Carl Theodor Dreyer Retrospective

Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889–1968) wrote film history with a comparatively small body of work, to which following generations of directors refer to until today. The Danish director of Swedish descent, whose birth name was "Karl Nilsson", remained an outsider in the film business throughout his life, despite the worldwide recognition he received since his great artistic success, LA PASSION DE JEANNE D'ARC (1928), at the latest. His films are characterized by simplicity and stylistic purity lacking any kind of embellishment. Reduced to what is essential, his artistic means aim at "recording not only exterior life but interior life as well" (Carl Th. Dreyer), at visualizing man's innermost and unutterable traits. Dreyer's dispensing with showiness and his uncompromising manner when realizing his intentions led to many film projects never going beyond the project stage. Dreyer realized a total of 14 films, with the intervals between them increasing. His five sound films were produced in a period of 34 years.