Customer Reviews

Gertrud [VHS]

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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.

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.

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.

Despite extreme boredom I stuck with it to the end, thinking, hoping, believing throughout that there would be some redeeming quality... some payoff for my suffering. But there was none. I would have been better off with my eyes closed in a hammock somewhere, thinking thoughts instead of subjecting myself to the torture of this brain-sucking vacuum.

...you almost couldn't have put this better. Watching the movie I thought the former lover who became famous reaped what he sowed, and thought the husband should have been celebrating that Gertrud had left him. Gertrud is the epitome of narcissism dressed in an artsy-fartsy/haute couture veneer--as you say, a character "in love with Love", but completely unable to experience love because she is too self-centered to follow the principles that guide healthy relationships. It's fun to look at the lighting, object placement, and use of the screen in this picture because everything is so perfectly laid out. But the character the movie focuses on is a despicable one that could only get praise from other similarly narcissistic human beings--and believe me, in the world of 'film' there are plenty of those, hence why Gertrud the character and Gertrud the movie are so overrated.