Carl Th. Dreyer

Ordet

Ordet

A farmer’s family is torn apart by faith, sanctity, and love—one child believes he’s Jesus Christ, a second proclaims himself agnostic, and the third falls in love with a fundamentalist’s daughter. Putting the lie to the term “organized religion,” Ordet (The Word) is a challenge to simple facts and dogmatic orthodoxy. Layering multiple stories of faith and rebellion, Dreyer’s adaptation of Kaj Munk’s play quietly builds towards a shattering, miraculous climax.

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Film Info

  • Denmark
  • 1955
  • 125 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • Danish
  • Spine #126

Special Features

  • Digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Henning Bendtsen
  • Deleted footage of an interview from Torben Skjødt Jensen’s documentary Carl Th. Dreyer—My Métier, with actress Birgitte Federspiel
  • Stills gallery

Available In

Collector's Set

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Carl Theodor Dreyer

DVD Box Set

4 Discs

$63.96

Out Of Print

Special Features

  • Digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Henning Bendtsen
  • Deleted footage of an interview from Torben Skjødt Jensen’s documentary Carl Th. Dreyer—My Métier, with actress Birgitte Federspiel
  • Stills gallery
Ordet
Cast
Henrik Malberg
Morten Borgen
Emil Hass Christensen
Mikkel Borgen
Cay Kristiansen
Anders Borgen
Preben Lerdorff Rye
Johannes Borgen
Birgitte Federspiel
Inger Mikkel’s wife
Ann Elisabeth Rud
Maren Borgen
Susanne Rud
Lilleinger Borgen
Ejnar Federspiel
Peter Skraedder
Sylvia Eckhausen
Kirstin Skraedder
Gerda Nielsen
Anne Skraedder
Credits
Director
Carl Th. Dreyer
Screenplay
Carl Th. Dreyer
From the play by
Kaj Munk
Producer
Carl Th. Dreyer
Producer
Erik Nielsen
Producer
Tage Nielsen
Cinematography
Henning Bendtsen
Editing
Edith Schlüssel
Cinematography
John Carlsen
Cinematography
Erik Wittrup Willumsen
Music
Poul Schierbeck
Songs
Sylvia Shierbeck
Production design
Erik Aaes

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Explore

Carl Th. Dreyer

Writer, Producer, Director

Carl Th. Dreyer
Carl Th. Dreyer

The creator of perhaps cinema’s most purely spiritual works, Danish master Carl Theodor Dreyer is one of the most influential moving image makers of all time, his arrestingly spare and innovative approach echoed in the films of Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson, Andrei Tarkovsky, Lars von Trier, and countless others. After making his mark with such narrative silent films as the provocative Michael (1924) and Master of the House (1925), Dreyer created The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), which, though deemed a failure on its release, is now considered, with its mix of stark realism and expressionism (and astonishing, iconic performance by Maria Falconetti), one of the great artistic works of the twentieth century. For the next four decades, Dreyer would continue to make films about people caught in battle between the spirit and the flesh and to experiment technically with the form. Vampyr (1932) is a mesmerizing horror fable full of camera and editing tricks; Day of Wrath (1943) is an intense tale of social repression, made during the Nazi occupation of Denmark; Ordet (1955) is a shattering look at a farming family’s inner religious world; and Gertrud (1964) is a portrait of a fiercely independent woman’s struggle for personal salvation.

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