Running until March 23, this month’s BFI Southbank season The Passion Of Carl Dreyer offers a chance to watch all 14 of the hugely influential Danish director’s features on the big screen, alongside his rarely seen short films and the documentary profile Carl Th. Dreyer, My Métier.
Both stylistically and socially forward thinking, Dreyer’s work spanned a turbulent half century: from 1919’s anti-patriarch melodrama The President (presented with live piano accompaniment) to 1964’s controversial depiction of female independence Gertrud, via slowburning witchhunt allegory Day Of Wrath, produced while Denmark was under Nazi occupation.
Further highlights include an extended run for his popular meditation on faith and insanity Ordet, which also receives a selected nationwide release on March 9, plus welcome outings for iconic silent picture The Passion Of Joan Of Arc and experimental soundtrack favourite Vampyr. The latter’s surreal horror was most recently rescored by Banshees co-founder Steven Severin, whose UK tour resumes this spring: stay tuned for a tQ interview…
