Ordet (The Word) (1955)
Average Rating: 9.4/10
Reviews Counted: 20
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 0
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Average Rating: 4.4/5
User Ratings: 3,968
Movie Info
With his masterful Ordet (aka The Word, [1955]), legendary Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer examines the conflict between internalized personal faith and organized religion. Dreyer sets the drama in a conservative, super-pious Danish town, where widower Morten Borgen (Henrik Malberg) -- the father of three boys -- cuts against the grain of the community with his constant heretical doubt. One of his sons, Mikkel Borgen (Emil Hass Christensen), is entangled in an interfaith romance with a
Jan 1, 1954 Wide
Sep 8, 2008
Criterion Collection
Cast
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Henrik Malberg
Morten Borgen -
Emil Hass Christensen
Mikkel Borgen -
Cay Kristiansen
Anders Borgen -
Preben Leerdorff-Rye
Johannes Borgen -
Hanne Aagesen
Karen -
Sylvia Eckhausen
Kirstine Skraedder -
Anne Elisabeth Andersen
Maren -
Ejner Federspiel
Peter Skraedder -
Gerda Nielsen
Anne Skraedder -
Ove Rud
Pastor -
Henry Skjaer
Doctor -
Edith Trane
Mette Maren -
Birgitte Federspiel
Inger Mikkel's Wife -
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All Critics (21) | Top Critics (2) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (0) | DVD (7)
Both emotionally and intellectually the picture is hypnotic, and some portions will nail the spectator to his seat.
Top CriticA strange, wondrous and shocking work. Once seen, it's unlikely to leave you.
With arresting faces but not cluttered with close-ups, attention-getting camera abilities beyond judicious lighting, or mood music, the film builds to a long emotional finale of biblical parallel.
Dreyer's Ordet (1955) is far simpler than his previous films, taking place mostly in a single set, but also more complex.
The greatest movie about religion.
There are only 114 shots, each averaging over a minute, only three close-ups, and the film demands and rewards the closest attention.
A film with a hypnotic, irresistible stare.
Guaranteed to make you levitate from your cinema seat in awe.
At first glance it may seem slow, but stick with it and the psychological tensions enthral.
Tragedy strikes, and petty denominational squabbles disintegrate in Dreyer's sublime synthesis of humanistic and textual faith, a vision of purity and clarity.
Ordet's faithfulness is both old fashioned and invigorating
Reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman's spare style when exploring similar themes (eg The Seventh Seal), Dryer's work is disciplined and focused, rather like a Jesuit, really.
This is an overwhelming emotional and intellectual experience, thanks both to its subject matter and its austere yet potent presentation.
Dreyer is digging deeper than these slogans ["institutional religion" versus "personalized faith"], to the regions of mystery where Johannes's mind was lost.
A moving work of great intelligence, compassion and sensitivity.
A rare work about spiritual life and the conflicts of earthly bodies and heavenly desires that doesn't denigrate or simplify religion despite the flawed nature of the characters and of the institution of religion itself.
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Movie: ID: 238431506 Title: Ordet (The Word) Release Date: 1954-01-01 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 6 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- The Word (Ordet) (DE)
- The Word (Ordet) (UK)
