Main Cast: Nina Pens Rode, Ebbe Rode, Axel Gebuhr, Bendt Rothe, William Knoblauch
Release Year: 1965
Country: DK
Run Time: 116 minutes
Plot
Nine years after the release of his acknowledged masterpiece, Ordet, Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer offered this a story of an individual in search of a measure of personal peace and serenity, which proved to be his last completed film. Gertrud Kanning, like the maid Joan in Dreyer's best-known film, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, is a woman in isolation. On the eve of her husband's appointment to a cabinet minister post, she announces that she is leaving their loveless marriage. But her younger lover Erland Jansson, a concert pianist, is more interested in keeping their affair illicit than in continuing it in the open. Gertrud's old lover, the poet Gabriel Lidman, offers more than his friendship, but she holds back from turning to him, instead choosing to live out her life in solitude rather than compromise with love again. Adapted from a 1920s play by Hjalmar Soberberg, Gertrud plays out in long takes, with few close-ups and exterior scenes. Though initial critical reaction to the film was largely unfavorable, its reputation has steadily grown, especially considered in the context of Dreyer's long career. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Review
It's difficult to imagine why antipathy initially greeted what proved to be Carl Theodor Dreyer's last film. Granted, Gertrud did not have the ambitious scope of Ordet or the intensity of either Vredens Dag (Day of Wrath) or La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc. Perhaps by 1964 Dreyer's style was considered stodgy, as it involved long takes in which he prefers his camera to follow his characters, or, in conversation, to pan back and forth between them, always keeping a respectful distance (the film reportedly has only 89 shots). In retrospect, it is possible to see Gertrud Kanning as yet another troubled soul in the Dreyer universe. The three loves in her life -- her husband Gustav, her former lover Gabriel, and her current lover Erland -- all fail to satisfy her simple requirement for ongoing and unselfish affection. In the film's key scene, shown in flashback, Gertrud discovers a note written on scrap paper on Gabriel's desk -- "A woman's love and a man's work are mortal enemies" -- that she comes to understand will always be a barrier against her ever finding happiness with a man. In the title role, Nina Pens Rode offers an exquisite portrait of a woman in emotional distress but also beginning to understand the power she has to control her own emotional destiny, even if it requires living it out in solitude. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Cast
Nina Pens Rode - Gertrud Kanning
Ebbe Rode - Gabriel Lidman
Bendt Rothe - Gustav Kenning
Axel Gebuhr - Kanning
William Knoblauch - Jansson
Karl Gustav Ahlefeldt; Vera Gebuhr - The Kennings' Maid; Lars Knutzon; Anna Malberg - Kenning's Mother; Eduard Mielche - The Rector Magnificus; Baard Owe - Erland Jansson; Axel Ströbye - Axel Nygren
Credit
Kai Rasch - Art Director, Carl Theodor Dreyer - Director, Edith Schlüssel - Editor, Jorgen Jersild - Composer (Music Score), Grethe Risbjerg Thomsen - Songwriter, Heinrich Heine - Songwriter, Henning Bendtsen - Cinematographer, Arne Abrahamsen - Cinematographer, Jorgen Nielsen - Producer, Carl Theodor Dreyer - Screenwriter, Robert Schumann - Featured Music, Hjalmar Soderberg - Play Author
Gertrud was Dreyer's final film. It is notable for its very long takes, which include a 9 minute, 56 second take of Gerturd and her ex-lover, Gabriel, talking about their pasts.
Acclaim
The following critics listed among the top ten (or top five) greatest movies of all time.[1] These include:
The film was voted by They Shoot Pcitures, Don't They? as the 108th greatest films of all time, in a poll of 1,825 film critics, scholars, cinephiles, etc and as well in a culmination of over 900 'greatest film' lists of all kinds, that were already existing.
Director Richard Linklater used a clip from the film in which two characters refer to life as being like a dream (a theme prevalent in Linklater's work) in his independent feature debut It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, and in the commentary he recorded for the film (released on the Criterion Collection release of his film Slacker) he named it as one of his three favorite Dreyer films.
Good Mothers (1942) ·Water from the Land (1946) ·The Struggle Against Cancer (1947) ·The Danish Village Church (1947) ·They Caught the Ferry (1948) ·Thorvaldsen (1949) ·The Storstrom Bridge (1950) ·The Castle Within the Castle (1955)
