Ordet

Ordet

I’m going through this list of the 1,000 greatest films of all time which has been going slowly and steadily. I got to no. 33, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Ordet last night.

It’s gorgeously shot in the Danish countryside with minimal cuts. It’s also said that Dreyer didn’t like light meters instead opting to adjust the lightning of a scene by eye.

But the story is what got me. Three sons: the eldest who has become agnostic; the middle who think he’s Jesus Christ; the youngest who wants to marry the neighbor’s daughter. The death of the eldest son’s wife during childbirth is perhaps the saddest thing I have ever watched. And of course how that affects the family’s religion and the belief of miracles.

Although this is listed at 33, this is definitely top 10 for me. Better than The Passion of Joan of Arc for me.