1995
Directed by Torben Jensen
As is the Criterion Collection's wont, this film is sold exclusively in the Dreyer box set that contains the films Ordet, Day of Wrath and Gertrud. Because it's Criterion, you can be guaranteed that regardless of what the DVD contains, the physical DVD itself looks great and contains far more information than provided by Imdb.com or Wikipedia. Unfortunately, Metier is a disappointing addition to the collection: it may be better than Armageddon, but that's due to will alone. Dreyer is an elusive filmmaker, and there isn't a lot of information readily available outside of film-school circles about the man himself. Anecdotal stories of his perfectionism and despotism pop up in other director's interviews, so going into Metier one expects to see more of the same. Depressingly enough, this is not the case. The documentary is composed like a bad History channel review--the expected focus on the four major films in Dreyer's canon with respective outtakes and talking head interviews with many of the major players. Either due to Jensen's fear of insulting Dreyer's memory or just due to a complete lack of interviewing skills, Metier is a poor attempt to canonize the man without ever really examining who the man was, or even explaining what the impact his films had beyond a personal level with the individuals involved. By the time the film ends, with nothing more than a vague mention of how Dreyer spent the multiple decades in between the creation of his great works, the viewer has no more knowledge of his legacy than a chronological knowledge of when the films were made. Hopefully, some of Dreyer's fans will eventually remedy this miserable examination of his work. If any director deserves it, Dreyer does.
Comments