Number 8 Community Arts Centre

Ordet (12A)

Thursday 3rd May 2012
7.30pm

Restored by the BFI this Danish masterpiece examines the conflict between personal faith and organised religion.

Set in a conservative Danish town, widowed father of three Morten Borgen cuts against the grain with his constant heretical doubt.

Borgen's first son is entangled in an interfaith romance, the second is agnostic and the third believes that he is Jesus Christ. How could things be worse?

A wise, and at times witty, exploration of faith and a heartrending hymn to the power of earthly passion and love.

Danish with subtitles.

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955, 2hrs 5mins


Click here to watch a trailer for Ordet

What the critics say:

 

‘A gripping and eerie tragedy of the supernatural and an unmissable re-release.’

***** Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

 

‘This is a deeply spiritual, mysterious and wonderfully odd and bold work as Dreyer reaches to the heavens and beyond for answers… 

It’s what Terrence Malick’s ‘Tree of Life’ might have been if filmed by Ingmar Bergman.’

***** Time Out

Film of the Week (Critics’ Choice No. 1)

 

‘This austere masterpiece […] demands and rewards the closest attention.’

The Observer

 

‘Beautifully shot and strangely compelling.’

***** The Times (Saturday review)

 

‘Guaranteed to make you levitate from your cinema seat in awe.’

Little White Lies (Film of the Week)

 

‘One of the most moving explorations of faith in all cinema.’

Sight and Sound (feature)

 

‘It’s simply a masterpiece.’

***** Radio Times

 

‘It is one of the most extraordinary movies ever made, beautifully shot and consummately acted and directed.’

***** Evening Standard

 

‘Undisputed masterpiece of European cinema.’

Ed Lawrenson, Big Issue