Gertrud (1964)

Essential Viewing

Denmark

Feature Film

Director: Carl Th. Dreyer

Writers: Carl Th. Dreyer, Hjalmar Söderberg

Cinematographer: Henning Bendtsen

Composer: Jørgen Jersild

Cast: Nina Pens Rode, Bendt Rothe, Ebbe Rode, Baard Owe, Axel Strøbye

Dreyer’s majestic final film – in which the attractive, refined lady of the title strives (and fails) to connect with the four men in her life, refusing to make the compromises necessary for cohabitation – is a film of exquisite beauty, full of delightfully restrained performances and ravishingly expressive mise en scène. Iain.Stott