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Vredens dag (Day Of Wrath)

  • Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
  • Year: 1943
  • Run-time: 1 hr 40 min
There's too much to break down here. But while there are fascinating readings of this film that reflects a totalitarian society like the Nazi rule of Denmark at the time, I feel like that allegory is a little indirect. Ultimately, I see this as Dreyer's return to the themes and pacing of The Passion of Joan of Arc, and though the comparison is interesting, the film can't really escape the large shadow that the predecessor casts. Dreyer expressed much more with faces in the earlier silent film than he does with the simple and plaintive dialogue in this one. Though there are beautiful, haunting moments, it doesn't quite work for me. 

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