Ordet (1955)

Film: Ordet

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer

Country: Denmark

Released: January 1955

Runtime: 126 minutes

Genre: Drama

Studio: Palladium

Influenced: Bergman, Tarkovsky, Lars von Trier, Béla Tarr, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Lucrecia Martel

After his early masterpiece, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928), Dreyer's output slowed with Vampyr (1932), Day of Wrath (1943) and lesser film Two People (1945) his only feature-length movies to be released until the appearance of Ordet in 1955. This film was long in the making, with Dreyer seeing Kaj Munk's play Legend of Today – the basis of Ordet and the name of its subtitle – in 1932 and only much later deciding to cut out large chunks of its text, including erasing many scenes and adding others, to craft his screenplay. What's left are the essential elements of the drama, including the setting in a rural community in West Jutland, the central themes of faith and religious division and the key character arcs, notably the madness and redemption of Johannes and the death and resurrection of Inger.

The plot centres around the Borgen family, who are life-affirming "happy Dane" followers of Lutheran minister Grundtvig, in opposition to their austere Christian neighbours, puritans of the "Inner Mission". The story follows the Borgen's struggles with faith and existential questions as they cope with a series of difficult events. Family patriarch Morten Borgen is an ageing farmer who has been widowed for many years. His three adult children all live with him: Mikkel, an agnostic who is married to Inger and has children of his own; Johannes, a religious fanatic and avid reader of Kierkegaard who believes he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ; and Anders, who is engaged to Anne, the dutiful daughter of Peter and Kirstin Petersen, a pious neighbouring puritan family.

Anders is a troubled young man who has fallen into a deep depression and has become obsessed with the idea of death. He is convinced that he will die soon, and his illness causes great concern for the Petersen family, especially Anne. When Inger gives birth to a stillborn child, Anders' condition worsens, and he becomes convinced that the child's soul has entered his body. Meanwhile, Johannes' religious fanaticism causes tension within the Borgen family. He is convinced that he has the power to raise the dead, and he clashes with the local pastor over his unorthodox beliefs. Johannes believes that he is Christ reincarnate and only by finally renouncing this belief, and realising his delusion, does a miracle happen.

As Dreyer wrote himself, whereas La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc was a "hymn to the triumph of the soul over life", Ordet can be seen as a "hymn to the triumph of the soul over death". Both films, however, explore the landscape of the human face. Ordet is also a masterclass in film style, with its expressive lighting and long, slow-moving takes, often tracking from side-to-side using the crab dolly or at times circling the characters in a meditative way. While the mood of the film is mostly dark and serious, the character of Mikkel's daughter Maren offers a powerful balance, her happy disposition and simple faith providing a ray of light. The final embrace of the risen Inger with her husband Mikkel, and the close-up of Maren’s smile, shows her spirit prevailing.