Watch Gertrud For Free

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Good idea lost in the noise

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Carl Theodor Dreyer was a very odd sort of filmmaker. Although he had a very long career, the time between films was often very long-- sometimes a decade or so as is the case with "Gertrud". He apparently liked to do things his way or not at all. Regardless, "Gertrud" is his final film--completed just a few years before his death. Because of this, you would hope it would be an excellent film, as he did make quite a few classics. Sadly, though, the movie is just dreadful--- the sort of pretentious and boring drivel some artsy folks might like but also the sort of film that most people would truly hate.The story is very simple. Although you might think Gertrud would be happy since she has a husband that loves her and money, she is filled with ennui. She instead wants a young lover and to cast aside conventions and run off with him. Erland, on the other hand, just wants another notch on his bedpost. Soon after sleeping with Erland, she meets an old lover, Gabriel. Unlike Erland, he wants her. However, instead, she leaves her husband and Gabriel and lives alone.If this sort of story sounds interesting, believe me, it is NOT. There are so many problems that conspire to make this a bore-fest. First, the performances are underplayed to say the least. The characters really DON'T talk and interact--especially Gertrud. Instead, they talk out into space and these scenes are often filled with folks also staring blankly. Second, nothing interesting happens in the film nor does it really make a lot of sense. Third, you really don't care about anyone. Fourth, it's full of nonsense lines such as 'Love is unhappiness...love is suffering'....wow, where do I even begin to start with claptrap dialog like this?! Overall, it's an artsy-fartsy mess of a film--one that left me wondering why Dreyer would make this as his ultimate creation.

Married woman has affair with younger man, falls in love, wants to leave husband. Younger man doesn't love married woman, married woman decides to leave husband anyway and live the rest of her life alone. Then there's her former partner who wants her to come back to him, but she doesn't love him anymore.That's all there is to the story. The movie consists of 10 or so scenes in which above-mentioned persons talk to each other. Without looking at each other. Displays of emotions are kept to a minimum. Conversations are carried out in a detached and deadpan manner and are rife with philosophical platitudes about love and male-female misunderstandings.Watching this film feels like sitting in the theatre watching a high brow, boring and pretentious stage play. More than ever, this movie made me yearn for mindless, over-the-top action flics.

GertrudDirector: Carl Theodor DreyerI remember having read about Carl Theodor Dreyer somewhere in the same league as Robert Bresson and Yasujiro Ozu and having a transcendental style of cinema. Then I saw Gertrud and it was truly a cinematic experience like no other. The story and the plot are really not important at all. What is truly remarkable is the way in which the film absorbs you, almost literally. The nature of absorption is very different as it doesn't put you to sleep but rather engages you in a much subtle way. The film is held very tightly throughout, with the characters expressing precisely the truth about how they feel and nothing else. There is stark honesty in the dialogues, which may seem somewhat unnatural to some, as we are not such honesty in everyday conversations. As Gertrud's husband says to her, "No woman should be so honest". To some it may seem too stage like, and to some it may seem boring. Some may even think that the actors look more like zombies than real human beings. The film has little physical action, but it's much action packed on another level. There is not a single ambiguous line, no vagueness at any level, really no room for imagination or thought to interpret it in any other way, while you are watching it. It's almost as if the film works on another dimension, like a dream. No other director seems to be so completely convinced of his vision; no other with such mastery and singular use of the medium of cinema.

If you really enjoy long drawn out films with a husband and wife and a constant blank stare by Gertrud, this would be the film for you. Gertrud is a rather attractive young woman who was a famous Opera Singer and a lady of refinement and culture. However, she is seeking love and is simply unable to seem to find it, when she does, it just does not seem to work out. Some of her former lovers still remain in love with her, but Gertrud still remains unfulfilled. There is a point in Gertrud's life where she is married and is still looking for that certain spark she just can't seem to find from certain men. After viewing this film, I wondered if Gertrud still had a blank expression even during love making.