The story of an older artist’s unrequited love for a young bisexual student is close to Herman Bang’s own life story. Though Dreyer would have preferred to adapt Bang’s novel Tine, he enthusiastically realised Mikaël’s tragic love story. Bang’s novel pits the beauty of...

From the article Herman Bang: Mikaël

Carl Th. Dreyer has been called everything from misunderstood genius, to reserved bourgeois director, to “The Tyrannical Dane” as Paul Moor put it in his 1951 article in which, consequently, he also mentioned Dreyer’s sadistic inclinations. Maria Falconetti’s breakdown after filming...

From the essay Perilous Performance