User reviews

I Fancy there'd be a good reason to feel a bit irked during most of the days of the 17th century, especially if you were a bonny lass with a celibate husband twice your age, a hag of a mother-in-law and you fancied your stepson something rotten. A bewitching film leaves us grateful we are alive today and thankful for our libertarian ways, with the director catching the essence of life's frustrations, misunderstandings and heinous cruelties during those times to perfection.

One of Dreyer's most accessible works; it has a dramatic story (witch hunting!) and still investigates the characters' morality and their relation to the world they exist in. This film is about the difference between life and the soul (the life that you live now and the soul of post-life, and the soul that fills your life as you live it), those at the stake and those on trial in the home, and the spells we cast on each other. When an accused witch confesses to being one to hopefully save her life (which doesn't happen) she threatens with witchery the man who won't save her. Obviously witches don't exist, but why, when sentenced to death, would she suddenly say she has a witch's power? To frighten him? Because she believes that she must be a witch, if others think she is? Or just to scare him? It's not clear. This is Dreyer's most overtly sexual film, where sex is a weapon (that eventually leads to a death); we see the relationship between the young girl, Anne, who falls in love with her much older husband's son (the same actor who played Johannes in Dreyer's next great film, "Ordet"), and, by the end of the film, we see that she has cast her spell on him, and is herself to be accused of being a witch.

Dreyer's films, which got more difficult as he got older, don't seem to have a date; certainly period pieces like this exist in a certain time, but put "Day of Wrath" next to "Gertrud" and you'd hardly notice a twenty year difference -- or few hundred years difference, in terms of the setting. And yet Dreyer's sense of place is almost unmatched, largely because of his simplicity: the costumes seem almost amateur, the acting is theatrical -- not so much in style, but in presentation (the actors seem to have been told where to stand and when). His films exist purely within this world he created, not minding the styles of the day; he's the truest of auteurs. He is also one of the great directors of women, and here elicits excellent performances from his entire cast (keeping in mind the date of production) but especially those of the two mothers in the film, the one who is put to the stake, and the other who is the mother to Anne's much older husband.

Despite the heavy seriousness of the religious beliefs in the film, Dreyer isn't religiously driven. He is driven by the soul, but these films are not the works of a fundamentalist. Dreyer looks at the actions of the characters, which are, at their worst, adultery and murder, and uses them as a moral, spiritual, and personal crisis in which to look for nothing less than meaning in life. 9/10

Day of Wrath has got to be one of the best movies ever made. It's beautiful to look at, great intriguing witch-hunting story, the filmmaking is impeccable, and it's just plain awesome. It's too bad that not many people know about this little diamond.

Dreyer's pictures are absolutely mind-boggling .We seem to be in a Rembrandt's or Georges de la Tour's painting.He works with his camera the way a painter does with light to create different textures ,highlights and shadows.The scenes inside the minister's house where the world is still the prey of the good/evil concept are in direct contrast to those ,luminous and pastoral,where the lovers try to reinvent life:some kind of Garden of Eden,which the apple tree on the picture has promised.

Anne's passion was doomed from the start:her situation recalls that of Phaedra:both are pure even in sin,both are victims of an implacable heredity.Even before Martin's appearance ,the over-possessive mother leaves her no chance at all.

Remarkable sequences: the old woman's "trial",her tortures,her screams (I'm not afraid of Heaven or Hell ,I'm afraid to die!" Her death at the stake ,with Ann looking through the window pane ,and realizing it's an omen.The children singing terrifying canticles about God's wrath.

The minister beginning to wonder if his faith is strong enough and the wife's infamous revelation.

The nature which was a refuge, the only sunlight the lovers could get,becomes misty ,almost dark,as the young man has lost all his hopes and illusions."No,Ann says ,it all begins" It's the seventeenth century and Ann is too ahead of her time.She and the old woman are the real human beings in the movie:the minister and his sinister mother are already dead when the film begins as much as the dying man he comforts in his last hour .Martin has got himself tangled up in remorse,superstitions (You've got a magic power) and if life means rebellion and fight ,his surrender leaves him a living dead.

The old woman ,the "witch" ,is afraid to die,which is human:Jeanne D'Arc herself,another "witch" which inspired CT Dreyer had her moments of doubt and fear,and she abjured to save her life .

"Vredens Dag" can still grab today's audience.This is a must.

Carl Theodor Dreyer, as I can figure from seeing just a few of his films, is consistently the director to get me feeling extremely emotional. This one, Day of Wrath, and especially his quintessential The Passion of Joan of Arc, somehow got me to the point of tears. Not to the point of stopping the film(s) to sob, but in feeling such a strong, endearing connection to the characters (through the actor(s) playing them) through the doomed feeling over the films that got to me. Films dealing with questions of faith and religion have fascinated me for a while from the likes of Bergman, Bunuel and even Scorsese, but Dreyer taps particularly well into the plights of those to be sacrificed in the name of 'the Lord'. At times I tried to put aside my own feelings about God and religion and the like, yet it kept on sort of dragging in along with it. By getting right up into the stink-pit of hypocrisy and sheer, un-wielding judgment that religion casts upon people (in the two main cases I've seen from him women), it speaks past the realm of a religious fable and goes into the realm of the universal. Day of Wrath is as much a story of witch-hunting as it is of the doom of the outsider, of what a soul who is circumspect in centuries before would be put down as if on complete call from high. Conscience from within, who knows.

Dreyer centers his story circa 17th century Denmark around Bishop Absalom (Alber Hoeberg, in a mostly haunted performance), his mother, his son Martin, and his recent wife Anne (Lisbeth Movin, not quite the face of Falconetti, but still stands powerful on its own). The Bishop deals with questions of faith, but more-so his own feelings of possible death and dread, following the catching and sacrificing of Herlofs Marte (Anna Svierkier). There is an affair between son and wife, which leads to another incredible turning point, not the least without the suspicious, un-bending old mother. Dreyer deals with the story of this family very simply and delicately, yet with a certain razor's edge that you know may be coming around the bend. Like in the times he filmed this, circa Nazi-Germany dominated world war 2, it's hardly the safest, especially to those who don't conform to certain ways. And then it all leads back to God, and love, or lack thereof.

Dreyer strikes very early on with the emotional powerhouse moments. Svierkier was the perfect choice to play the part of Herlofs Marte. Such humanity comes through her performance, as an old woman who says outright that she's not a witch ("I don't fear Heaven or Hell, I fear only Death"), is given the brush-off by the Bishop despite her pleas. Like with 'Passion', Dreyer ends up getting far more of a moving scene involving the torture of another person just by the mere suggestion of it, a hint even. He does it with audio this time, as opposed to a montage of images, and it's just as effective (a camera pans across a room of the Church's watchers, so to speak). While it's arguable if the scenes involving her are the most arresting emotionally- the plight of the everyday folk- the latter scenes bringing to a head the tragedy of Absalom, Martin, and Anne, doesn't lose its strength either.

This is kept up by Dreyer almost in spite of itself. He and his cameraman Karl Andersson keep a deliberate pacing in the film, a kind of aesthetic in tune likely with his silent-film days. It's a story not rushed at all, and gives some of the most beautiful shots in any of his films; the scenes of Martin and Anne by the riverside, in complete silhouette; the constant usage of medium shots still capturing the full outreach of the performers; the precious close-ups bringing forth his precise, masterful use of light and dark. The more I thought about this style, the more I appreciated it afterward, even when considering it was different than 'Passion' or 'Vampyr'. It lets the scenes sink in for the viewer, to the point of going along on this dark, fateful journey. And it also got me thinking- as I thought with Bergan's films till I saw interviews- about Dreyer and his own relationship to religion in regards to his films. The questioning is never out there in your face; it's in-between the lines of what is spoken between sinner and judger, and what it ends up feeding into society. Absalom may not be a bad man, but as a soul with his life into judging others, ones that might love him stray away.

It leaves me with questions that leave bitter, difficult and long answers, which is really what the best filmmakers tend to do for me sometimes, though at the same time always keeping the dramatic &/or just theatrical aspects of the film in enough control to really hit home. Superb work.

Just borrowing a phrase with my summary, and not trying to trivialize "Day Of Wrath", an extraordinarily powerful film. I think we in the States are not used to films as masterfully done and as impactful as this one.

In the 17th century - Europe as well as in the States - witchcraft and witch hunts were all the rage, an age of ignorance during the Age Of Enlightment. How quaint and simplistic a notion that someone could be a witch just by anothers accusation! Director Carl Dreyer brings this idea home to us in this methodical masterpiece in harrowing detail. His story centers on a young Danish woman who goes from mouse-wife to temptress to doomed heroine. She is surrounded throughout the picture by hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness and in the end she succumbs to Christian ideals, the same ones she had been struggling to suppress for most of the picture.

You can watch until your eyes drop out and you won't find a scene not executed to perfection in all departments. I am not familiar with the actors but they were outstanding down to the smallest part. The pacing, like a Bergman film, is slow and deliberate, much the same way it would have been lived out in the 1600's. The Inquisition-type scene involving the old accused woman is even slower still, making the scene all the more horrifying, even though the torture is in the viewers mind and not on screen. Note how slowly the camera pans around the chamber of judges.

There are so many scenes worth mentioning, but it's best to see the picture for yourself if you haven't. It is an unforgettable treatment of nasty, unsavory material.

(BTW, I liked MisterWhiplash's 1/19/2006 comments.)

Dreyer's "Day of Wrath" is a terrifying trip back to the early seventeenth century, only without modern conveniences like motor vehicles to get one the Heck out of a crazy community on a perpetual witch hunt. It is a brave film made under military occupation. It depicts life under totalitarianism. It is slowly paced, but not boring.

The sequences up to and including the pyre scene are very moving; and certainly have inspired other films.

The principal story revolves around a family of four. There's Anne as the young wife of the aging pastor; Absalon, the pastor; Merete, the pastor's mother and Martin the pastor's son. Anne is hated by Merete, one of the most unreasonable figures in the history of cinema. Unfortunately, Merete is well represented by the rest of the community, which is perpetually on the lookout for witches. So, Anne naturally fears she will be denounced.

The pastor, psychopathic by today's standards, doesn't satisfy Anne in any way. So, Anne seeks it with Martin, at the risk of giving Merete some food for fodder. Dreyer depicts Anne's love very romantic. There's a scene on a rowboat, in a corn field, by the water. Each location is pleasant, hopeful, and a complete contrast to home life with Absalon.

Dreyer's film achieves greatness as he opens the scant possibility that maybe Anne is really a witch after all. In so doing, he takes us emotionally back to the seventeenth century and has us judge her, just as we've seen the grim-faced clergy members do before. He is making us think like members of the Inquisition!

This is a complex, brilliant movie made under Nazi occupation about totalitarianism in a parochial, seventeenth century community. It is a miracle it was made at all, and certainly inspires great interest during today's troubled times.

In 17th century Denmark, religious fanaticism prevails and rules peoples' lives and usages creating a frozen society where witch hunting is one of the noblest activities. As usual that ice doesn't kill the fire that burns in the hearts nor the passion that torments the flesh, thus originating the usual hypocrisy in behaviour. Served by cold but beautiful images to which Dreyer has already accustomed us, this story of witch hunting, bigotry and injustice touches us by the deepness and beauty of sentiments revealed by the two young lovers contrasting with the abominable coldness of a world of intolerance and poverty of ideas that surrounds them. The black and white images contribute to create an atmosphere totally adequate to the development of the plot together with the extraordinary performance of the actors resulting in a gallery of characters whose greatness seldom was attained in the history of cinema. In a cold and realist scenery the characters move themselves slowly creating scenes and plans of an almost pictorial beauty. However behind their faces we can see the sentiments that animate them: love, hate, passion, fanaticism and hypocrisy. Their dress is extremely rigorous according to the portrayed epoch. A beautiful movie, not to be missed.

(aka: DAY OF WRATH)

It's surprising that it was filmed during the German occupation of Denmark.

I mean, why the Nazi censors allowed this one to be made is beyond me, since I don't think anything like this would get past the Hayes Office, let alone be made by anybody in Hollywood.

Too many controversial religious overtones, plus some minor nudity of the condemned old witch, would make the studio moguls pretty skittish.

An old woman has put a curse on a pastor who has condemned her as a witch. The old pastor later dies and his much younger wife (Lisbeth Movin) is blamed for it. What complicates things even further is she has an adulterous affair with the pastor's son, who is about the same age as her.

It's pretty stark, eerie stuff with little soundtrack music beyond the opening titles. I saw the remastered version of this on the Sundance channel which enhances the b/w ambience even further.

7 out of 10 for being a fascinating visual experience

Dreyer is regarded as one of the masters of early cinema and this is one of his best known films. Based solely on the evidence presented in this film, it's obvious that the man had a strong visual style, but it's not clear he was very good with actors or storytelling. The cinematography here is quite striking, recalling Rembrandt paintings. However, the plot is simple and underwhelming and the pacing is extremely lethargic. The characters are not particularly interesting, perhaps because the dialog is trite (at least the English subtitles). The acting ranges from wooden to melodramatic. This film looks like a primer for Ingmar Bergman.

Sure, now it might be difficult to appreciate this for how far it went. We've had Bergman since, Tarkovsky, Haneke most lately, they all begin here. At the time Ozu was still on his way. Bresson had yet to begin. And there's the notion of a Nazi allegory, more likely applied in retrospect, that runs the risk of reducing the work to one convenient reading that simplifies.

So Dreyer was one of the first to arrive, but where to? A world distilled to purity, long quiet utterances of the camera, waxen faces sunken by inward weight, sensuous nature outside contrasted with pious suffering inside the pastor's house.

Contemporary viewers might find all this a bit too musky and too archaic, something fabled from a medieval world, and watch with detached, at best aesthetic interest. But that would be to turn a blind eye to the real engines that power ignorance and delusion all around us, these haven't changed a bit since Dreyer's time or the 1600s.

The film begins and ends with horrible punishment at the hands of a cruel establishment; but it's the unswathing of the soul in that interim space where people are alone with the questions they have about each other that matters. Let the story of religious persecution subside and this is about ordinary people who struggle with what they feel moves them.

A man betrayed his austere god, from his own end, when he allowed a 'witch' to go unpunished so he could take her beautiful daughter for a wife. The film begins with the wrongdoing appearing again around him. Another woman rumored to be a witch is apprehended and begs for the same forgiveness. That's on the same day as his son is coming to visit and meets a stepmother his own age.

From her own end, she has been locked in a suffocating household and loveless marriage, the young man before her is everything a woman her age would pine for. We have that life take shape as a hushed love affair, it begins with a lacy image of a woman and a boy holding hands that she stitches, then a promenade out in nature that envelops and sways with the promise.

Bergman would lengthen the monologues into articulate introspection, overbearingly so, Tarkovsky would take these same long pans of the camera, set the cut further back and seep with them in and out of dreams and consciousness. Dreyer sweats out the angst with the same stoic forbearance throughout; words are measured, flows are austere. Self is not penetrated here then, by way of words or camera, we infer opaquely from the outside. It will depend on the viewer if he finds all this hypnotic or oppressive; me, I favor cessation when it leads to realization.

So the household is devastated by the discovery, someone has fallen to die, love is now tainted and sinking. That's the dramatic turn of events, presbyterian. Questions I find immensely more interesting, quite apart from anything about religious persecution, is what is taking place inside these people?

He reserves bitter irony for the end, now she resigns to being the character in a wretched story shaped by idiots, but points also to this fickleness to make ourselves known, to our own selves first; it seems like he was ready to love to the end, a potentially happy life ahead of them, but at the last moment he steps on the accusing side of the room. Truth sunk by belief in a story about evil powers. Does he truly believe it, does he conveniently extricate himself? It's the same delusion either way.

Although I'm certainly not religious myself, I do find the subject of religion to be fascinating, yet whenever I see a film about religion, especially old black and white subtitled ones, it tends to be a very torrid viewing for me. This was certainly the case with Ingmar Bergman's 'Winter Light', but not the case with this film; which is actually very good. I went into it with the wrong expectations because my television guide had touted it as a film about witch hunt; which although they feature in the film, that's not what it's about. The film is about loss of faith, and having to choose between what you believe and the people you love. We follow a pastor who has indicted a woman for witchcraft and later has her burnt at the stake. Around the same time, his son has returned and he has inadvertently fallen in love with his father's wife, a woman who is his junior. Much like his earlier 'Passion of the Joan of Ark', Danish genius Carl Theodor Dreyer has created a film rich with religious tones that includes themes of witchcraft and the power of belief. The lighting and way that the atmosphere is built in the film is superb, and it's obvious that a master technician made the film. However, much like Passion of Joan of Ark, and his 1932 film, Vampyr, this film also comes across as being cold - which can make it difficult to like if, like me, you value the story and characters over technical prowess and potent themes. Day of Wrath is certainly not a film for everyone, and people that dislike thought provoking, yet completely style-less pieces of art should steer clear. For everyone else, however, this is most definitely worth a watch.

This version of Hans Wiers-Jenssens play, itself inspired by the burning of alleged witch Anne Pedersdotter in 1590, was released during the blackest period of the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Whether its director Carl Theodor Dreyer intended it as an allegory for Nazi oppression is debatable but fearing that it might be interpreted as such, he thought it wise to take refuge in Sweden. What we have here is in fact a scathing indictment of tyrannical Religion and the horrors perpetrated in its name in which devout choirboys sing 'Glory to God' whilst witnessing a harmless old woman being burnt alive.

This monumental piece has been dismissed by some as slow and ponderous but this viewer would prefer to describe its pace as 'measured'. As one would expect from this director it has atmospheric intensity, pictorial beauty and performances that are strong but restrained and in keeping with its subject matter is pervaded by a sense of doom and spiritual anguish.

Dreyer's masterful use of light and dark are never more apparent than in the contrast between the scenes of nature and the gloomy interiors whilst the clever use of light enables the character of Anne to be by turns innocent and sinister, angelic and demonic. This is most striking in the scene where she tells her aged husband that she wishes him dead which never fails to send a shiver. His guilt-ridden character is played by Thorkild Loose whilst Sigfrid Neiiendam is Anne's monstrous mother-in-law and Preben Lerdoff her pusillanimous lover. Lisbeth Moven's portrayal of Anne is undoubtedly her finest hour and Anna Svierkier's performance as Herlof's Marte is one of the most touching in film.

The final scene is ambiguous and one is left wondering whether Anne has the power or has simply convinced herself that she has. Critic André Bazin has suggested that 'the despair at the end could as well indicate confession as a lie'.

Film historian David Thomson has likened the film visually to 'Rembrandt on a strict budget'. The comparison with that magnificent painter is apt as both he and Dreyer pursued their personal vision determinedly and just as Rembrandt refused to cater to his rich clients' vanity so Dreyer never made the least attempt to pander to the box office. Posterity has the last laugh however.

One of the best films ever made about the repression of witchcraft, and a fundamental film in Dreyer's filmography, with an aesthetic perfection only comparable to its meticulous psychological elaboration. Based on the play "Anne Pedersdotter" by Hans Wiers-Jenssen, set in this case in 17th-century, in which an old woman is accused of witchcraft at a Danish village. At the beginning a pious elderly parson sends an old woman to the stake and she curses him. In the shadow of her flight, capture, confession, and burning at the stake, the young wife (the daughter of a woman suspected of witchcraft) of the town's aging pastor falls in love with the pastor's son. A Strange Love Story - Told With Startling Frankness by Carl Dreyer, world-famous director !.

A drama of fear and superstition that's often seen as an allegory on the Nazi occupation of Denmark and is considered to be arguably Dreyer's most pessimist movie. This is an austere and very sombre account of the relentless persecucion of witches in 17th century Denmark. The film tells how the young wife of a pastor falls in love with his son, Dreyer remains wisely ambivalent, preferring instead to focus on the powerful, earthly emotions of fear and live: the grim, grey confession chambers - location of perhaps the most discreet yet horrific torture scenes in cinema- embody the former, rippling streams and sun-dappled meadows the latter. Almost paradoxically, Dreyer evokes the soul through the physical world.

The simple production design also stands out, along with the costumes and the astonishing cinematograpy in black and white, achieving great artistic success. And of course, terrific performances with special mention for Lisbeth Movin as the brooding wife who inevitably falls in love with the son of the pastor. The motion picture was very well directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, containing many subtler comparisons to the behavior of the Nazis by torturing and questioning; in fact Carl Theodor Dreyer fled Denmark for Sweden where he remained until the war was over. This famous and classic director was born in Copenhague, Denmark. He was a prestigious writer and filmmaker, known for Gertrud (1964), Vampyr (1932), Ordet (1955) and La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928). This outwardly a chronicle of a religious witch-hunt titled ¨Days of Wrath¨, ¨Dies irae¨ or ¨Vredens dag¨(1943) has a rating: 8/10. The result is a masterpiece, its slow, measured pace and stark visuals achieving an almost emotional intensity.

Dreyer's personal directing is so subtle between genius and madness, his work holds a very high intellectual class and is very fascinating. "Day of Wrath" produced during the Natzi Occupation of Denmark, got a great photo and holds the same religious intensity as his other work. But otherwise, I think "The Passion of Joan of arc" handles the theme better. The story, with its unalleviated gloom and dull pacing, resulted a bit slow and could have been more emotionally moving if it wasn't so riven. However, in this movie, Theodore really shows that he also can create a love story so pitiful and heartbreaking as he can with religion. He has chosen the very best actors for the roles, with Lisbeth Movin and Preben Lerdorff Rye as the two young love birds. Thorkild Roose as the decent father and Sigrid Neiiendam as the malevolent grandmother.

The idea of witch hunts occasionally appears in cinema. Most famous is probably "The Crucible", written as an allusion to McCarthyism. Other movies include "Witchfinder General" (aka "The Conqueror Worm") and the overrated - by which I mean truly awful - "Hocus Pocus".

A lesser known one these days is Carl Theodor Dreyer's "Vredens dag" ("Day of Wrath" in English). This focuses on witch hunts in 1600s Denmark. I should note that it's the sort of movie that tests your attention span. Long scenes usually in one location, consisting of dialogue. If you're used to movies full of explosions, car chases and CGI, then you'll want to avoid this one like the plague. Otherwise, I recommend it as one of the all-time classics.

Am I the only one who thinks Lisbeth Movin looked like Elizabeth Montgomery?

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.

Day Of Wrath (1943) : Brief Review -

Yet another daring Danish film on Musty Traditions of Witchcraft but this time with biblical and logical explanation. I remember watching Danish Silent Film 'Haxan' / 'The Witch' (1922) by Benjamin Christensen and how i was blown away by the film. Here, Day Of Wrath is based on same intolerable traditions but instead of throwing negative impact, it gives mindful logical explanations by using Bible and Life Ethics. And believe it or not, every viewer can have a separate and totally different explaination of this story according to his/her own individual ethics. The young wife of an aging priest falls in love with his son amidst the horror of a merciless witch hunt in 17th century Denmark. All 3 main characters have sinned against God/Life/Love therefore all 3 gets punished in different ways but you have to understand how. Many viewers haven't found that subtle meaning for all 3 characters which i personally think wasn't too hard to get but like i said you have to find it according to your ethics. I am not gonna spoil anything by telling what i understood or what explaination I have because obviously your ethics and mine are different. I haven't seen any film using those unacceptable musty, mouldy thoughts from the history to show acceptable devotional ethics like 'If you sin, you will be punished because up there God is watching us'. Performances wise Robert Thorkild, Lisbeth Movin and Preben Lerdorff Rye all three are superb in their roles. Sigrid Neiiendam in mother's role is surprisingly overwhelming. Cinematography is great, dialogues are powerful, screenplay is little slow and direction of Carl Theodor Dreyer is good. Dreyer again creates that wonderful atmosphere all around like he did with Vampyr (1932) but this time his grip wasn't that tight. Thanks to the fantastic writing which gives it a solid and almost an unforgettable ending.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest