This DVD heralds the start of a planned series of important releases by the Danish Film Institute. It was widely reported [in both Tom Milne's
"The Cinema Of Carl Dreyer" (1971) and David Bordwell's
"The Films Of Carl-Theodor Dreyer" (1981)] that in 1964 a "Nordisk" employee found portions of Carl Th. Dreyer's
Der var engang deep in their vault - and indeed, up until this find, the film was thought long lost. Thomas Christensen, who along with Casper Tybjerg was responsible for this DFI DVD release, believes Milne and Bordwell may have been referring to the DFI's own lab at the time -
Nordisk Film Teknik. However, after researching the history of the film he now thinks it was perhaps Filmmuseum Berlin who were responsible for this important find. Thanks to whoever did find the remaining reels we now have over an hour of the finished film, an unedited scene (here presented edited into the film, and as an unedited extra) and missing scenes replaced by production stills with explanatory intertitles to a total runtime of 75 minutes on one incredibly important DVD.
In circumstances similar to the miraculous find of Dreyer's
The Passion Of Joan Of Arc [in an Oslo mental hospital in 1981] the DFI have decided to tackle the neglected
Der var engang first (there are tentative plans to release one Dreyer silent a year for the next few years, fingers are firmly crossed for
Mikaël). The DFI, having access to the best materials, have taken it upon themselves to preserve
Der var engang for future generations by creating a new film restoration (a complete 2K digital intermediate restoration on 35mm film) and thus the DVD really shines
(click the actual DVD grabs on this page).
After shooting
Love One Another in Berlin, Dreyer returned to Denmark in 1922 to shoot
Der var engang for the theatre owner Sophus Madsen. The original play by Holger Drachmann had been adapted for the screen before in 1907 and it is a loose variation on
The Taming of the Shrew, part fairytale and part folklore. In a land called Illyria, a princess repeatedly rejects all her suitors - even the visiting Prince of Denmark who is clearly smitten with her. Keen to continue vying for her attention, the Prince takes on a "less royal" identity and together with his assistant "Smokehat" they plan an elaborate ruse to win the princess's heart.
The film is full of fairytale atmosphere and imagery. A world where a tinker wanders the woods carrying a strange magic kettle with supernatural powers; where exquisitely dressed ladies-in-waiting dance with their princess in sunlit manicured gardens; and where a man who tends charcoal fires in the woods is cruelly hanged from a high tree for poaching: yet it is this atmosphere which Dreyer believed outweighed any other aspect of the film - and he thought it one of his weakest because of it. He is quoted by Neergaard as saying, "[
Der var engang] taught me the bitter lesson that you cannot build a film on atmosphere alone... Just when it should have increased its dramatic tempo and culminated in a stormy struggle between two people, the action suddenly stood still like a windless summer day. From that film I learned that people are primarily interested in people." Dreyer made these constructive comments in the 1950s, 30 years after the film was made. With the benefit of (even more) hindsight, it's clear that this film is a remarkably important piece of Dreyer's oeuvre - perhaps a mistake he had to make in order to avoid making it again in the future, and by that virtue it is a fascinating jigsaw piece. It is the first really successful attempt by Dreyer to incorporate German expressionist lighting (it pre-empts Dreyer's work with Karl Freund on
Mikaël) and George Schnéevoigt's photography is especially gorgeous in the later forest scenes. Although the atmosphere is strong, the humour is occasionally rather unsubtle and I agree with Tom Milne when he remarks that Dreyer seemed much more at home with the rustic humour of
The Parson's Widow (which actually feels like it was made a few years
after Der var engang, rather than earlier, in 1920).
According to Ebbe Neergaard, Dreyer planned a huge "chinese box" system of housing the sets within each other for
Der var engang. The largest sets were to contain a smaller one within it, and so on - but the actor Peter Jendorff (who plays the King) couldn't make the shooting schedule and the plan was abandoned. Interestingly, Dreyer was allowed to indulge this idea to great effect in France whilst making
The Passion Of Joan Of Arc just five years later.
Dreyer cast Clara Weith Pontoppodan as
Der var engang's princess (she was also in his
Leaves From Satan's Book three years earlier). At the time she was one of Denmark's most popular stars and she said of Dreyer, "He is wonderful... so certain in his style." The actor who plays the prince of Denmark, Svend Methling went on to direct over 20 Danish films, and star in over 30, but
Der var engang was his first recorded experience in film.
The picture quality on this DVD is mostly superb. Certainly the film-to-DVD transfer has been done to the highest standards and is problem-free, but there are a few moments where the surviving film elements look as if they've had a hard life. Thankfully, these moments are very rare, and I'm glad the DFI left them in instead of excising them on the grounds of picture consistency. The unedited sequence (referred to as "The Kitchen Sequence") is very thoughtfully added as an extra. Seeing unedited silent film footage is a very rare event (usually it is only the finished films that survive) and the DFI must be commended for their approach here with this 80 year old film. Intertitles are split into Danish text at the top, and English text at the bottom.
Neil Brand's specially commissioned piano accompaniment deserves much credit. It is sensitive, melodically interesting, unclichéd, well recorded and I couldn't imagine a more fitting accompaniment to the film.
This DVD is a rare thing, an uncommercial labour of love made in depressingly commercial times. Let us all support the DFI and hope they can produce more jewels like this one.
by Nick Wrigley, March 2003
Copyright © 2003 mastersofcinema.org
Many thanks to Thomas Christensen for answering my questions so promptly,
and to Trond Trondsen for screengrabbing par excellence.
