Master of the House
Written by Carl Theodor Dreyer and Svend Rindom
Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
Denmark, 1925
It’s telling that the Criterion Collection touts Master of the House as a comedy. So regularly austere are the more popularly known works of Danish great Carl Theodor Dreyer, that perhaps in comparison, yes, this is at times funny. As a standard comedy, it’s admittedly weak; as a drama, however, it’s largely effective. Historian Casper Tybjerg, in an interview included on the new Criterion Blu-ray/DVD, makes a (only slightly convincing) case for the film as “basically” a comedy, noting that it was even made at a studio identified with comedic films. But more accurate is David Bordwell’s description of the film, which he mentions in a visual essay also included. In its employment of “silent film conventions of domestic drama,” it forms something more akin to a chamber play,...
Written by Carl Theodor Dreyer and Svend Rindom
Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
Denmark, 1925
It’s telling that the Criterion Collection touts Master of the House as a comedy. So regularly austere are the more popularly known works of Danish great Carl Theodor Dreyer, that perhaps in comparison, yes, this is at times funny. As a standard comedy, it’s admittedly weak; as a drama, however, it’s largely effective. Historian Casper Tybjerg, in an interview included on the new Criterion Blu-ray/DVD, makes a (only slightly convincing) case for the film as “basically” a comedy, noting that it was even made at a studio identified with comedic films. But more accurate is David Bordwell’s description of the film, which he mentions in a visual essay also included. In its employment of “silent film conventions of domestic drama,” it forms something more akin to a chamber play,...
- 5/9/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 22, 2014
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Release $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Johannes Meyer and Astrid Holm star in Carl Dreyer's 1925 silent drama Master of the House.
Before he got up close and personal with 1928’s Joan of Arc, the Danish cinema genius Carl Theodor Dreyer (Vampyr) fashioned the 1925 silent drama Master of the House, a finely detailed, ahead-of-its-time examination of domestic life.
In this heartfelt story of a housewife (Astrid Holm) who, with the help of a wily nanny (Mathilde Nielsen), turns the tables on her tyrannical husband (Johannes Meyer), Dreyer finds lightness and humor; it’s a deft comedy of revenge that was an enormous box-office success and is considered an early example of feminism on-screen.
Constructed with the director’s customary meticulousness and stirring sense of justice, Master of the House is a jewel of silent cinema.
Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD combo edition of the film contains...
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Release $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Johannes Meyer and Astrid Holm star in Carl Dreyer's 1925 silent drama Master of the House.
Before he got up close and personal with 1928’s Joan of Arc, the Danish cinema genius Carl Theodor Dreyer (Vampyr) fashioned the 1925 silent drama Master of the House, a finely detailed, ahead-of-its-time examination of domestic life.
In this heartfelt story of a housewife (Astrid Holm) who, with the help of a wily nanny (Mathilde Nielsen), turns the tables on her tyrannical husband (Johannes Meyer), Dreyer finds lightness and humor; it’s a deft comedy of revenge that was an enormous box-office success and is considered an early example of feminism on-screen.
Constructed with the director’s customary meticulousness and stirring sense of justice, Master of the House is a jewel of silent cinema.
Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD combo edition of the film contains...
- 1/29/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
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