The Parson's Widow

Carl Theodor Dreyer has long been exalted by film connoisseurs for THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, VAMPYR, DAY OF WRATH, and ORDET. With THE PARSONS WIDOW, we meet a different Dreyer: a director who engages with broad humor, then gradually guides to a wise, bittersweet resolution. Sofren, an aspiring parson, is engaged to Mari, but her father won't allow them to marry until Sofren gets a ministry. He's hired by a small rural congregation only to discover that according to local custom, the widow of the deceased pastor may marry his successor. An aged woman who has already buried three earlier husbands, Dame Margarete asserts her right in order to keep her home, but Sofren also brings Mari to the parish claiming that she is his sister. The two plan to wait for the elderly woman to die. When it appears she might be eternal, Sofren begins a series of silly pranks to hasten the old ladys end, but before her death her wisdom, dignity and selflessness teach the young couple a great deal about fundamental humanity. THE PARSONS WIDOW from 1920 has been called the first real Dreyer film as it prefigures key themes in his later work. The film was beautifully photographed by George Schneevoigt (who would later go on to direct LAILA) in the 17th-century museum village of Lillehammer, Norway. The original luminous quality is substantially preserved in this edition, digitally mastered from a 35mm camera-negative print. Two rare Dreyer shorts accompany the feature. THEY CAUGHT THE FERRY (1948) adapts the technique of Dreyers horror/fantasy VAMPYR to a chilling and unforgettable miniature on driver safety. THORVALDSEN: DENMARKS GREAT SCULPTOR (1949) uses the long lenses and confrontational style of THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC to illuminate the search for truth in the work of the greatest Danish sculptor, which turns out to have a surprising affinity with Dreyers own cinema.