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Leaves out of the Book of Satan (1921) Dreyer's second film...aka Leaves from Satan's Book
MultiQuote
#2
Posted 09 December 2006 - 11:41 PM
QUOTE(Alan Thomas @ Dec 9 2006, 10:22 PM) 
Anyone catch it (or, *gasp* seen it before)? (I know John A. has...) I've seen part I, and am about to start part II (the Inquisition).
I made an attempt, but on a small TV screen and with the VHS rendition. I look forward to someday catching up with both this and Michael on the newly released DVDs.
-s.
#4
Posted 10 December 2006 - 06:33 PM
Seeing as I've been mentioned by name, I'll offer the reflection I wrote on the film soon after I saw it.
The parallels to Intolerance are easy to see, though Dreyer's film lacks the scale of Griffith's film (which frankly, is what I most admire about Intolerance).
However, this isn't to suggest Dreyer's film has nothing of interest itself. I appreciated the occasional visual flare, as well as Dreyer's attentiveness to his female characters (who appear in all but the Christ story, as I remember it).
Each of the significant women is seen either in a suffering or a heroic role, either hurting due to the arrogance and weakness of men, or in at least one case, needing to come to their rescue. I found this to be quite surprising, though it reminds me that Dreyer's women are often suffering at the hands of a patriarchal society, or they exude various kinds of heroism. The old woman in Day of Wrath and Inger in Ordet come to mind as examples of this.
In Leaves, which tells four separate stories, we have women imprisoned by men for the infractions of their husbands and fathers. We have one woman suffering for the courage her husband shows (something she supports, btw). Another woman has her father unjustly killed in front of her, leading her to join the military and eventually play a heroic role. Ultimately, in this film, I take Dreyer to be pretty pessimistic about the role that women have to play in society, though it is clear also that he admires them greatly.
This is the element I found most interesting. In terms of plotting and characterization, it is all fairly straightforward. I did like the setup for the character of Satan, but Dreyer doesn't do a whole lot with him throughout. This isn't going to be an all-time favorite or anything, but I am glad I saw it, as it provided a further opportunity to think about Dreyer's work.
The parallels to Intolerance are easy to see, though Dreyer's film lacks the scale of Griffith's film (which frankly, is what I most admire about Intolerance).
However, this isn't to suggest Dreyer's film has nothing of interest itself. I appreciated the occasional visual flare, as well as Dreyer's attentiveness to his female characters (who appear in all but the Christ story, as I remember it).
Each of the significant women is seen either in a suffering or a heroic role, either hurting due to the arrogance and weakness of men, or in at least one case, needing to come to their rescue. I found this to be quite surprising, though it reminds me that Dreyer's women are often suffering at the hands of a patriarchal society, or they exude various kinds of heroism. The old woman in Day of Wrath and Inger in Ordet come to mind as examples of this.
In Leaves, which tells four separate stories, we have women imprisoned by men for the infractions of their husbands and fathers. We have one woman suffering for the courage her husband shows (something she supports, btw). Another woman has her father unjustly killed in front of her, leading her to join the military and eventually play a heroic role. Ultimately, in this film, I take Dreyer to be pretty pessimistic about the role that women have to play in society, though it is clear also that he admires them greatly.
This is the element I found most interesting. In terms of plotting and characterization, it is all fairly straightforward. I did like the setup for the character of Satan, but Dreyer doesn't do a whole lot with him throughout. This isn't going to be an all-time favorite or anything, but I am glad I saw it, as it provided a further opportunity to think about Dreyer's work.
#5
Posted 10 December 2006 - 07:51 PM
QUOTE(kenmorefield @ Dec 10 2006, 06:21 AM)
P.S. And not to sound like Doug (who has stinky feet and with whom I'm quarrelling until he apologizes for derailing the Children of Men thread), but why is it "gasp" inducing that someone would have seen this film before? Is there a tacit confession there that the artists in the top 100 make movies that nobody would actually watch if given the choice of X-Men 3 at Blockbuster?
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