Product Details

• Actors: Nina Pens Rode, Bendt Rothe, Ebbe Rode, Baard Owe, Axel Strøbye
• Directors: Carl Theodor Dreyer
• Writers: Carl Theodor Dreyer, Hjalmar Söderberg
• Producers: Jørgen Nielsen
• Format: Black & White, Widescreen, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Homevision
• VHS Release Date: June 6, 2000
• Run Time: 119 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0780023145
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #346,330 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Carl Dreyer's final film is now considered the culmination of his career of serene, introspective masterpieces, but it was greeted with derision on its initial release in 1965. It's not hard to see why, for Gertrud is an exactingly still and austere film, pared of extraneous decor and camera movement and performed with a masklike restraint that makes Bresson look florid by comparison. Based on a 1919 play by Hjalmar Söderberg, it's the story of a woman married to a staid, passionless lawyer who decides to leave a life of loneliness and emotional compromise for the love of a young musician. Over the next two days, Gertrud examines her life and her needs while a former lover, an acclaimed poet, returns to his hometown for a tribute and proclaims his love. Gertrud is a portrait in emotional resolution that Dreyer directs with an uncompromising style of long, static scenes that abruptly leap forward in time or into flashback with sudden dissolves. Many find the film dull because of its measured pacing and bottled-up performances, but there's a grace and a power in his understatement, and perfection in his control. Nina Pens Rode's Gertud is indeed a passionate woman, but it's a passion seen only in the intensity of her ennui or the glow of her smile as she quietly settles into contemplative stillness. --Sean Axmaker

Product Description

Dreyer's last film is both a celebration of free will and the tragedy of a life without compromise. Adapted from an early 20th century Scandinavian play, Gertrud is about a woman (Nina Pens Rode) determined to find ideal love. She leaves her husband an

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unsettling Masterwork, May 10, 2000

By 

Ben T-S - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gertrud [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a film that's probably provoked alot of eye rolls since its release, so be prepared. Devoid of any extravagance (the film is almost entirely filmed in living rooms under fill lights that never seem to change), this movie has the ability to penetrate its audience like a predator waiting in the dark--slow, subtle, almost undetectable.

The film is less interesting as a piece of feminism as it is an almost meditative statement about humanity. By consistently refusing the audience anything pornographic (as most films tend to do), Dreyer manages to reveal the layers of pain that lie deep within us.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "I am the stars, I am the sky... ", May 24, 2006

By 

Jason Potter (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gertrud [VHS] (VHS Tape)

An insufferable, self-obsessed woman is Gertrud: "I am the stars, I am the sky... I am a mouth seeking another mouth". Gertrud is not a character with whom one can identify, she irritates with a love that should remain silent. Gertrud is in love with Love. She is merciless with those who love her; she has no knowledge of real love and so never finds love. True love forgives all sins: Gertrud cannot forgive. For Gertrud Love is everything... on condition. This film far from extolling the virtues of an emancipated woman details the vacuousness of a life lived in the pursuit of pleasure. Gertrud true to self-Love to the very end remains alone and unfulfilled. Watching this film, I felt nothing but a desire for Gertrud to shut up, go away and die - a martyrs death, of course.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly entertaining, but compelling and incisive., September 6, 2001

By 

Jeremy Heilman (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gertrud [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Gertrud is a lesser film than Dreyer's Ordet, though not by much. Like Ordet, the films characters are archetypes, but somehow transcend them. I think Dreyer's sound films are amazingly adept at establishing an "at the speed of life" pacing that lulls us into thinking we're watching real people with real concerns as the themes leap into universal territory. Gertrud's character is one of the most interesting pre-feminist women I've seen in cinema and I think Dreyer's refusal to judge her in any way saves the film from being the bore that many find it.

The film's stylistically bold, though it's not in any way garish. Rather than use close-ups, cuts, and an overabundance of score, Dreyer lets light and methodical camera movements make his world come alive. I would imagine that many would find it unwatchable, or would incorrectly deem it uncinematic, but it's exceptionally cinematic. Every cut, every pan, every zoom matters.