Gertrud

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Gertrud

1966,

1h 59m,

Drama

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Watchlist

79%

19 Reviews

Tomatometer

75%

1,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

79%

Tomatometer

19 Reviews

75%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

Hopeless romantic Gertrud (Nina Pens Rode) inhabits a turn-of-the-century milieu of artists and musicians, where she pursues an idealized notion of love that will always elude her. She abandons her distinguished husband (Bendt Rothe) and embraces an affair with a young concert pianist (Baard Owe), who falls short of her desire for lasting affection. When an old lover (Ebbe Rode) returns to her life, fresh disappointments follow, and Gertrud must try to come to terms with reality.

Alexander Walker

London Evening Standard

Mar 3, 2022

A work of classic austerity as befits the maker of The Passion of Joan of Arc.

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

May 22, 2014

It's exquisite, unbearable, and unforgettable.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

May 22, 2014

Dreyer's film depicts repressed carnal desires that merge with Gertrud's inevitably frustrated spiritual one: the longing for a love so total and consuming that it contains the seeds of its own destruction.

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Penelope Mortimer

Observer (UK)

Mar 3, 2022

Gertrud, Dreyer's last picture, seemed to me a ponderous and theatrical bore, as suffocating and prim as the drawing-rooms in which it takes place.

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Dwight MacDonald

Esquire Magazine

Aug 13, 2019

[Carl Dreyer] has in his later years developed his less-is-more style beyond effectiveness into mannerism. Gertrud is a further reach, beyond mannerism into cinematic poverty and straightforward tedium.

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Penelope Houston

The Spectator

Apr 7, 2015

Here is an enigmatically modern film with the deceptive air of a staidly old-fashioned one.

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Hagrid W

Jun 25, 2018

The acting is zombie-esque but that is Carl Theodor Dreyer's style which involves an unhappy housewife, opera singer, Gertud Kanning (Nina Pens Rode) leaving her husband, Gustav Kenning (Bendt Rothe) just when he announces his promotion to become a cabinet minister She leaves him for someone younger, who is a pianist and struggling composer, Erland(Baard Owe). Viewers get to understand why she has problems with highly successful men as the movie progresses, once she reunites with an old fling. Co-written and directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. which is also his final film.

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Rey R

Mar 27, 2017

Although seen by some as being slow, still and sombre, I feel it is also beautiful in its own way. It offers one of the most stunning cinematography in black and white (there's something with Dreyer, and also Bergman's films and Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev, where the cinematography looks just sharp and pretty in black and white). The story is very melancholic yet poignant, you feel for Gertrud's character (played brilliantly yet subtly by Nina Pens Rode) as she goes through isolation and doubt when it comes to who she loves. But what really impressed me is how expertly done were the long takes and its rather poignant ending, which seems like a great way to end Dreyer's filmography. Gertrud is perhaps my favourite Dreyer film, although Ordet, Day of Wrath and Passion of Joan of Arc I also value as being masterpieces as well.

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Carl Theodor Dreyer

Director

Nina Pens Rode

Gertrud Kanning

Ebbe Rode

Gabriel Lidman

Axel Strøbye

Axel Nygren

Bendt Rothe

Gustav Kanning

Baard Owe

Jansson

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Synopsis

Hopeless romantic Gertrud (Nina Pens Rode) inhabits a turn-of-the-century milieu of artists and musicians, where she pursues an idealized notion of love that will always elude her. She abandons her distinguished husband (Bendt Rothe) and embraces an affair with a young concert pianist (Baard Owe), who falls short of her desire for lasting affection. When an old lover (Ebbe Rode) returns to her life, fresh disappointments follow, and Gertrud must try to come to terms with reality.

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Producer: Jørgen Nielsen
Screenwriter: Carl Theodor Dreyer, Hjalmar Söderberg
Distributor: Criterion Film Corp., Pathé Contemporary Films
Production Co: Palladium Film
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Danish
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 2, 1966, Wide
Runtime: 1h 59m
Sound Mix: Mono

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