Day of Wrath (1943) on Netflix
In 1623 Denmark, Anne is married to Absalon Pedersson, the aged pastor who tries accused witches. His strict mother Meret shares their house, and his son Martin returns from abroad.
- Netflix4.5/5
- IMDb8.0/1012,204 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Anne, a young woman in a Danish village in 1623, is married to Absalon Pedersson, the aged pastor who takes part in the trials of suspected witches. Meret, his strict and domineering mother, shares their house and disapproves of Anne, who is about the same age as the son of the pastor's first marriage. Herlof's Marte, an old woman of the village, is charged with witchcraft, and Anne gives her shelter, and the woman is found in the house. Marte knows that Anne's mother once faced the same charge and was spared after the pastor intervened, and she tells Anne of the power her mother was said to hold over the lives and deaths of others. Anne becomes intrigued. Martin, the pastor's son, comes home from abroad, and the two are at once drawn to each other.
Cast
- Sigrid Neiiendamas Merete (Absalon's mother)
- Anna Svierkieras Herlofs Marte
- Albert Høebergas The Bishop
- Kirsten Andreasenas (uncredited)
- Sigurd Bergas (uncredited)
- Harald Holstas (uncredited)
- Emanuel Jørgensenas (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Day of Wrath (1943)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- For the scene in which Anna Svierkier's character is burnt at the stake, Carl Theodor Dreyer had her tied to a wooden ladder and left there while the rest of the cast and crew went to lunch, over the objections of Preben Lerdorff Rye and Thorkild Roose; she was perspiring profusely when they returned, which is visible in the film.
- Dreyer's producers wanted Eyvind Johan-Svendsen cast in the role of Absalon, but Dreyer thought the actor was too much of "a Renaissance man" and preferred someone who could project the austerity he wanted.
- Dreyer always denied that Day of Wrath was an analogy for the persecution of Jews, but on the advice of friends he left Denmark shortly after its release, on the pretext of selling the film abroad, and spent the rest of the war in Sweden.
- Day of Wrath was Carl Theodor Dreyer's first film since Vampyr in 1932; he had spent the previous eleven years working as a journalist and failing to launch projects including an adaptation of Madame Bovary, a documentary on Africa and a film about Mary Stuart.
- Dreyer rejected the charge that Day of Wrath was too slow: he said neither his pacing nor his editing was slow, and that the characters' movements on screen were deliberately slow to build tension.
