124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
Message
Author
User avatar
Tommaso
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am

Re: 124-128 Dreyer Box

#76 Post by Tommaso » Wed May 13, 2009 6:53 am

I'm horribly bad at maths, but I didn't mean zooming in to fill the whole of the 16:9 frame of course, but just so much as to lose the black bars at the bottom and top of the picture with the bars at the sides remaining as for a normal 1.66 image. No loss of picture involved, then, but in the case of that "Sacrifice" disc, the subs are partly placed outside the picture at the bottom, and thus, you lose them. If this doesn't happen with the Tarr set, all the better. It also doesn't happen with MoC's "Nuits rouges". But not all dvd producers take care of such things, so you'd better check for the new "Gertrud".

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 124-128 Dreyer Box

#77 Post by swo17 » Wed May 13, 2009 10:37 am

Tommaso wrote:I didn't mean zooming in to fill the whole of the 16:9 frame of course, but just so much as to lose the black bars at the bottom and top of the picture with the bars at the sides remaining as for a normal 1.66 image.
I would love to be able to do this but am unable to on my TV, which only allows me to toggle through a handful of zoomed options, most of which involve some kind of warped stretching of the image. Are there a lot of TVs that have a manual zoom function like you describe?

User avatar
denti alligator
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"

Re: 124-128 Dreyer Box

#78 Post by denti alligator » Wed May 13, 2009 10:47 am

With Zoom Player you can zoom incrementally pixel-by-pixel AND move subtitles up and down on the screen, as needed. Nice stuff!

User avatar
Tommaso
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am

Re: 124-128 Dreyer Box

#79 Post by Tommaso » Wed May 13, 2009 11:02 am

swo17 wrote:Are there a lot of TVs that have a manual zoom function like you describe?
I don't know; mine is a four years old Philips set, 16:9, but still a real tube, not particularly expensive way back then. I always assumed any modern TV could do this manual zoom in addition to 'fixed' zooms to 16:9 or 1.66 or indeed the warped options you describe, but it seems I'm wrong. It's really handy: you can get rid of CC's picture-boxing, AND avoid overscan with non-anamorphic widescreen discs.

I've never heard about Zoom player, but the way you describe it, denti, it sounds like a computer thingy, and thus not usable for stand-alone TVs/players?

peerpee
not perpee
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:41 pm

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#80 Post by peerpee » Sat May 03, 2014 2:27 pm

No posts for 5 years in this thread :(

Apropos of nothing, other than the film being 60 next year, here's an ORDET poster I designed:

Image


and here's a DAY OF WRATH one I did at the same time:

Image
Last edited by peerpee on Sat May 03, 2014 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
jindianajonz
Jindiana Jonz Abrams
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#81 Post by jindianajonz » Sat May 03, 2014 3:20 pm

Those both look great!

User avatar
Altair
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 12:56 pm
Location: England

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#82 Post by Altair » Sun May 04, 2014 6:59 am

Very elegant and classy, and puts most DVD/Blu-ray covers to shame (and reinforces my idea that most terrible cover designs are a result of sheer laziness).

kekid
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:55 pm

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#83 Post by kekid » Sun May 04, 2014 12:24 pm

I don't know how Criterion decide what they upgrade to Blu Ray format, but the fact that they have not come around to this box is travesty.

User avatar
jegharfangetmigenmyg
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:52 am

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#84 Post by jegharfangetmigenmyg » Sun May 04, 2014 1:08 pm

Especially, considering the fact that the Danish Film Institute did 2K restorations of these films a couple of years back. As of today these remasters have only appeared in a travesty of a Danish boxset, on single layer DVDs (!) that almost look worse than the old Criterions... Here're some screenshot comparisons which also reveal boosting and minor edge enhancement on the Criterion editions: http://www.dvdsnak.com/products/carl-th ... palladium/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wrote a mail to Casper Tybjerg, the Dreyer expert adding commentaries and essays to most home video releases, who taught me back at the university, and asked him if he knew whether or not a blu-ray box is in the works. No answer yet.

User avatar
FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#85 Post by FrauBlucher » Sun May 04, 2014 1:17 pm

Back in 2008 Janus toured the Day of Wrath 65th anniversary restoration. So, you'd think this is definitely available for CC to upgrade.

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#86 Post by hearthesilence » Sun May 04, 2014 10:47 pm

YES, I remember that restoration because I sold off my copy of the Criterion box set in anticipation of a re-release….needless to say, probably shouldn't have done that.

boywonder
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:24 am

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#87 Post by boywonder » Thu May 08, 2014 2:24 am

peerpee wrote:No posts for 5 years in this thread :(

Apropos of nothing, other than the film being 60 next year, here's an ORDET poster I designed:

Image


and here's a DAY OF WRATH one I did at the same time:

Image
It seems a dangerous line has been crossed in allowing dreaded fan posters on this site! It is one tiny step to reintroducing fan produced Criterion Covers. We all know how fragile and touchy members here are to taking a step in that direction. May I suggest this be the last post of fan "art"? Let's get back to discussing franchise comic book movies ... ASAP!

User avatar
tojoed
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2008 11:47 am
Location: Cambridge, England

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#88 Post by tojoed » Thu May 08, 2014 4:47 am

Well, there you are, Nick, it seems you are just a fan poster.
He must have forgotten some of the great covers you did for the
MoC series.

User avatar
FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#89 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu May 08, 2014 6:16 am

I hope Boywonder has his 'tongue in cheek' otherwise he is giving the newbies a bad name.

User avatar
NABOB OF NOWHERE
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 12:30 pm
Location: Brandywine River

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#90 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Thu May 08, 2014 7:42 am

FrauBlucher wrote:I hope Boywonder has his 'tongue in cheek' otherwise he is giving the newbies a bad name.
I think his last sentence pretty well establishes that he has his tongue in his cheek or probably in someone else's

WorstFella
Joined: Fri Nov 12, 2010 5:14 pm

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#91 Post by WorstFella » Thu May 08, 2014 5:20 pm

It seems a dangerous line has been crossed in shunning tongue-in-cheek posts on this site!

User avatar
Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#92 Post by Gregory » Thu May 08, 2014 5:57 pm

kekid wrote:I don't know how Criterion decide what they upgrade to Blu Ray format, but the fact that they have not come around to this box is travesty.
To a certain extent they base it on what needs a new print run and can be upgraded to a dual-format release. There may be a bunch of stock of this set that's been selling extremely slowly, and of course upgrading a whole set is a considerable undertaking.

User avatar
misterjunior
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:30 pm

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#93 Post by misterjunior » Wed Sep 25, 2019 7:47 am

Thrilled that one of the local universities is showing Gertrud in 35mm as part of its Fall 2019 "Cinematheque" season, which will give me another notch in my "Dreyer films seen on the big screen" belt. Very much looking forward to it.

For anyone who may be in Virginia, here's a link to the page about the program including past season schedules and the screenings announced for the Fall season. All screenings are free and open to the public. https://arts.vcu.edu/cinema/cinematheque/

User avatar
nick
grace thought I was a failure
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:42 am
Location: Rochester, NY

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#94 Post by nick » Wed Sep 25, 2019 10:10 am

Thanks for that link! I'm pretty new to Richmond and didn't realize there were any interesting film programs in the area.

User avatar
misterjunior
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:30 pm

Re: 124-128 Carl Theodor Dreyer Box Set

#95 Post by misterjunior » Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:03 pm

Welcome to Richmond! Been here for about 18 years myself.

VCU doesn't do a great job of advertising this program, I only learned about it last year (on the plus side, it was in time to catch basically every Antonioni film).

Oh and since you mentioned being new to the are: In case you're not aware of the Byrd Theatre (1920s era movie palace in Carytown that for many years functioned as a second run theater only) they have been showing programs of classic films (occasionally stretching the definition of "classic," but I find that loose definition kind of enjoyable) for a few years now also. Here is their schedule for the upcoming month(-ish): https://byrdtheatre.org/showtimes/ There's also a pdf file that shows (most of) their schedule for the rest of the year on the site, and they have been doing a few other events there for some time now, which are mentioned on the site also. "New" movies are $4 and most classic movies are $5.

The local Bowtie Cinemas location ("Movieland at Boulevard Square") has a classics program that is essentially foundering at this point called Movies & Mimosas, the name being a reference to the fact it showed classic films on Saturday and Sunday mornings. They also have a program called-- I believe-- Insomnia Theatre, that was launched to show "cult classic" type films on Friday and Saturdays around 11:30-midnight-ish. At some point in the past few years, after each having started with exciting programs (for a mid-sized city like Richmond, at any rate) of clearly delineated established classics (I saw the first two Godfathers, several Hitchcocks, a few Capras, Jaws, etc.-- nothing too exotic, but stuff that I'd never had occasion to see in a theater a few miles from my house before) and cult films (a regularly scheduled "live cast" Rocky Horror Picture Show program, I saw Carpenter's The Thing, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Beetlejuice, the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, etc.) that changed from week to week, they combined the two programs and decided to just show one movie per month.

User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1943)

#96 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Nov 11, 2019 6:35 am

DISCUSSION ENDS MONDAY, November 25th.

Members have a two week period in which to discuss the film before it's moved to its dedicated thread in The Criterion Collection subforum. Please read the Rules and Procedures.

This thread is not spoiler free. This is a discussion thread; you should expect plot points of the individual films under discussion to be discussed openly. See: spoiler rules.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

I encourage members to submit questions, either those designed to elicit discussion and point out interesting things to keep an eye on, or just something you want answered. This will be extremely helpful in getting discussion started. Starting is always the hardest part, all the more so if it's unguided. Questions can be submitted to me via PM.

User avatar
Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: Day of Wrath (Car Theodor Dreyer, 1943)

#97 Post by Drucker » Wed Nov 13, 2019 11:31 pm

For a while this was my favorite Dreyer film, but after this re-watch I'm not so sure. What I do love about the film is that it feels more of a piece with Dreyer's silent work than final two features. The sound is rough and raw. The visuals are frequently reminiscent of Vampyr, especially in the excellent scene where Herlofs Marte is captured as well as the judgmental eyes of male clergy like Joan. But I'm also a bit thrown by the tone of the film, which is aggressively dark, much more so than any of his other films I can think of. While Absolon is being cheated on, he is neglectful of his wife, treating her more like a child than a peer. When Anne discovers her gift, she begins putting it to use, and clearly is harming her husband. Dreyer, being the masterful filmmaker he is, does such an incredible job of allowing for moral ambiguity, especially with Martin.

The film however didn't have the completely transcendental feel of some of his other films. There are absolute moments of brilliance, but I think it falls just short of the heights of his other masterworks. Ordet is such a perfect ensemble film, but here I was mostly fixated on Anne, and her evolution from shut-in youngster, to the way she comes out on her own, and grows.

Still turning it over in my head quite frankly, but wanted to get these thoughts down.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Day of Wrath (Car Theodor Dreyer, 1943)

#98 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Nov 14, 2019 1:27 am

Here’s my writeup from the 40s thread
therewillbeblus wrote:
Thu Aug 01, 2019 10:49 pm

Day of Wrath

A film about the systemic barriers embedded in society that prevent the achievement of an authentic identity. Dreyer presents us with a world that embodies fear and weakness to combat this strength. It’s a visually striking film with detailed characters and their relationships to one another, society, and themselves; and so well documented in visual language we hardly need anything spelled out for us in dialogue. Dreyer takes his time to celebrate the beauty of nature around, and harmonious spaces between, people; setting up a dissonance between these shots and the hopeless death and rape of the self that these women suffer in the society constructed within this nature. The juxtaposition is harsh and spending time with the persecuted as they await and experience death as others watch exemplifies the destruction of the other. Do we fear what we don’t understand or that which threatens our fixed roles? And is the emerging of independence of women in a patriarchal society the source of these burnings, indicating no witches? Or do they exist as ‘witches’ but only as a metaphor for their disruption of norms for engagement in a process of self-actualization? These are important questions to ask for both historical and sociological reasons, relevant to past and present, and I’m glad the film uses the manipulation of the image to create a mood that causes us to ask the questions ourselves rather than spoon-feeding them to us.

The use of claustrophobic inside spaces indicate our heroine’s feeling of being trapped as her sense of self clashes with cultural norms. We continually see Anne staring outside of her cramped room, the camera capturing the low ceilings and darkness behind her as the lighting shines through the window onto her face. Sometimes the camera frames her from the outside with a physical sheet of glass blocking her from access to the freedom on which her eyes are fixated, all of these moments inferring her ability to see the true possibilities in this world kept just out of reach. Lisbeth Movin is exceptional, convincingly exhibiting the development of her character from complacent to persistent. Her confidence and comfort cannot be mistaken for the evil she will be accused of, despite certain moments that may point to questionable selfishness on paper. The success of this exposition hinges on her performance and Dreyer’s subtle decisions to keep us in her court, while simultaneously realizing how her behavior could be alarming and spark a witch hunt in the film’s climate.

The best and most interesting question the film poses is whether the men in this patriarchal society are perhaps less ‘free’ than the women, despite holding all the external power. Each of them is so explicitly weighed down by fear and allegiance to a socially constructed role that Dreyer slyly exposes as meaningless while painting them as weak sheep. It appears that Dreyer is intending to separate physical forms of freedom from freedom of the soul, arguing in favor of the spiritual while cynically presenting that the optimal achievement we can have in self-actualization is impossible in our societies as we’ve built them so far. It’s an interesting thesis and an audacious proposal, but using the fear of the unreal imaginary (represented by magic and witches, and a sense of autonomy) to expose the fear of the unreal symbolic (cultural norms), we are revealed the real, or Real, in self-understanding and acceptance, authenticity of the spirit clouded by these fake truisms we live by, personified by Anne.

Watching the lone strong wolf abandoned in the end as she surrenders to her restraint provides a sense of tragic yet serene nirvana in this process of acceptance. Through forfeiting any investment or hope in achieving symbiosis, understanding, or any thread of a relationship with the milieu of her world and life as she knows it, she becomes free. It’s brutally beautiful.
Drucker, this is my favorite Dreyer but I had the opposite progression in my reactions. For awhile I saw the film as a dark sour tale focused solely on Anne’s transformation. I’ve come to see it as more ‘transcendental’ over time and strangely optimistic in a spiritual sense which can only be achieved I think when examining the entire context and view Anne simultaneously contrasted from, and as a product of, her environment and the people in it. The moral ambiguity you speak of is strongest here in my view, as well as the relativity of meaningfulness and value of life based around perspective. One can view the story as dark and sad, or beautiful and positive, depending on the value placed in certain aspects of life to measure quality. Anne is abandoned and her life is cut short in a physical sense, but she has realised and embraced her identity with a confidence and a refusal to compromise her spiritual self, that none of the men will likely ever achieve or have the opportunity to, as they have too many protective factors to prohibit their surrender to yield change. The ambiguous mood at the end signals a mirror for the audience to determine for themselves whether safety or self-actualization matter most, a charge to weigh the physical and the metaphysical.

I found the film to be pretty optimistic this last watch, though it’s intentionally enigmatic. I could probably watch it next month and see it as cynical, which is a testament to the strength of the film and a key reason why I think it’s Dreyer’s masterpiece.

User avatar
Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1943)

#99 Post by Drucker » Sun Nov 17, 2019 11:10 pm

Thank you for such a thoughtful reply. A few years ago I was on a heavy Dreyer kick, watched all of his films and read Dreyer in Double Reflection and could probably have written more thoughtfully about his work. (Ah, apparently I did here.) A lot of those thoughts escape me now.

There are some truly wonderful moments in the film, and Tag Gallagher on the BFI Blu-ray highlights Anne's reactions every time she sees Martin. But as I think about the film in my head and my post from five years ago, I'm really struck by the terror inherent in this film. Marte is a really interesting character, and the way she is chased around and tortured strikes me as one of the most felt parts of the film. Upon her death, Anne seems to take on an evil...a passion of hers that seemed to need to escape. Herlofs Marte mentions in the first scene, as she mixes some food and claims ingredients came from the earth "there is power in evil" or something of that nature. This oppressive, evil spirit guides the film, even in moments of familial tension, such as between Anne and her mother-in-law.

Does the film have any connection to Dreyer's feelings on Nazis or WWII? I feel like I've read this before, and Wikipedia indicates he denied trying to make anything like a contemporary allegory. So maybe it's just speculation.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Day of Wrath (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1943)

#100 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Nov 17, 2019 11:38 pm

Drucker wrote:
Sun Nov 17, 2019 11:10 pm
Marte is a really interesting character, and the way she is chased around and tortured strikes me as one of the most felt parts of the film. Upon her death, Anne seems to take on an evil...a passion of hers that seemed to need to escape. Herlofs Marte mentions in the first scene, as she mixes some food and claims ingredients came from the earth "there is power in evil" or something of that nature. This oppressive, evil spirit guides the film, even in moments of familial tension, such as between Anne and her mother-in-law.
This is an interesting point and I agree that Marte was always the character who remained etched in my memory between long stretches of viewings. I think the “evil” is the only way women feel they can express themselves and achieve an identity divorced from that imposed through a patriarchal society, which would be dubbed “good.” Perhaps it’s an actual choice to act in opposition to ‘objective’ “good” because the women feel resentful and even vengeful enough to rebel against all in god’s world for reducing them to objects with no agency; but it could also be a choice to act against ‘subjective’ “good” which would allow for us to see their behavior as only evil through the socially constructed and morally relativist male gaze that objectified them into a place where “evil” is the only word we, and by extension they, can use to define their own liberation.

Post Reply