Vredens dag (1943)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Writers:

Release Date:

24 April 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

In a 17th-century Danish village, an old woman is accused of witchcraft. In the shadow of her flight...

Plot Keywords:

Pastor | Confession | Witch | Love | 17th Century

Cast

Kirsten Andreasen	...	(uncredited)
Sigurd Berg	...	(uncredited)
Albert Høeberg	...	The Bishop (uncredited)
Harald Holst	...	(uncredited)
Emanuel Jørgensen	...	(uncredited)
Sophie Knudsen	...	(uncredited)
Preben Lerdorff Rye	...	Martin (Absalon's son from first marriage) (uncredited)
Lisbeth Movin	...	Anne Pedersdotter (Absalon's second wife) (uncredited)
Preben Neergaard	...	Degn (uncredited)
Sigrid Neiiendam	...	Merete (Absalon's mother) (uncredited)
Emilie Nielsen	...	(uncredited)
Thorkild Roose	...	Rev. Absalon Pederssøn (uncredited)
Hans Christian Sørensen	...	(uncredited)
Anna Svierkier	...	Herlofs Marte (uncredited)
Olaf Ussing	...	Laurentius (uncredited)
Dagmar Wildenbrück	...	(uncredited)

Also Known As:

Day of Anger (USA) (video title)
Day of Wrath (USA)
Dies irae (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
Dan gnjeva (Croatia) [hr]
Dia de Cólera (Portugal) [pt]
Dias de Ira (Brazil) [pt]
Dies irae (Italy) [it]
Dies irae (France) [fr]
Jour de colère (France) [fr]
Tag der Rache (West Germany) [de]
Vihan päivä (Finland) [fi]
Vredens dag (Sweden) [sv]

Runtime:

97 min | USA:110 min | Argentina:94 min

Country:

Denmark

Language:

Danish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | South Korea:15 (2003) | West Germany:16 (w) | Finland:S | Argentina:13

Company:

Palladium Productions

Trivia:

Though the film is outwardly a chronicle of a religious witch-hunt, it contained many subtler comparisons to the behavior of the Nazis (torture and questioning) and Carl Theodor Dreyer fled Denmark for Sweden where he remained until the war was over.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The film is set in 1623. But at the back of the main room, where much of the action takes place, is a large wooden chest with a Latin inscription, mostly legible: "[Quae?] parum novit nemo docere potest 1639."

Quotes:

Rev. Absalon Pederssøn: There is nothing so quiet as a heart that has ceased to beat.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Il secondo tragico Fantozzi (1976)

Taking You To Another Place Entirely

I always say that movies should transport the viewer out of their own lives and into the film's. By the time Merthe exits her shack through the back way to escape the mob, and the scene shifts to the well-to-do Pastor's house, both very early in the film, one is so thoroughly inside late medieval Denmark that it's tough to get back to the Land of the Living when the film is over. Movie gets two points off for unnecessarily spacious editing and some redundant moments, but it's really killer stuff all the same. Merthe's character, a seemingly minor one, simply leaps off the screen and won't let you go. Similarly, other minor characters are amazingly well executed as well.