Prästänkan

I haven't seen Carl Theodor Dreyer's directorial début, "The President" (Præsidenten), yet. I've seen "Leaves from Satan's Book" (Blade af Satans Bog), however, and it was totally unimpressive. Dreyer took from Griffith's "Intolerance", but didn't even manage a simulacrum of the American director's craft. "The Parson's Widow" is a much better beginning for Denmark's great filmmaker. It is the work of a director coming into his own, even though it's much different in some ways from the rest of his oeuvre.

As with "Leaves from Satan's Book" and his later films, there's the preoccupation with history and religion. But, as others agree, this is Dreyer light. The story of a man who must marry a hag to become a village's parson, and his plots to marry his young fiancée and keep the job despite it is amusing. I thought the devil costume bit was particularly humorous. Dreyer's direction is what makes this worthwhile, though. The quick pace, not lingering on shots and improved camera positioning compared to "Leaves from Satan's Book" make this film more accessible and entertaining.

Dreyer again uses masking and fades extensively, but this time it adds to the style. He gets the most out of the actors. (It shouldn't be underestimated how quicker shot succession can improve, or detract from, otherwise unremarkable acting.) Additionally, the introduction to the past through the waterfall was an especially nice touch. The confining location sets, and more importantly, how Dreyer and cinematographer George Schnéevoigt film them also add greatly to this tightly told film. The small church full of dividers is just a great find, and they use the spaces of the home of the parson's wife very well, with camera placement and continuity editing.

The Parson's Widow is not entirely a really great silent film; it loses some of its strengths as a satire on marriage and (partially) religion when it starts to get a little sentimental towards the end. But for a while, one sees a film by the master Danish filmmaker Carl Th. Dreyer flexing his directorial muscles on something that is something one might not expect from seeing such pieces of perfect tragedy like Joan of Arc or Day of Wrath. Here we get the story of Sofren (Einar Rod), an unconventional would-be Parson who 'auditions' for the position by going on about the devil in an off-beat manner (yes, off-beat). He learns that in order to become the village Parson, he needs to marry the presumed local old witch, Miss Pedersdotter (grim-faced Hildur Carlberg), who lures him in with a piece of cursed cod and has him succumb to marry her - but he really wants Mari (Almroth), and cannot until she dies. But when?

There's some splendid comic set-pieces set in here, like with Sofren trying to scare the old Miss in a devil-disguised sheet, only to be foiled by his own slippers, or when Sofren tries to sneak out at night to see Mari and continually gets caught (or, in one case, another old woman in the bed!) But what's more amazing here is Dreyer's choices in casting. Rod is perfect for this kind of frustrated, ambitious but conniving sort, with great and imaginative eyes that do a lot while seeming to do little (one compared this as Dreyer doing Day of Wrath as a Chaplin, but I don't see much of Chaplin in his main male lead), and Carlberg is so dead-on for this old widow who may or may die (depending on if a life-lengthening potion works) that it's among some of Dreyer's best actors in one of his movies.

While Dreyer sometimes loses his footing in the story, as mentioned towards the end, he makes up for it with some curious scenes, like the dance at the wedding, or the specific use of colored tints. When Sofron has the weird dream state of seeing a 'young' Miss Pedersdotter, we see it in a haze of light red (or maybe blue), and it's completely dazzling for a moment. It might be a slightly lighter affair than his more 'serious' pictures, but for the curious digging into Dreyer's catalog, it's not at all a disappointment. At its best Parson's Widow has a good, hard farcical grip on the subject matter.

The name Carl Theodor Dreyer may inspire images of slow pans, heavy religious/mystical themes, and somnolent pacing, but it was not always thus. During his apprenticeship at Nordisk in the early '20's Dreyer scripted, edited, and directed all kinds of films. "The Parson's Widow" anticipates themes in the mature Dreyer, namely religion and carnality, but cloaks them in an agreeable, fast-paced (for Dreyer!) silent comedy.

A young parson wins a plum parish in 17th century Norway, but is obliged to marry the widow of his deceased predecessor and pretend his attractive young fiancee is his sister. Dreyer milks the situation for gags but goes for a sentimental finish a la Charlot. The master's touch is apparent in the close-ups of the pastor's would-be rivals and parishioners and a slow pan presaging the 360-degree views in "Vampyr." Amazingly, HIldur Carlsburg in the title role closely resembles Maurice Schutz, the old chatelain in "Vampyr," and the mother-in-law in "Day of Wrath."

All in all, a good film. But it is hard to believe that the director of this pleasant work could produce "La Passion de Jeanne D'Arc" just 6 years later.

I do not know if Dreyer's first feature, "The President" was a big hit, to speculate if he had strong doubts about what his next films would be. In any case, it did not take long before he started shooting again, for the next year he released "Leaves Out of the Book of Satan" and next "The Parson's Widow", a production made and financed in Sweden. The story tells how a young man, when selected as the new parson of a community, marries his predecessor's old widow (who claims her right to do so), but brings along his own fiancée to live with them, making her pass as his sister. There is opportunism on both the parson's and the widow's sides, but this being a comedy these matters are treated lightly, as are eluded reflections on the options we may have in old age or youth, when facing the possibility of losing everything, as in the widow's case, or the shaping of a career and a happy life, in the young man's. Yet this is a strange comedy, for melancholy is always present, mainly reflected on the old but still beautiful and dignified face of actress Hildur Carlberg; and if it is true that Dreyer was not intent on making an ethnographic treatise, one of the most interesting aspects of his film is the portrait of rural settings, customs and rites, as religious sermons, feasts, weddings and funerals. If you ask me I prefer "The President" to this film, but it was a firm step in the filmography of the creator of "The Passion of Jeanne d'Arc", "Vampyr" and "Ordet".

Sofren and Mari, are two youngsters who wander into a typically idyllic Norwegian village. The village is searching desperately for a new parson and Sofren has studied hard for the ministry. He has been encouraged in this by his sweetheart Mari because her father will not allow her to marry Sofren until he becomes a real parson. There are two other applicants for the job of village parson but after a hard competition and delivering a splendid sermon, Sofren wins that Gott job. But there is a catch: according to parish law, Sofren must wed the late parson's widow, Dame Margarete; that's a terrible dilemma for Sofren since he cannot get Mari if he doesn't get the post and he will not get that unless he weds the old woman…

"Prästänkan" ( The Parson's Widow , 1920 ) is an excellent and wonderful work in spite of the fact that it is only Herr Carl Theodor Dreyer's second film as a director but perhaps this is not a strange thing at all if we have in mind Herr Dreyer's great debut, "Praesidenten" (1919), reviewed by this German count in this modern diary sometime and liked by this Herr Von very much according to his aristocratic standards, natürlich!.

Everything is remarkable in "Prästänkan" ( astonishing art direction, again not unusual in Herr Dreyer's early works, in which every minor detail is matched carefully with wonderful outdoor scenery and technical effects that enrich superbly the film story ), but the most remarkable aspect of the film for this German count is Herr Dreyer's skill in filming a story with a religious subject but resisting the temptation to be sacrilegious or irreverent, the most obvious and easy ways for many directors to depict such a delicate subject. On the contrary, Herr Dreyer is very respectful of the religious theme of the story but includes also an intelligent sense of humour, Nordic humour natürlich!. The funny scenes fit perfectly in a story in which impatient and inexpert youngsters vie with a wise and crafty woman, and where all will learn their own lessons until finally common sense prevails.

And that's a great Herr Dreyer film goal; to make a "local" story with its Northern customs into a universal film, overriding country barriers. That only happens when the author is a very skillful man, natürlich!.

By the way, even though this German count speaks elegant languages such as Latin and ancient Greek, the first time that "Prästänkan" was shown in the Schloss theatre, the nitrate had Swedish intertitles only, a dead language for this Herr Von. For that reason it is necessary to praise Herr David Shepard ( a singular longhaired youngster who cares about silent films ) for his superb English edition of this film so that illiterate youngsters around the world may also enjoy it.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must attend a dinner in which will be served parson's noses.