Review of Gertrud (1964) by Wut S — 24 Dec 2007

I KNOW! Three? THREE?! Yeah, three. I gave the last one five-out-of-five and this one I'm giving three. I would have gone lower, but there are some really good shots and the concept itself is pretty solid.

I hate this review: "This movie is boring." What does that mean? It means that it is not constantly grabbing your attention because your involvement as a viewer is minimal. I'm sorry, but I watched this movie twice because I was bored sh*tless. I kept daydreaming during this movie and then realized that I had missed entire sections of dialogue. Now, I was crazy involved. I've watched all of Humain, Trop Humain and all that is consists of footage of sheet metal being shaped. This movie was crazy dull. Now, I'm going to call Pat out on this movie. This movie is more like a theatre piece than an actual film. The camera rarely moves and the cuts are extremely few and far between. But here's the beef. Theatre requires blocking. This is almost the equivalent of hearing a staged reading. Now, if this was a staged reading, I'd be far more lenient on this movie. But it is not. The camera sits, representing the proscenium and the actors sit and talk. Talk and talk and talk and talk. Personally, I have always considered action significantly stronger than words. Rather, all I hear is about a woman who isn't happy in her relationship time and time again.

I hate to pull this card because Dreyer is significantly smarter than I am. But I saw Dreyer at his best and I honestly believe that this is weaker film. Sure, there's the very likely chance that "I just don't get it", but this movie encompasses the stigma of the Criterion Collection. It feels pretentious as crap and is dull for dullness's sake. I wanted to like it, I just can't say that it's good.