dir:  Carl Th. Dreyer
pro: Niels Jørgen Nielsen, Palladium
sc: Carl Th. Dreyer  
ph: Henning Bendtsen
mus: Jørgen Jersild
ed: Edith Schlüssel
cast: Nina Pens Rode, Bendt Rothe, Ebbe Rode, Baard Owe
dis: Dansk Kulturfilm (DFI)

„Gertrud” is in a passionless marriage to Gustav Kanning. She tells him she wants a divorce, that she has begun a relationship with a young artist, Erland Jansson. Jansson seems ready to give up everything for his love for Gertrud, but still he falls short. At a party she meets an old love, Gabriel Lidman, who never got over that she left him. Gertrud will only be in a relationship if both parties make love their top priority. She won’t tolerate that the man in her life equates his love for her with his love for his work – or for his Havana cigars. Thirty years later she is all alone, looking back on her uncompromising life, regretting nothing. For Gertrud there is only love.

„Gertrud”, based on a 1906 play by Hjalmar Söderberg, was Dreyer’s last film. In a rare move for Dreyer, there are almost no close-ups. Instead, we are treated to long, elaborate camera movements in a film that consists of just 89 setups. The end result is an almost relentlessly stripped-down visual style, characterised overall by purity and simplicity. This is the ultimate of Dreyer’s many portraits of women. While Dreyer’s other female characters typically are suffering women or victims of power and men, Gertrud is a strong, free woman who chooses life without tepid men and half love.

Gertrud (DK),  1964 b&w 115 min.

Film description thanks to www.carlthdreyer.dk.