Ordet: An Unusal Film

 

 

 

Ordet (1955, 1957 in North America)

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer

Dreyer A/S, 120 minutes, not rated.

In Danish with subtitles

★★★ ½

 

Carl Theodor Dreyer (1888-1968) is considered one of the greatest directors of all time. Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in a theater. Likewise, Ordet has been cited by Britain’s Sight & Sound as among the top 20 films in cinema history, an assessment shared by those who awarded it a Golden Lion in Venice in 1955. I rate it lower because it takes a certain kind of viewer to appreciate it.

 

Ordet is based upon a 1932 play by Kaj Munk, a Lutheran pastor martyred during World War II. Religion is at the center of Ordet, which takes place in Denmark during 1925. The widower Morten Borgen is a prosperous farmer and the father of three sons. In his mind, though, his greatest achievement was bringing faith to what had hitherto been the darkness of Jutland. His brand of Lutheranism is stern, but joyful. His eldest son Mikkel has lost his faith, though he is married to the ebullient and very pregnant Inger. Part of Mikkel’s faith crisis is that Inger has given him two daughters, but no son.

 

To make that sound less outrageous, farm families depended upon male heirs to keep even rich farms going. The youngest son Anders is unmarried and, though he’d like to wed Anne Petersen, neither father will agree to the match. Her father,  Peter (Enjer Federspiel)* belongs to the Inner Mission sect, a very austere and sin-focused form of Lutheranism. He and Morten see each other as apostates.

 

To say that the middle son Johannes (is unlikely to produce an heir is an understatement. He was once a promising student, but studied Søren Kierkegaard so intensely that he underwent an unusual conversion; he believes that he is Jesus Christ, preaches atop empty hillsides, and drives other male Borgens crazy. Most of the villagers would attest he is crazy. A word: Kierkegaard is among the most difficult philosophers to study. He was an existentialist who believed in free will. Existentialism is sometimes called living like a saint without God, but Kierkegaard was a mystic who emphasized Christian love and believed that God could only be intuited. What, exactly, that means has baffled many. Morten blames Kierkegaard for Johannes’ troubled mind. Now you know why I said not every viewer will relate to Ordet.

 

Johannes–Latin for John­–plays another role. “Ordet” is Danish for “The Word.” The New Testament Gospel of John opens: “In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There is a new pastor in the village who thinks Johannes is mentally ill, as does the local doctor. Though the first is a believer and the latter a man of science, each agrees that the age of miracles is over. I will say no more about what happens other than it will challenge whatever you think or believe.

 

Here's how I unpack the characters, though I know little of Kaj Munk mine might not have been his intention. I’m pretty sure that Morten and Peter symbolize that theological debates are dead ends when they depart from the essence of faith and when, in Kierkegaardian terms, they seek to “prove” the unknowable. The doctor, pastor, and Mikkel seem to represent materialists who doubt anything they cannot observe. Johannes is tougher, but I think Munk and Dreyer are playing off the age-old question of whether anyone would recognize a messiah if one appeared amidst them.

 

I’m on safer ground in saying that the black and white cinematography of Henning Bendtsen is stunning, especially his empty expanses, grey skies, and grasses blown by seaside breezes, though all of Bendtsen’s camera work enhances moments of moodiness, melancholia, and astonishment. Dreyer used long takes and Bendtsen made each look like a painting. I should note that the acting is more mannered, expressionistic, and poetic than realistic. Was this was deliberate, stylistic, or because Dreyer first made films in the gesticulating silent era?** Add it to the list of mysteries. Ordet is better contemplated than explained.

 

Rob Weir

 

 

 

* You will not know the actors. I mention Federspeil because he too was a Danish film director.

** Thanks to friends Chris, Ian, and Kiki for those thoughts.