Koala’s review published on Letterboxd:
4 Pages of the Book. (1-2-3)-4
Temptations, not assaults from the Satan; the Evil is just there, doing its duty as it is supposed to do, the conscience lies on the individuals, on whether they are going to make a certain decision or the other. We, as selves, are emotional, thinking that external events (politics, religion, wars) are emotional as well. Satan is emotionless, only hinting at regret when he succeeds in his temptations. Until the final decision is made, he is going to push the envelope until the end.
As the saying "Do the right thing" is simple and hypocritical, Dreyer's Leaves, a collection of allegories across history, the everlasting cycle, is perfectly lucid, yet painful in drawing out a sequence after sequence which proves that humans ultimately cannot oppress their emotions, but have choice to tame it or not. Every supposed "philosophy" and "morals" can be drawn out from this film as this, since Dreyer himself is meticulous, yet almost "absent" in his technique. There is no fancy decoration to dress up his people or to color their backgrounds, but only pale, white decors which brings the Divine down to earth while the only ones who are struggling in their stages are not furnitures, but faces and bodies. Even though the structure is similar to D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, due to the mise-en-scene, it has a completely different approach and attitude towards those behind us, ahead of us-Leaves is not nostalgia nor prophecy, but a trance which focuses one's attention right to the present, to this very minute.