DAY OF WRATH (1943) (****)
Director Carl Theodor Dreyer spent his career perfecting and rewriting his main themes in every film that he produced. He was a perfectionist and spent a great deal of time planning his films and saving the money needed to film them the way he wanted.
Set in the 17-Century, the film follows a Puritan reverend named Absalon Pedersson (Thorkild Roose, THE BLACK CHANCELLOR), who is involved in the persecution of witches. He has married a woman much younger than him named Anne (Lisbeth Movin, BABETTE'S FEAST). What we come to learn as the church puts the elderly Herlofs Marte (Anna Svierkier, only film performance) on trial for witchcraft is that Anne’s mother was also charged with witchcraft and Absalon married her to shelter her. Absalon’s mother Meret (Sigrid Neiiendam, LIFE ON THE HEGN FARM) hates Anne and is always skeptical of her every move. Then Absalon’s grown son Martin (Preben Lerdorff Rye, THE RED EARTH) comes home and quickly becomes smitten with his father’s young bride.