The Bride of Glomdal (1926)
Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer

Film Review

Immediately before setting off for France to direct what would be his most acclaimed film, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928), Carl Theodor Dreyer managed to knock out this somewhat lighter work in a matter of a few weeks.  You'd hardly think that the same director could make two such completely different films.  The Bride of Glomdal (a.k.a. Glomdalsbruden) shows a return to the spontaneity, humour and light touch of Dreyer's early film The Parson's Widow (1920), and like that film it was shot entirely on location in picturesque rural Norway.

Not only did Dreyer have only a short time in which to shoot the film (owing to the fact that the actors were only available for their summer holidays), he also had next to no time to prepare for it.  Not having a script, scenes would be improvised from the pages of the book containing the stories on which the film was based -  Glomdalsbruden and Eline Vangen by the Norwegian author Jacob Breda Bull.  It was a chaotic production but somehow Dreyer managed to extract from it one his most charming and lively films.  The influence of Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller's pastoral melodramas can readily be seen, and the dramatic climax, in which the hero has to fight for his life whilst traversing a dangerous stretch of river, is an unashamed homage to Stiller's Johan (1921).

Film Synopsis

Tired of working for others, Tore finally decides to take over his father's rundown farm and restore it to its former glory.  As he does so, he falls in love with a young woman named Berit who lives on the opposite side of the river.  Unfortunately, Berit's father intends that she should marry a rich young man named Gjermund.  Unwilling to go along with her father's plans, Berit runs away from home and lives for a while with Tore, until she falls seriously ill.  When she recovers, a priest intervenes to persuade her father to allow her to marry the man she loves.  At the wedding, Gjermund intends taking his revenge against his rival...