BFI to Release Four Films by Carl Theodor Dreyer

The British Films Institute has revealed that it plans to release a box set with four films from legendary Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer. The four films are: Master of the House (1925); Day of Wrath (1943), Ordet (1955), and Gertrud (1964). The release is expected to arrive on the market in Spring 2015.

Master of the House

Victor Fransden (Johannes Meyer) is a businessman who takes out all his frustrations on his wife, Ida (Astrid Holm), and family. Ida accepts Victor's abuse and fault-finding until one day Victor's former nanny (Mathilde Nielsen) decides that she cannot bear to watch any more. She persuades Ida to leave Victor, and forces the erring husband to undertake all the household chores himself in an attempt to make him see the error of his ways. Carl Dreyer's silent classic was very popular in France and led to him being commissioned to make his masterpiece, 'The Passion of Joan of Arc', three years later.

Day of Wrath

In 17th century Denmark, the elderly Cathedral Notary Absalon Pedersson (Thorkild Roose) is cursed at the stake by an elderly peasant woman whom he has tortured into a confession of witchcraft. Soon after, Pedersson's young wife Anne (Ilsbeth Movin) begins an affair with Martin (Preben Ledorff Rye), Pedersson's son from an earlier marriage. When Anne tells Pedersson of her love for Martin the old man suffers a fatal heart attack, and Anne soon finds herself facing accusations of witchcraft. Carl Dreyer ('The Passion of Joan of Arc') directs.

Getrud

Politician's wife Gertrud (Nina Pens Rode) decides to leave her husband (Bendt Rothe) just as he is about to take his place in government. Intending to move in with her young composer lover (Ebbe Rode), her plans change when she discovers that he has been unfaithful to her. Carl Theodor Dreyer's final film charts the titular heroine's gradual asserting of her commitment to truthful human relationships in a morally flawed society.

Ordet

Carl Theodor Dreyer's acclaimed philosophical drama focuses upon a farming family in the Danish region of West Jutland. Pious Borgen, the father, forbids his younger son Anders to marry his girlfriend because her family belongs to a different Protestant sect. The ecclesiastical debate strikes to the community's heart, with only Inger, the wife of another of Borgen's sons, bridging the religious divide. The remarkable climax is described by director Paul Schrader as 'one of the great moments in film history' and 'Ordet' features on the Vatican's greatest movies' list.