Carl Theodor Dreyer: Film und Literatur, Melodrama und Tragödie, Abstraktion und Realismus, Gut und Böse – Teil 2

Abstract

The danish film director Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889–1968) always adapted literature and did not write his own scripts because he did not consider himself a poet. He started with novels and short prose, but soon learned that he worked best with plays. In the second part of his career he came closer and closer to the world of tragedy. The most important thing in his method became abstraction, which can be found in the visual style, too. The following article wants to show how he developped his method and his style and how the way he adapted literature was part of this development. This analysis is also a means to a better understanding of Dreyer's films which is especially important because he always went his own way without caring too much about the expectations of the ordinary audience.