Ordet

A Danish farmer who preaches an open, joyous Christianity clashes with a fundamentalist tailor who refuses his daughter to marry his youngest son. Meanwhile he contends with another far gone son who fancies himself the Christ and the eldest, a nonbeliever whose loving wife's labor complications may hold miraculous implications. Carl Theodor Dreyer's Ordet is highly involving and completely moving with a stunning, phenomenal ending. A degree of staginess is made up for by its exemplary cinematography.

**** out of ****

Vampyr

A student takes a respite at an old hotel and quickly is haunted by a bloodthirsty female vampire. Though made several year after the introduction of talking pictures, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr is a mostly silent, disorienting, dreamlike exercise. Based on the short story Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, the film is virtually plotless, but is incredibly atmospheric with Dreyer's brilliant direction making fantastic, horrifying use of light and shadow.

*** out of ****

The Passion of Joan of Arc

The Passion of Joan of Arc strictly details the inquisition, trial, and execution of the poor peasant girl from Orleans who took up the Lord's calling, lead a French brigade during the Hundred Year's War, and ultimately liberated her people following her martyrdom. Carl Theodore Dreyer's silent film is an extremely simple work, filmed exclusively on one set and featuring an unrelenting succession of close-ups, that stands among the most powerful and intimate movies ever made. Maria Falconetti, a stage actress who shows zero successive screen credits and two obscure prior ones, delivers a haunting, unforgettable, deeply affecting performance, saying more with her eyes than most performers could with fifty pages of dialogue. The Passion of Joan of Arc makes the case for silent movies, movies as art, and movies as a power to move.