Gertrud

It’s hard to believe that a director whose most famous work is known for its close-ups would cap his distinguished career on a film that has nearly none of them. Completing a late-career stylistic evolution that began with Day of Wrath, Dreyer made his final film with long and elaborately staged shots, taking us to a profound introspection into the deepest sigh of a tormented soul. Unlike most of Dreyer’s other films, the heroine here isn’t a suffering woman suppressed by the tyranny of the patriarchy, but rather a strong-willed independent woman who refuses to settle for inferior men and inferior love.

Venice Film Festival: FIPRESCI Prize