Master of the House

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peter w Can people really change? Happily, there is a dramatic change in the abusive patriarch of the family in Dryer's Master of the House. No one is spared his anger and frustration following the collapse of his business. It drives his over-worked and under-appreciated wife to a nervous breakdown. As the master's former nurse, Mads, takes over we see a transformation as she confidently speaks truth to power. The happy ending is a bit contrived but it sill makes for a fine study of domestic life. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review andrey k A boring and sad picture, I can't believe this was made by the same director who in several years would make 'Vampyr'. Such phrases like 'all *insert any group here* are alike' or 'all *insert any group here* are foolish' deserve condemnation alone. How such a director could make such a simple-minded, edging with stupidity, film, I don't know. It's not comedy at all, it's a story about hateful, evil, disgusting people. The first one being a vainglorious, for whatever reason, man named Viktor, who abuses his wife and children; we are told that it's how it's like in a typical household, which is outright lie in itself - the truth is he takes the extreme and exploits it for some agenda, making it as an 'example'; the same way he could have taken an abusive wife and shown a 'typical' woman of the household, which would have been absurd just the same. Then we are presented with the other tyrant, who is probably more evil and hideous, an old woman named Mads, who is as resentful and hateful, but does it in more secretive and repulsive manner; under the countenance of a concerned person there hides a monster, bragging about how she used to spank him in the childhood; probably if she did less spanking and shared more love, Viktor wouldn't have been such an awful person, it's all about nurture too, isn't it? All in all, we have a movie which doesn't raise questions, or in the end we don't feel changed or our worldview shattered, it teaches us to answer to hate with hate, I wonder what happened to Christian values of compassion? I give this film two stars only for technical reasons, but even technically the film is much weaker than its contemporary pictures of Germany or Sweden, for example. As for the content, this film is awful. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Master of the House (AKA Du skal ære din hustru, or Thou Shalt Honour Thy Wife in English) tells the story of a Danish family with a tyrannical father figure whose persona causes much discontent in an unhappy home. Soon his thoughtlessness and carelessness are used against him as he is made to endure what the women and children in his life have endured at the cruel command of himself, which is the only way that he can get his wife back and that the family can become whole once again. Carl Theodor Dreyer directed the film in 1925 before his success with his films The Passion of Joan of Arc and Vampyr (both of which audiences are more familiar with). This film was a major success when it was released in Denmark, but not so much in the United States. The strange thing about its release abroad is that when it was distributed outside of Denmark, the intertitles were changed and didn't make use of translations from Danish. Not only that, but all of the characters' names were changed to be more accepted by English-speaking audiences. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a masterpiece from beginning to end. Despite being a marvelous film that should hold one's interest all the way through quite powerfully, I found the subject matter oversimplified and a bit out of date. One also can't deny that it basically drags at times, hitting the nail over the head of an idea or a story mechanic that really should have moved on from two or three minutes sooner. Regardless of all of that, it's still a beautiful film, told by an innovative storyteller. It may not throw you any curve balls or leave you with any sense of awe, but it's damn fine cinema. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Amusing Dreyer - who'd 'a' thought Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member battle of the sexes in this silent Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member A despotic husband is given his comeuppance by an elderly nanny who shows him (through her negative example) how much his wife actually does for him. This early Dreyer film is lighter in tone (and a comedy of sorts) but still formally exacting and careful with its rich detail. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Master of the House

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