GERTRUD

GERTRUD by Carl Theodor Dreyer


originally posted 2/1/11. this is edited/updated 10/10/16.

This is an important film. Carl Theodor Dreyer thought deeply about women and their perspectives.

Gertrud's character can be disturbing because she's so traditional in her role as the "woman," the "wife," the object of beauty. Her depression, her understanding of love-seeking as the only purpose of existence, the way she experiences primarily conflict with men's interest in their life's work, are all real and haunting, most deeply expressed in the song she sings, accompanied on the piano by her young lover. 

Tragic is the scene where she talks with a previous lover, who had idealized her as the love of his life. He informs her of how her present lover has "dragged her name through the mud" by speaking of her as a sexual conquest publicly, at a party held by a woman of ill repute. He weeps while struggling to explain the impact this has had on him.

"Gertrud" represents what happens to women who are particularly willful, not in a position to utilize their intelligence, perhaps motherless. From the relationship with her younger lover - the solution to her haunting malaise - to endless talks with varying men about their varied feelings, to her eventual desire for solely education and solitude, this film speaks volumes about women from a more complete angle than we typically see.

Like with many great films, even while we are forced to wade slowly into the viscosity of its situation toward an understanding of its characters, we are left with a feeling of profound truth in the end.