Præsidenten (1919)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Writers:

Carl Theodor Dreyer (writer)
Karl Emil Franzos (novel)

Release Date:

1 February 1919 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The judge in a Danish town sees his illegitimate daughter facing a trial for the murder of her newborn child...

Plot Keywords:

Judge | Infanticide | Mother Kills Own Child | Based On Novel

Cast

Richard Christensen	...	Berger, defense layer
Christian Engelstoft	...	Journalist
Hallander Helleman	...	Franz
Halvard Hoff	...	Victor von Sendlingen
Jon Iversen	...	Weiden, Victorine's fiancé
Jacoba Jessen	...	Maika
Betty Kirkebye	...	Hermine Lippert
Axel Madsen	...	Werner
Carl Walther Meyer		(as Carl Meyer)
Peter Nielsen	...	Offentlig anklager
Fanny Petersen	...	Birgitta
Elith Pio	...	Franz Victors Vater
Olga Raphael-Linden	...	Victorine Lippert

Also Known As:

The President

Runtime:

75 min | 89 min (17 fps)

Country:

Denmark

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Nordisk Film

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Carl Th. Dreyer: Min metier (1995)

Great Early Dreyer Film

"Praesidenten" is the first film of the great Danish film director Carl Theodor Dreyer and, for this German count, this debut is a perfect example of Dreyer's film style. It's one, with degrees of variation, he would maintain in his silent films as well as in his talkie career.

"Praesidenten" is a film perfectly constructed (the film is divided into three different but interrelated parts). Flashbacks are used to depict the terrible story of Danish noblemen who dare to fall in love with common girls; such huge mistakes will have serious consequences for the main characters… as Herr Von Sendlingen says to his son at the beginning of the film, "never marry a commoner, for no good ever comes of it, naught but curses and remorse…"… ah, wise words, indeed!.

"Praesidenten", besides having a solid and narrative film structure very well rendered, has an elegantly slow pace, this is very characteristic in Herr Dreyer's films, film cadences and pauses endow the story with intensity and emotive nature, showing the vicissitudes of three generations of a family broken due to impossible or imprudent relationships. When at the end of the film the main character has the opportunity to atone his sins and make amends with the past, he finally carries the burden of stricter convictions and codes of honor.

"Praesidenten" is a solid debut, one with graceful and delicate pacing… a perfect example of the Herr Dreyer oeuvre.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count, as President of the "Associated Aristocrats Foundation" must attend another decadent meeting.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien