I've attempted to write this review for three days now, probably around five times, unsuccessful every time. Hopefully this time I will fare better.
What can you really say about Ordet? At the beginning, it seems quite normal, except for Johannes, although he's not too difficult to accept. But by the end, I was shaking with fear and weeping with strong emotions. Really, I don't know of any other film that is so bizarre and so oddly affecting. It's the kind of film that, the second you are done watching it, you are eager to watch it for a second time in order to better understand it. However, it is equally the kind of film that is so unsettling that you dread watching it for the second time. I don't know if anyone else felt this way, but the overall mood and especially the ending were really disturbing to me. Inger's kisses on Mikkel's cheek frightened me a lot more than they comforted me. The ending, on the surface, seems happy, but it really isn't - or, at least, there's the suggestion that it might not be. As Inger turns away from Mikkel after she has kissed his cheek, there is a string of saliva which hangs from her lower lip that is still attached to Mikkel's face. And her eyes! You can find a similar stare on a woman's face in Dreyer's Vampyr. In fact, this film seems to me much more like Vampyr than it does The Passion of Joan of Arc, Day of Wrath, or Gertrud.
What can you really say about Ordet? At the beginning, it seems quite normal, except for Johannes, although he's not too difficult to accept. But by the end, I was shaking with fear and weeping with strong emotions. Really, I don't know of any other film that is so bizarre and so oddly affecting. It's the kind of film that, the second you are done watching it, you are eager to watch it for a second time in order to better understand it. However, it is equally the kind of film that is so unsettling that you dread watching it for the second time. I don't know if anyone else felt this way, but the overall mood and especially the ending were really disturbing to me. Inger's kisses on Mikkel's cheek frightened me a lot more than they comforted me. The ending, on the surface, seems happy, but it really isn't - or, at least, there's the suggestion that it might not be. As Inger turns away from Mikkel after she has kissed his cheek, there is a string of saliva which hangs from her lower lip that is still attached to Mikkel's face. And her eyes! You can find a similar stare on a woman's face in Dreyer's Vampyr. In fact, this film seems to me much more like Vampyr than it does The Passion of Joan of Arc, Day of Wrath, or Gertrud.