Gertrud

Gertrud (1964) is Carl Theodor Dreyer's Danish drama, available to watch online on iFILM. A woman walks away from a respected husband for a young pianist, demanding a love so complete that none of the men around her can possibly supply it.

One by one Gertrud refuses them all — the government minister she married, the careless lover, the old flame who drifts back into her life. Each adores her in his own fashion, and none is ever enough; she takes solitude over compromise. Dreyer films their exchanges as frozen duets: the characters rarely meet each other's eyes, the pauses stretch out, the camera glides almost imperceptibly. Nina Pens Rode plays it all in half-tones.

This was Dreyer's final film, jeered at its Paris premiere and later ranked among his greatest work. It's cinema for the patient — austere, unhurried, uncompromising, much like its heroine. Stream Gertrud (1964) online on iFILM.