Gertrud

Three days in the life of an emancipated woman. Her ideal of unconditional love is doomed to failure in the Stockholm of 1907. The men serve progress and culture. Their language evokes liberalism, but their ambition is for a career, and their actions turn their words into blackmail. Gertrud takes society at its word in vain. Her path ends in denial and loneliness. Dreyer's last film is the triumph of a style of condensation and inward-looking rigour. The sustained rhythm, the long, probing shots, the renunciation of everything naturalistic and pleasing and the cold, solemn calligraphy of the images concentrate the experience of numbness that the film is about. In the finale, Ka-mera remains motionless on a closed door. Behind her, an aged woman has buried her hopes: Dreyer's work ends where there is no more entrance. (Harry Tomicek)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum