Carl Theodor Dreyer Film Series
Once Upon a Time
Carl Th. Dreyer (Denmark, 1922)
Introduced by Amanda Elaine Doxtator
Judith Rosenberg on Piano
Amanda Elaine Doxtator is a UC Berkeley doctoral student in Scandinavian who is writing a dissertation on Carl Th. Dreyer.
(Der Var Engang). “Tell the chamberlain he will be hanged if he does not immediately find my parrot!” rages the spoiled heroine of Dreyer’s delightful fairy tale of princes and princesses, assumed identities, and magic tea kettles. In the kingdom of Illyria dwells a bored, beautiful princess with a spectacular hairdo (Dreyer even gives her a child servant whose only duty is to keep it aloft), who sends most of her suitors straight to the hangman. The Prince of Denmark, however, will not be similarly dismissed, and embarks on a wild scheme to win her heart, involving musical instruments, forest exiles, wood nymphs, and a confession of love. Unlike anything in Dreyer’s filmography, Once Upon a Time is an eye-opening taste of silent cinema at its lightest and most entertaining.—Jason Sanders
• Written by Dreyer, based on two stories by Jacob Breda Bull. Photographed by Einar Olsen. With Stub Wiberg, Tove Tellback, Harald Stormoen, Einar Sissener. (64 mins, Silent with Danish and English intertitles, B&W, 35mm, From Danish Film Institute)
Followed by short:
Bride of Glomdal (Glodalsbruden) (Norway, 1926). Made by Dreyer during a Norwegian summer, The Bride of Glomdal concerns the love of a poor farmer's son for the daughter of a neighboring wealthy farmer. If the melodrama is Griffith-like on its surface, it is Dreyer-like in its density of emotion. (70 mins, Silent with Danish and English intertitles, B&W, digital, From Danish Film Institute)
• (Total running time: 134 mins, plus 15-minute introduction)
