Four of the five features Carl Theodore Dryer made in a career marked by controversy and lengthy gaps of production find their way onto the list of 1001. While his unquestioned masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) would be the picture that most cinefiles know, and which I once watched totally enthralled without any soundtrack accompaniment, it is Gertrud (1964) to which I believe I’ve had the greatest emotional connection. While Dryer is rumored to not have been economic in the traditional financial sense when making a film, he is certainly so in his limited use of shots. The shot list for this, his final effort, reads a measly 89 lines for a picture 116 minutes in length. When viewing a film such as Gertrud, you can’t help but wonder what the long-term effects of Michael Bay’s crimes against a generation of filmgoers will be. Will the film students of 2021 have the patience for Gertrud’s story of anguish in love to unfold?
Writing this review I can’t help but find the similarities between this final work of the Danish master and the debut feature of Spike Lee, 1986’s She’s Gotta Have It. Both films concern the particulars of a woman torn between three lovers, who despite their best efforts, can’t seem to meet her desires for true love. In both films we see two options with whom the potential for happiness exists, and one who is clearly the wrong choice. In both cases the woman at the center of the film spurns all three men, believing that none can live up to her expectations while accepting her for who she is and what she desires.
Set in turn of the century Denmark, the ideals of the period would seem in total contrast to 1980s Brooklyn, and yet the similarities exist because the theme of love is eternal. It is said that it is a woman’s prerogative to change her mind, and if this is so, then Gertrud is the patron saint of women. If the character sounds like a stereotype at first let me assure you that she is anything but fickle. Her decisions are based on carefully examined feelings regarding love. Nina Pens Rode plays the title character as neither coldly calculating nor emotionally unstable, but simply a woman who is willing to make decisions to pursue her ideals of romance. Having made the choice to leave her husband she is torn between the aging poet with whom she once had a lengthy affair and the young musician unable to be faithful. Through conversations and coincidences she learns that she can choose neither and find happiness.
Covering the events of only a few days, with a “years later” epilogue tied on at the end, the film manages to carry such and emotional weight in such a chronologically small basket. I was struck most by the titles character’s reactions to two thoughts of her poet lover. One is his proudly spoken credo: “I believe in the passion of the flesh and the irreparable loneliness of the soul.” The other is a note he has scribbled on a post card reading “a woman’s love and a man’s work are mortal enemies.” Both sentences profoundly shape the events of Gertrud’s life and eventually lead her into aged celibacy. At the film’s conclusion as she ponders her death she confides to a friend, “There is nothing in this life but youth and love.” Grade: 3.5 Hats Off
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