The history of Danish country church architecture is told by showing scenes of how the church was...
The history of Danish country church architecture is told by showing scenes of how the church was used by the congregation, beginning with the celebration of mass in a small and simple wooden church 800 years ago, and ending with the congregation singing in a village church of to-day. The development and the growth of the pattern of church architecture is shown.
Dreyer in this film shows a series of churches from different periods with churchgoers in period clothing. Each period is separated by a shot of a church bell double-exposed on the sky. Although the film has a vibrant and instructive way of communicating the different epochs and styles to students, it does not exhibit the artistic quality that usually distinguishes a Dreyer film, except perhaps in some of the costumes, which were originally made for Day of Wrath.
The board of Dansk Kulturfilm in autumn 1945 decided that their planned church film would exclusively be about village churches. Dreyer would rework the script that was written by editor and folk high-school principal Bernhard Jensen, aided by a committee of experts consisting of architect H. Lønborg-Jensen and Victor Hermansen, curator at the National Museum of Denmark. Dreyer had a first draft ready in mid-March, entitled Kirken er et gammelt Hus ("The Church Is an Old House"), which was distributed to the members of the committee for their comments.
In the last half of July, Dreyer and Victor Hermansen travelled the country to look at suitable churches. They researched the details and at Dreyer’s request a number of technical changes were made to the churches, including the removal of porcelain holders for electrical wiring in Tveje Merløse Church.
On 4 July, Dreyer went in advance to Ringkøbing. Shooting was set to start a few days later with the arrival of the director of photography, Preben Frank, who had fallen off a ladder and broken his leg, Fortunately, he was ready to cautiously start working again within a few days, with his leg in a cast.
Otherwise, the production went without a glitch. Everywhere, Dreyer said, they were well received at the vicarages and they had no problem getting enough extras. On 1 august, they returned to Copenhagen with almost all their footage in the can. They only needed to film the church in Skelby, where the weather had been against them, plus a Swedish wooden church in Hedared. The economy was distressed so soon after the war, especially when it came to foreign currency, but there were no real wooden churches left in Denmark and building an interior set in the studio would be too expensive.
The finished film was shown for the first time on 24 September 1947 to a small, closed circle, which included the Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs. In December 1947, as was Dansk Kulturfilm’s standard practice, the film was presented to the press, politicians and others on a programme with four other short films.
葆拉·贝尔,扬尼斯·尼韦纳,卡蒂娅·里曼,达米安·哈顿,卢卡斯·米科,Patrick Simons,Rony Herman,约书亚·塞伦丁德,Robin Sondermann,尼古拉·威尔,Peter Miklusz,Anke Fuenfstueck,Gabriele Schulze,罗兰·西尔伯纳格尔,Ulrich Schmissat,Nils Burkhardt,娜塔莉亚·罗曼诺娃,Benjamin Morik,丹尼尔·霍尔兹伯格,Artur Sorokin
金珉禧,权海骁,赵允熙
刘德华,王祖贤,吴孟达,叶德娴
村濑步,石川界人,日野聪,入野自由,细谷佳正,林勇,内山昂辉,齐藤壮马,冈本信彦,神谷浩史,名冢佳织,江川央生,诸星堇,梶裕贵,中村悠一,立花慎之介,石井马克,横田成吾,星野贵纪,池田恭祐,长南翔太,中博史,福田信昭,木村昴,土屋神叶,渡边拓海,木村良平,逢坂良太,山本兼平
安东尼·巴容,拉斐尔·奎纳德,加拉泰亚·贝露琪,多米尼克·雷蒙,伯纳德·布兰卡恩,Nathan Le Graciet,梅兰妮·马丁内兹,迈克·雷勒斯,马蒂厄·阿米利安,埃维莉娜·皮蒂,卡德尔·布阿拉加,玛莉索尔·佛塔德,蒂伯特·巴雅德,玛雅·丹内伊,汤米·李·巴克,费萨尔·德杰杜伊,安东尼·罗德里格兹,维克托·格里特萨斯,乔安·亚当,格里高利·科斯特卡德
梅兰妮·斯科洛凡诺,蒂姆·罗尊,多米尼克·普罗沃斯特-切克利,凯瑟琳·巴雷尔