Day of Wrath

Director: Carl-Theodor Dreyer Carl-Theodor Dreyer

Overview

Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer's Day of Wrath (Vredens Dag) is set in 1623 Denmark, where Anne Pedersdotter (Lisbeth Movin), the second wife of a Danish pastor, grows to loathe her husband for his self-asceticism and instead falls in love with the minister's son - with whom she spends an inordinate amount of time. Locals overhear her wishing aloud for her husband's death; when he dies of a stroke not long after, she is accused of witchcraft, a charge taken seriously enough to be punishable by death. Eventually, the poor woman is tortured and traumatized to such a point that she actually believes she is a witch - and she gives in to being burned at the stake. Yet Dreyer then shifts the perspective from internalized - illustrating the woman's paralyzing fear - to externalized, a point of view that enables the director to depict his subject's spiritual purification. Even allowing for the aura of raw terror, Dreyer never loses sight of the eroticism inherent in the concept of witchcraft. Based on a play by Wiers Jensen, Day of Wrath was filmed during the Nazi occupation of Denmark and not released abroad until after the war, and the director reportedly had to flee his native country when he angered the government with the film's political content.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/29/2008
UPC:	0889116451476
Original Release:	1943
Source:	Imports
Language:	English
Sales rank:	46,471

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Thorkild Roose	Rev. Absalon Pedersson
Lisbeth Movin	Anne Pedersdotter
Sigrid Neiiendam	Meret, His Mother
Preben Lerdorff-Rye	Martin, Son by His First Marriage
Albert Hoeberg	The Bishop
Olaf Ussing	Laurentius
Anna Svierkier	Herlofs Marte
Sigrid Neilendam	Merete, Absalon's Mother
Sigurd Berg	Kapellmeister
Harald Holst	Actor
Poul Schierbeck	Composer

Technical Credits

Carl-Theodor Dreyer

Poul Knudsen

Mogens Skot-Hansen

Carl-Theodor Dreyer	Director,Producer,Screenwriter
Poul Knudsen	Screenwriter
Mogens Skot-Hansen	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Carl Theodor Dreyer's second sound film (after 1932's Vampyr) and his first after nearly a decade of inactivity, Vredens Dag was released during the height of the Nazi occupation of Denmark and, due to its strong political content, Dreyer was forced to flee to Sweden immediately after making it. Based on a Norwegian play by Hans Wiers-Jenssen, the film, set in 17th century Denmark, deals with the mysterious transgression of a young woman, the second wife of a self-ascetic pastor who falls in love with the minister's son from his first marriage, wishes aloud for her husband's death, and is accused of witchcraft and killed after he dies of a stroke. Though it's clearly critical of the intolerance it depicts, the movie is not simply a treatise on the hypocrisy of witch hunts. Vredens Dag uses the tantalizing mystery at the center of the story to explore the place where societal and individual responsibilities mix and become inseparable. All of Dreyer's stylistic trademarks are in place: an extreme austerity in the compositions, an emphasis on the contrast between black and white, an abundance of slow tracking shots, and a judicious use of extreme close-ups. The film moves with Dreyer's customary deliberate pace, but nevertheless it's one of his most accessible films. Lead actress Lisbeth Movin's spectacular final moments, as she accepts her fate, bring to mind the legendary Maria Falconetti in Dreyer's early masterpiece, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc.

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