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Eliot later elucidates the themes in "East Coker," Carl Theodor Dreyer sows the seeds over a scenic Norwegian summer. Back from the city and "fed up with working for strangers," the lad (Einar Sissener) tends to the dilapidated farm and notices that the childhood playmate (Tove Tellback) has grown into quite the sturdy maiden. The wealthy suitor (Einar Tveito) is chosen by her father (Stub Wiberg), she storms out of the wooden abode and into the vast meadow: "They're in there negotiating as if I were cattle!" The reluctant betrothed rides away, falls ill and is revived, the stubborn patriarch turns his back and the house falls apart. (The reconciliation is indicated by the cold fireplace lit once more, like the clock ticking anew in Ordet.) The high-angled distant view of the dancing youngsters (hand to hand in a communal circle before spinning into individual pairs) and the close-up of the roused heroine (eyes open to face the camera while her beau leans in for a kiss), all grist to Dreyer's beatific mill. "Rubble and ashes" into fertile soil, the pastoral elegy comes with a gag or two—the lass lays down outdoors and vanishes amid the tall grass, visible once she lifts her leg for a good scratch. A bit of Romeo and Juliet, virtually a little Western, full of charm. A sunny day for a wedding, the jealous intruder enters with axe in hand and unmoors the boats by the river. The groom tries to cross astride a horse and gets caught in the current, hanging on to a log for dear life in a painter's copy of Griffith (Way Down East). A heavenwards tilt outside the chapel gives the lesson, "love is an act of God and men should not interfere with it." With Harald Stormoen, Alfhild Stormoen, Rasmus Rasmussen, and Sophie Reimers. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |