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Day of Wrath

Play trailer Poster for Day of Wrath Released Apr 24, 1943 1h 37m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 26 Reviews 91% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
In a Danish village in the early 1600s, a young woman named Anne (Lisbeth Movin), whose mother was thought to be a witch, develops sympathy toward an old woman, Marte, who is accused of witchcraft. The intervention of Anne's older but kindly husband, Pastor Absalon (Thorkild Roose) saved her mother -- but now, urged on by his overbearing mother, he refuses to help Marte. When Absalon's son returns home and is attracted to Anne, it's a matter of time before her family destiny catches up with her.

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Day of Wrath

Day of Wrath

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Critics Consensus

Beautifully filmed and rich with period detail, Day of Wrath peers into the past to pose timelessly thought-provoking questions about intolerance and societal mores.

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Critics Reviews

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Richard Brody New Yorker Dreyer's impious, anarchic drama is a cry of rage at abusive authority, whether political, familial, religious, or moral; he celebrates erotic love as the natural order of things. Feb 22, 2016 Full Review Joshua Rothkopf Time Out Rated: 5/5 Nov 17, 2011 Full Review Andrew Sarris Observer However bleak, Day of Wrath is a masterpiece. See it. Oct 23, 2008 Full Review Jane Corby Brooklyn Daily Eagle Depressing though the theme of the film is. it has a weird fascination all its own. Aug 1, 2020 Full Review C.H. Newell Scriptophobic Explores the jaded days of witch hunts, while plumbing the depths as a direct parallel for Nazi power and the plight of Jewish people during the latter days of World War II. Rated: 4.5/5 May 5, 2019 Full Review Dan Jardine Cinemania Dreyer goes to the Christian heart of the matter in this film. Damned powerful. Rated: 87/100 Jul 13, 2012 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Leaburn O For me this is Dreyer's best and most compelling work. Without doubt his most accessible but without compromising on his interest in religious themes. A precursor to The Crucible in many ways and this particular witching is darker and more intensely intimate. I found it powerful and well worth a view. Had to buy this one on DVD as again streaming in the UK and catching on TV was a non starter. A great addition to my foreign language diary but cost a whack to buy a copy through the BFI. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/16/23 Full Review dave s In 1623 Denmark, a young woman lives with her aging husband, a local pastor, and her hateful mother-in-law. When her husband's son from a previous marriage arrives on the scene, the dynamics within the family unit change radically as the son and the young woman fall in love. And one can't forget the witch hunts being conducted, a brutal practice that hangs a dark cloud over the entire affair as the church uses its power to control the populace through fear and intimidation. Carl Dreyer's Day of Wrath is a remarkably bleak film in both theme and style. Shot in stark black and white, Dreyer fills the screen with beautifully orchestrated long takes, filled with effective tracking shots and creative pans. One of Dreyer's best efforts, it is a visual wonder and a sobering reminder of the dangers of the abuse of power. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review William L Random Woman: "I would like to be independent and self-determining. I find no joy in being a cold husk withering away in self-deprived and unwanted piety, devoid of all emotions." The Church: "Get the choir together, we've got a witch to burn." Slowly paced, oppressively atmospheric, and surprisingly brutal, Day of Wrath is an exploration of fear, desire, and persecution conducted in the name of virtuousness, all told in the visual style of Rembrandt. Characters cloaked carefully in dark shadow or illuminated by hainting candlelight, reeling as they contend with their own inner conflicts inspired by an authoritarian society. While claimed by Dreyer himself not to have been made explicitly in reference to Nazis despite the wartime circumstances of the film's production, Day of Wrath presents strong parallels that the National Socialist German Workers' Party certainly embodied as the then-most-recent successor to a substantial historical lineage enforcing a particular sense of morality and authority that is hypocritical and inconsistent in its justifications, really only serving as a means of gaining control over others. In the plot of this particular film, that role is served through the Church and its clergy, particularly as it relates to the suppression of independence and divergent thought among women. And yet, it's not as if the characters enforcing the 'rule of law' are wholly evil, and that is Dreyer's masterstroke - Thorkild Roose's Absalon gradually becomes self-reflecting and remorseful, but the distinctions between his role as a member of the clergy and his silently suffering wife Anne (Lisbeth Movin) are too great to rectify even when recognized, thus driving the two ideological sides of the film even further apart in a tragic and ironic twist. Still wholly relevant as a treatise on the psychology of totalitarianism and religious fervor. The slow pace might be (and has been) a limiting factor in its popular reception, but remains key for developing the simmering atmosphere of mistrust and hate boiling beneath the surface of a domestic existence. Dreyer bucks the trend by taking (not necessarily by choice) a decade absence between films and creating a classic regardless. (4/5) Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/18/22 Full Review s r Intense drama exposing how morals can be easily corrupted in religious Denmark. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review andrey k Carl Theodor Dreyer is an enigmatic director. Under the seeming simplicity of his films you feel there's a powerful message contained in them, yet it's mysterious (at least for me), which you contemplate about long after you've seen a Dreyer movie. This film is no exception. It's beautifully shot and directed, and acted. The confrontation of ecclesiastical and secular is the main theme of practically all of his movies. But I don't agree that there's a parallel between witch hunt and Holocaust in this movie. Not all that is portrayed in the movies is about Jews. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Day of Wrath is an elegant film the family, officials, and saints who misuse power in the face of sin and disorder. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis In a Danish village in the early 1600s, a young woman named Anne (Lisbeth Movin), whose mother was thought to be a witch, develops sympathy toward an old woman, Marte, who is accused of witchcraft. The intervention of Anne's older but kindly husband, Pastor Absalon (Thorkild Roose) saved her mother -- but now, urged on by his overbearing mother, he refuses to help Marte. When Absalon's son returns home and is attracted to Anne, it's a matter of time before her family destiny catches up with her.
Director
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Producer
Carl Theodor Dreyer, Tage Nielsen
Screenwriter
Carl Theodor Dreyer, Poul Knudsen, Paul La Cour, Mogens Skot-Hansen, Hans Wiers-Jenssens
Distributor
Hen's Tooth Video Inc. [us], Imperial Entertainment, Sinister Cinema, Criterion Film Corp.
Production Co
Palladium Productions
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Danish
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 24, 1943, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Feb 4, 2017
Runtime
1h 37m
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