The Parson's Widow : Three Films by Carl Theodor Dreyer

One of the world's greatest directors, Carl-Theodor Dreyer has long been hailed for such masterpieces as The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, Day of Wrath and Ordet. Now we meet a different Dreyer who engages with broad humor, then gradually guides to a wise, bittersweet resolution. Aspiring parson Sofren is engaged to Mari, but her father won't allow them to marry until Sofren gets a ministry. He's hired by a small rural congregation only to discover that according to local custom, the widow of the deceased pastor may marry his successor. An aged woman who has already buried three earlier husbands, Dame Margarete asserts her right in order to keep her home, but Sofren also brings Mari to the parish claiming that she is his sister. The two plan to wait for the elderly woman to die. When it appears she might be eternal, Sofren begins a series of silly pranks to hasten the old lady's end, but before her death her wisdom, dignity and selflessness teach the young couple a great deal about fundamental humanity. Called "the first real Dreyer film," The Parson's Widow (aka The Witch Woman) prefigures key themes in his later work. Beautifully photographed in the 17th-century museum village of Lillehammer, Norway, the film's original luminous quality is captured in this digitally mastered edition from a 35mm camera-negative print. Plus two rare Dreyer shorts! They Caught the Ferry (1948, 12 mins.) adapts the technique of Dreyer's horror/fantasy Vampyr to a chilling and unforgettable miniature on driver safety. Thorvaldsen (1949, 11 mins.) uses the long lenses and confrontational style of The Passion of Joan of Arc to illuminate the search for truth in the work of the greatest Danish sculptor, which turns out to have a surprising affinity with Dreyer's own cinema. All three films digitally mastered from 35mm archive prints. The Parson's Widow is speed-corrected and tinted, with new music compiled by Neal Kurz from the works of Edvard Grieg.

Surprisingly good

Söfren wants to marry Mari, but Mari's father won't allow it until Söfren is gainfully employed. Söfren wins a competition to become a village parson, but to get the job he must, per custom, marry the parson's widow - a formidable old battleaxe who has already planted a handful of husbands.

I've seen a couple of director Carl Dreyer's movies -`Vampyr', an early (1932) vampire flick that put me to sleep, and his masterful 1928 `The Passion of Joan of Arc.' So I queued the 1920 `The Parson's Widow' with low expectations and a little trepidation. The movie opens on an unpromising note - Söfren is competing against two other young candidates, one who looks like Fatty Arbuckle and another like Ichabod Crane. They deliver sermons to the villagers in a scene that seems to go on forever. So - this is a comedy that may have had them rolling in the Copenhagen aisles circa 1920, but it's pretty limp today. The second act has Söfren meeting and becoming bewitched by the septuagenarian widow - something to do with a flask of schnapps and a plate of enchanted herring. Söfren, of course, must marry the old woman to get the job and hope she dies soon so he can marry his true love, Mari. So this is a buffed up fairy tale. Or so I thought. I won't give anything away, but the third act pays for it all. The widow may be a witch, but the third acts reveals her humanity - that third act turn was the last thing I expected, but it works. For two thirds of the movie I didn't much care what happened to Söfren, Mari, or the widow.

The young couple, after you've scraped away a couple of iris ins and out, were nothing more than a pair of ruthless opportunists, impious enough to hasten the poor old woman's demise. Seemingly cut from a gnarled plank of hardwood, Dame Margarete is no easier to warm up to or understand. Beyond the fact she's an old lady in a gussied up fairy tale - the one who's supposed to frustrate the ambitions of the young - she begins as a cipher. Begins... but the story turns from awkward comedy to fairy tale to a touching human drama and touching character study. Amazingly so. I've never seen a movie so determined to change its character, nor would I have thought it would work. But it does, in spades. By the end I was involved with all the characters. Bottom line - if you go to the trouble of getting your hands on this movie and feel like turning it off, give it a chance - your patience will be rewarded.

Also on the disk are a couple of short subjects - `Thorvaldsen' (1949, 11 mins.) examines the work of the 19th century Danish sculptor. Eleven minutes of voice-over narration and still life pictures of Thorvaldsen's art. Moderately interesting if you're a big fan of Dreyer or Thorvaldsen. More entertaining is `They Caught the Ferry' (1948, 10 mins.) an apparent anti-speeding film about a motorcyclist and his moll racing over the Danish landscape to catch a ferry. Although it's ultimately a downer - speed, like crime, doesn't pay - I caught myself laughing at loud at one point. The film follows the couple as they chase the clock, sometimes photographing from the racing bike, sometimes for a trailing vehicle. At one point the motorcyclist comes to a fork in the road and takes the right hand road. The trailing camera stops as the bike speeds away. Next there's a cut to a close-up of the bike driver, who realizes he took the wrong turn. We see him next driving towards us - seeing him from the point of view of the stationary camera that stopped at the fork in the road. It doesn't translate so well into words, but it was a wry bit of business.
January 16, 2007

A lovely viewing experience

This is my favourite film by the highly esteemed Danish director, Carl Theodor Dreyer, and one that I can enjoy watching many times over. Unlike Dreyer's much more famous films such as `Vampyr' and `The Passion of Joan of Arc', "The Parson's Widow" is refreshingly light and has quite a few nice touches of subtle comedy. But perhaps the main attraction of this film is its beautiful setting in a rural Scandinavian village of times gone by, with charming wood houses and churches, as well as people and costumes to match. In fact, many faces look like they were picked right out of a real rural village somewhere. Dreyer's photography techniques and ability to capture the essence of characters and feelings are evident in "The Parson's Widow", and I also enjoyed catching a rare glimpse into traditions of that time and place, such as for weddings and funerals. In fact, watching this film feels a bit like going through a kind of fairyland, while at the same time enjoying a good story about a young parson who must marry the previous parson's widow to get the job - and he can't marry his sweetheart unless he gets the job! Quite a dilemma which leaves the viewer curious about the outcome, and the story unfolds fairly quickly with a few funny turns, leading to a satisfying ending. Adding to viewing pleasure is a nice piano score based on classical Scandinavian music, and the picture quality is extremely good overall.

As a bonus, there are two short films by Dreyer from the later 1940s, each one quite different and with its own qualities. Most poignant is the 10-minute motorbike ride ("They Caught the Ferry") which feels very real to the viewer and gets the message across. For a total change of pace, the other short is a documentary on the work of Denmark's most famous sculpture which Dreyer photographed beautifully and thereby managed to make a boring topic (for many) quite enjoyable after all. All up, some rare films worth seeing, especially to see another side of Dreyer's work in this delightful silent, "The Parson's Widow".
April 21, 2006

A fine transfer of an overlooked film

If the only Carl Dreyer films you know are the excellent but somber (and theologically weighty) Passion of Joan of Arc, Ordet, and maybe Vampyr, then The Parson's Widow will come as a charming surprise. It's a pleasant silent comedy with real human warmth at its emotional center. The plot concerns a young theology student who has to marry the elderly widow of the village's former parson if he wants to obtain the position. It's genuinely funny at times and holds up quite well over the years. My favorite gag is the quick visual reference to the widow's former marriages when the minister has to fit the new wedding ring on her middle finger because she already has THREE on her third finger!

Fans of Dreyer will find key elements that appear frequently throughout his work: a religious household as the setting, strong female characters who challenge male authority, a gliding camera, and an unerring eye for historical accuracy. The performances are first-rate, too.

The transfer by David Shepard is outstanding. His restorations have been hit or miss over the years, but his work on this movie is one of his best, IMO. The aspect ratio is correct with minimal cropping throughout. There's little significant damage to the print, and the piano-only music track (of Edvard Grieg adaptations) is appropriate. As with most silent films, there is quite a bit of debris and "speckling" on the print, and there are a few frames missing now and then. But none of this is overly distracting. It may not be Criterion quality, but it is comparable to the standards set by Kino.

The inclusion of two seldom-scene shorts by Dreyer really make this disc a keeper! "They Caught the Ferry" is particularly interesting, proving that Dreyer could be surprisingly adept at filming action sequences (in this case, a high-speed motorcycle drive). Anyway, I highly recommend this title. If it's successful for Image, perhaps they'll get busy on providing Region 1 transfers of the other Dreyer silents that the Danish Film Institute has recently released on Region 2 DVDs. Or better yet, maybe they'll get around to reissuing a cleaned-up transfer of "Vampyr." September 24, 2004

WONDERFUL SILENT

THOROUGHLY WORTHWHILE VIEWING FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE THAT DREYER IS AMONG THE GREATEST OF DIRECTORS (I CAN BELIEVE AT MOMENTS DURING HIS FILMS THAT HE IS THE GREATEST!) THE QUALITY OF THIS RELEASE IS EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH - DO NOT MISS IT. &, OF COURSE, HAVING "THORVALDSEN" AND "THEY CAUGHT THE FERRY" AS SUPPLEMENTS ON THIS DISC IS ALMOST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE - THEY SHOULD MAKE ANY LIST OF THE GREATEST SHORTS EVER MADE. September 24, 2004

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