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January 7, 2006
David Rudkin's bfi Film Classics monograph on Vampyr is finally in our hands! --- such a long wait, but it's a fine read and highly recommended to all Dreyerphiles. It will be available in the USA in February 2006. Now all we need is Koerber's Vampyr restoration on DVD!
The bfi (UK) will be releasing Master of the House, Ordet, Day of Wrath, and Gertrud on DVD in a few months, with copious exciting extras, including many Dreyer short films. More details soon.
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April 25, 2005
David Rudkin informs us that his monograph on Vampyr will now see the light of day in the BFI Film Classics series of books in June 2005. We look forward to getting our hands on this eagerly anticipated book!
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January 19, 2005
Munich Filmmuseum are hosting a very thorough Dreyer Retrospective starting TODAY through to March 2, 2005. Click here to download their pdf brochure. Any Dreyer fans in Germany (or neighbouring countries!) should consider a visit — these things don't come around often.
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January 10, 2005
Now available from the Danish Film Institute (DFI) bookshop is a new DVD of Carl Th. Dreyer's first feature film The President (1919). The source of this restoration, supervised by film historian Marguerite Engberg in 1999, is the original nitrate negative. The transfer is from a new tinted 35mm print produced from the restored duplicate negative. The DVD has combined Danish and English intertitles and runs 89 minutes (17fps).
This release is sixth in a range of fascinating DFI DVDs which also features Dreyer's Der Var Engang [Once Upon A Time] (1922) and the films of Benjamin Christensen. All are available from the DFI bookshop, they accept credit cards, and ship worldwide. If you experience difficulty ordering, email Søren for help. There will be a review at DVDBeaver shortly.
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October 6, 2004
The dramatist and screenwriter David Rudkin is preparing a monograph on Vampyr which has a planned release in the BFI Film Classics series of books sometime around April 2005. We look forward to bringing you more news about this exciting announcement!
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September 23, 2004
There will be a screening of La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928) by Carl Theodor Dreyer with live music on November 11, 2004 at 19.30 in Háskólabíó, Reykjavik, Iceland. The Icelandic Symphonic Orchestra will perform Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light, written for Dreyer's film. Frank Strobel will conduct the orchestra.
A panel will be held at The Nordic House on the 10th of November, on Dreyer's films, Dreyer's influences on other film directors and film music. Richard Einhorn and Frank Strobel will both participate.
The event is a joint collaboration of The Icelandic Symphonic Orchestra and The Icelandic Film Archive. [Thanks to Oddny Sen]
----
Dreyer's The Parson's Widow is out on DVD this week in the USA (R1 NTSC) via Image Entertainment. There will be a review here as soon as our copy arrives.
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June 1, 2004
Turner Classic Movies (USA) will be screening a series of Dreyer films on Sunday evenings in September in the USA. He's the subject of the American channel's "Spotlight of the Month", a major focus of their programming. Here is the finalised screening schedule. Knockout stuff!
TCM Spotlight - Carl Theodor Dreyer
Sunday, September 5
10:00 PM - Carl Th. Dreyer: My Metier ('95)
12:00 AM - The Passion of Joan of Arc ('28) (also Silent Sunday Night)
2:00 AM - Vampyr ('31)
3:30 AM - Carl Th. Dreyer: My Metier ('95)
Sunday, September 12
10:00 PM - Day of Wrath ('43)
12:00 AM - The Parson's Widow ('20) (also Silent Sunday Night)
1:30 AM - Michael ('24)
Sunday, September 19
10:00 PM - Ordet ('55)
12:15 AM - Leaves from Satan's Book ('19) (also Silent Sunday Night; special start time)
Sunday, September 26
10:00 PM - Gertrud ('65)
12:00 AM - Master of the House ('25) (also Silent Sunday Night)
2:15 AM - Carl Th. Dreyer: My Metier ('95)
[Thanks to Roger for the headsup.]
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May 26, 2004
Vampyr can be seen in the UK on The Horror Channel, Saturday 29th May 2004, at 6pm. Access is through BSkyB (beware, this means Rupert Murdoch), channel 330 (free-to-air). Judging by the schedule, other screenings may follow. UPDATE: Apparently the print wasn't too good, there was a logo onscreen, and adverts. Phooeee.
[Thanks to Jon for the tipoff]
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May 22, 2004
Bit of an early heads-up, but Ordet is playing at the Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge, MA on the following dates:
August 14 @ 9:15pm
August 15 @ 7pm
[Thanks to Matthew for sending that in.]
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March 26, 2004
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) at the Imperial War Museum, London (UK).
To coincide with the art exhibition In love with god, in love with war: Joan of Arc in the Twentieth Century (March - June), a short season of films will be shown about the French heroine and icon, starting with Carl Theodor Dreyer's masterpiece. The film will be shown with a live piano accompaniment by Neil Brand and introduced by Professor Casper Tybjerg (University of Copenhagen). Audience members will have the opportunity to tour the exhibition.
Imperial War Museum London
30 March at 7.00pm
Tickets: £7.50, FIWM £6.00
Box office: 020 7416 5439
[Thanks to Casper for the tipoff]
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March 9, 2004
I received a fantastic looking press release today for a theatrical production of Kaj Munk's Ordet which starts this month (March 13) in New York (Theatre 315, 315 W 47th St). Performed by the Handcart Ensemble, their aim is to "bring new life to rich, provocative material that tends to be under-performed". Here is their website. It runs until April 3 so I hope some of our readers can report back about it. I'd love to hear about it! [Thanks to Norris for sending that in.]
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February 10, 2004
There is another presentation of The Passion of Joan of Arc paired with Richard Einhorn's "Voices of Light" oratorio in Chicago (USA) at the University of Chicago Department of Music, Saturday, February 21st, at 8pm. (Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S Woodlawn) - [Thanks to Chris Ware for the tipoff]
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November 19, 2003
On the Criterion DVD set of R. W. Fassbinder's The BRD Trilogy, there is a documentary about Sybille Schmitz (star of Vampyr) whose life story influenced Fassbinder's film Veronika Voss. In this documentary there are 90 seconds of restored footage from Dreyer's Vampyr. I have provided screengrabs for Gary Tooze at Dvdbeaver.com where he has found matching stills from Image's Vampyr DVD and compared them. Fascinating to see just how cropped the Image DVD actually is! Kind site readers have sent in a flurry of important scans over the last few months - thanks to Henrik, Susan, and Thure I will shortly be including the original programmes of Gertrud & Day of Wrath, along with more rare books and the Letters about the Jesus Film book which has finally been found. Thanks to everyone!
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October 30, 2003
More screenings for Dreyer fans in the North of England! Showroom Cinema, Paternoster Row, Sheffield (tel: 0114 276 3534) are showing:
The Passion of Joan of Arc on Sunday 2 November at 8.45pm and the Day of Wrath for seven days (from Friday 14 Nov - Thursday 20 Nov). The Passion of Joan of Arc will also be accompanied by a live score by Tor Underseth.
[Thanks to Gail for the tipoff.]
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October 4, 2003
If any readers of carldreyer.com have any interesting original Dreyer posters, pressbooks, articles, interviews or other memorabilia that they'd like to see on the site please email me.
I've just added the rare Danish-only Ordet pressbook to the Resources section. It contains a synopsis which is the same as the International edition but also some extremely interesting additional information. This text has been especially translated for carldreyer.com by Trond Trondsen. Click here for a direct link.
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October 3, 2003
Dreyer fans in the North of England may want to head to the Manchester Cornerhouse cinema this month for the following:
Sat 11 Oct, 6.20pm
The Passion of Joan of Arc NEW RESTORED PRINT
Live accompaniment by the trio Ephyra on keyboards, saxophone and cello
Tue 14 - Wed 15 Oct, 6.20pm
Day of Wrath NEW RESTORED PRINT
Wed 15 Oct, 5.00pm
TALK
One Hour Intro: Carl Theodor Dreyer
An introduction to the life and works of Carl Theodor Dreyer
Led by freelance film editor Paul Taberham.
Tickets: £2.50 full/ £2.00 concs (includes £1.00 off any Dreyer screening)
Sun 19 Oct, 6.20pm
Vampyr (doesn't say "new print")
[Thanks to Jon Lomax for the tipoff.]
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September 29, 2003
Lucky Japanese Dreyer fans get their own Dreyer Retrospective in October. There is a website here and full details of what's on here. [Thanks to Kimitoshi SATO for the news.]
Here's a reminder that Mark Le Fanu's article for Sight & Sound (July 2003) is online in its entirety here.
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August 12-13, 2003
Those that had trouble ordering the Der Var Engang Dreyer DVD from the DFI might like to know that the DFI online shop is now open - international customers can use MasterCard/Eurocard, Visa, and JBC at http://eshop.dfi.dk/. Customers are guided through basic ordering functionality in both Danish and English. Email: bookshop@dfi.dk or visit their main website filmarkiv.dfi.dk
Anyone who had trouble downloading the 25 minute audio interview with Carl Th. Dreyer (MP3 format, 12MB, mono, 64kbps) should now find it works okay. Thanks to Jonah Horwitz for sending it in! The interview is currently in the process of being identified. It's clearly American, circa 1965, and the best guess so far is that the interviewer is Stanley Kauffman. If anyone can positively identify the interviewer - please email me.
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July 22-27, 2003
The Colorado Symphony Orchestra will perform Richard Einhorn's VOICES OF
LIGHT accompanied by Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc on Wednesday, 8
October at 7:30pm. The performance will take place at the Boettcher Concert
Hall at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Tickets are $12 to $57.50 and
may be purchased by calling (303) 893-4100, or online here. Thanks to site reader Paul Whitelock for the news.
Mark Le Fanu's article for Sight & Sound (July 2003) is online in its entirety here.
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July 11, 2003
Artificial Eye have announced that they'll be showing La Passion De Jeanne D'Arc at the Renoir in London (the first theatrical release ever in England). Here's their page about it.Artificial Eye have just informed me that they will be releasing La Passion De Jeanne D'Arc on DVD in the UK and that they don't have any other Dreyer titles lined up. Currently, there are no Dreyer DVDs available in England.
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July 8, 2003
The DFI's travelling Dreyer Retrospective has moved quickly to the Cinematheque Ontario in Toronto, Canada for their Summer festivities over July and August. Full details here. If anyone made it to the English NFT Retrospective last month, or indeed to the current Canadian celebrations please email as I would love to post any impressions here.
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June 6, 2003
Two interesting Dreyer articles have appeared in the UK press to accompany the NFT Dreyer Retrospective. There's a Telegraph article
here and Jonathan Rosenbaum's The Guardian article is here.
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May 21, 2003
The NFT ( National Film Theatre in London) are presenting a large and complete Dreyer retrospective in June 2003. Here is their Dreyer Index and Calendar. All of Dreyer's extant films are being shown, and this provides a rare opportunity to see Mikaël and Two People, amongst others. There is also a Rare Dreyer Films screening which lasts 73 minutes and concerns "Carl Dreyer's sojourn as a director of state-commissioned documentaries, shorts and propaganda films". ---
This month I have added a Glomdalsbruden (The Bride Of Glomdal) programme and an original Ordet poster, both courtesy of Henrik Stormer. The Vampyr section appeared earlier in the month. I have also further extended the In Print section. Do any readers have pictures or details of the Japanese DVD boxset from Cinefil Imagica which contains Master Of The House among other films already released in the West? I also need largish pictures of books that are not currently in the In Print section (particularly the LETTERS ABOUT THE JESUS FILM "16 years of correspondence between Carl Th. Dreyer and Blevins Davis" book, which I am looking for a copy of for myself!).
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April 22, 2003
The Films section has been fleshed out with a huge list of Dreyer scripts from 1912-19 (thanks to Henrik Sylow for translating Drouzy and Kau). I have also kicked the In Print and Links sections into life today. This News page and the Links page have now got CSS which I am slowly implementing on the site. If anyone has any difficulties or problems with the display of the site on their particular browser please email me.
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April 17, 2003
Lars von Trier's Medea (based on a previously unfilmed Carl Th. Dreyer script; starring Baard Owe from Gertrud and Preben Lerdorff Rye from Day Of Wrath and Ordet) has almost never before been seen in the United States - until now. The film is getting a short theatrical release in the USA before the video and DVD releases on May 20, 2003.
[While making Medea, Lars von Trier dubiously claimed to be in constant telepathic communication with Carl Th. Dreyer - the co-author of the original script (based on the play by Euripides).]
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April 10, 2003
My review of the Danish Film Institute's superb Der Var Engang DVD is here. This is a promising start to a proposed series of DVDs from the DFI and I'm looking forward to seeing what else they come up with.
Acquarello's fine Dreyer overview now resides in the Life section.
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March 10, 2003
I have been lucky enough to view the new transfer of The Parson's Widow which is being used for the new Image DVD in late Summer 2003. David Shepard has done a tremendous job of preparing this film for DVD. The transfer is superb for an 83 year old film - with subtle, relevant tinting and speed correction. Intertitles are wonderful English translations by Jan Wahl (an author, who worked with Dreyer in 1954) and they are tastefully and authentically rendered.
I'd never seen the film before and was taken aback by how humorous a film this is (for Dreyer!). It's a riveting watch, full of Dreyer trademarks such as spiritual resilience, young versus old, and social entrapment. Dreyer maximises silent film techniques - superb iris effects, split screen, etc - there's the odd hint of what was to come - glorious gliding camera, large close-ups, etc. and despite the humour, the film has a very bittersweet resolution.
The finished disc will include They Caught The Ferry and Thorvaldsen (which I have not seen yet). I hope this disc sells well so that the producers can be encouraged to release more Dreyer on DVD very soon. I'll post full details about The Parson's Widow DVD as soon as it's released.
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February 21, 2003
Film restorer David Shepard has informed the site that the planned Leaves From Satan's Book DVD (see January 7th news item) has been replaced on Image's schedule by a DVD containing Dreyer's The Parson's Widow along with two Dreyer shorts They Caught The Ferry and Thorvaldsen (with both Danish and English soundtracks).
The Resources, Site Info and Films sections are now active. Feel free to send carldreyer.com any interesting articles, photos, etc by emailing here.
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February 9, 2003
Filmmaker Torben Skjødt Jensen ( My Metier) informs us that the The Danish filminstitute and Museum have just released a new print of the Dreyer Silent Der Var Engang (Once Upon A Time) on DVD. It can be bought directly from the filminstitute bookshop (see below).
DER VAR ENGANG (Once Upon A Time)
This release constitutes a newly restored version of Dreyer's film
version of Holger Drachmann's popular nationalistic stage play.
In spite of half of the original film having gone missing, it was
possible to reconstruct the film using stills and explanatory
intertitles.
The surviving film fragments now come to life in the proper flow of
action showing the play and the scenography within their correct
context, which has been missing in the existing copies of the film.
Especially, the missing last Act has up until now always resulted
in a somewhat abrupt ending to the film. On this DVD we have sought
to end the movie in a more audience-friendly manner. The film has been
provided with a new score by Neil Brand.
The film premiered 3rd October 1922 in Palace Theatre (Paladsteatret),
Copenhagen. H. Drachmann's play from 1993 is based on HC Andersen's
"Svinedrengen" and W. Shakespeare's "Taming of the Troll".
Price Danmark krona 149.00
Purchase from bookshop@dfi.dk
Torben Skjødt Jensen has also released My Metier in Denmark on DVD via the Filminstitute. This disc includes the Danish original version of the film and all the extra material that Criterion put on different discs in their boxset - here collected on one disc.
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February 4, 2003
Anthology Film Archives in NYC are showing a good spread of Dreyer's films during February and March 2003. Here's a schedule:
2/22, 6pm: Prastankan/The Parson's Widow (1921)
2/23, 5.30pm: Mikael (1924)
3/1, 5.15pm: La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928)
3/2, 5.30pm: Vampyr (1931-2)
3/15, 4.30pm: Ordet (1955)*
3/16, 2.45pm: Day of Wrath (1943)
3/22, 5.30pm: Gertrud (1965)
*NB : As is Anthology's policy, foreign talkies are shown without subtitles whenever possible. Day of Wrath and Gertrud are advertised as "with subtitles", though it might be a good idea to doublecheck about Ordet before you plunk down your $8. (thanks to Meade Roberts for the news).
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February 3, 2003
The Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center (NY, USA) is showing Master Of The House twice on February 8th 2003 at 4:00pm and 8:00pm with live piano accompaniment. The 268-seat theater is located on the plaza level of the Samuel B. and David Rose Building at 165 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues. (thanks to Doug Cummings for the news).
The following day, Master of the House is shown at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville (NY, USA), February 9th 2003 at 5:00 pm. The film center is located at 364 Manville Road, conveniently located next to the Pleasantville Train Station, Metro North Line and off the Saw Mill River Parkway at Exit 30 North or Exit 29 South. Tickets can be purchased online here, or at the Box Office, which is open one hour before the first screening of the day.
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January 7, 2003
Image Entertainment have announced a USA R1 DVD of Leaves From Satan's Book for release on August 19th 2003. See updated news item for February 21st 2003.
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January 4, 2003
Ever since Criterion's marvellous Dreyer DVD boxset of Day Of Wrath, Ordet, and Gertrud in August 2001, I've wondered whether we'll ever see Dreyer's silent films on DVD. A boxset of Dreyer's most renowned silent films such as Master Of The House, Mikael, and The Parson's Widow would be a fine companion to Criterion's current boxset of Dreyer's last three films. If you'd be interested in seeing a Dreyer silent boxset please email Criterion here and let them know. | |
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December 6, 2002
This website went live today. carldreyer.com is put together by myself, Nick Wrigley, and is part of the Masters Of Cinema non-profit collective of likeminded websites (together with Trond & Jan's Tarkovsky resource nostalghia.com, Doug and Trond's robert-bresson.com, and my own ozuyasujiro.com) - carldreyer.com attempts to provide a much needed central resource for one of the most important film directors of the 20th century. If you have any photos or rare articles that could be stored in the Resources section please email carldreyer.com
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