play from 1906, about a woman who rejects all the men in her

life because none of them are capable of the total commitment she wants.

It is done in an extremely formal, almost erratic style.

The actors move and speak slowly as if they were living statues.

[MUSIC]

>> Have you been waiting long?

>> Yes, too long.

>> Forgive me, darling.

>> I'll try.

>> Do you love me?

You have to say it.

>> I love you.

>> Say it again.

>> I love you.

>> The exacting way the actors are placed within the films intricately composed and

choreographed shots have reminded some scholars of the kind of pre-World

War I cinema, where Dreyer got his start.

A cinema that also relied heavily on blocking, on the placement and

movement of actors within the shots rather than on editing.

But the long take style of Gertrud, has also been a model for

many newer filmmakers.

It's formality and slowness,

give an impression of uncompromising artistic severity, but

also make the characters hard to read, creating a feeling of mystery.

Dreyer was always interested in the drama that takes place within the characters.

Thank you for your attention.

[MUSIC]

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