Thorkell August Ottarsson’s review published on Letterboxd:
Carl Theodor Dreyer - Leaves Out of the Book of Satan (1920)
This film is in many ways quite similar to Griffith’s Intolerance (1916). The script to Leaves Out of the Book of Satan is however from 1913 so it can't have been influenced by Intolerance. Most likely, both films were inspired by Satanas (dir. Luigi Maggi), an Italian film from 1912. Still, Dreyer did probably know about and see Griffith's film so it must have been there somewhere in his head when he was making this.
The film is in four chapters, four stories about how Satan temps people, the first in the last days of Jesus, the 2nd in the Spanish inquisition, the 3rd in the French Revolution and the 4th in the Finnish civil war in 1918. Satan is however not driven by evil but does all of these things at the bidding of God. Tempting good people to do evil is God's punishment on Satan. Once in a while Satan wants to give up but God will then remind him of his duties and send him on his way to tempt more people. This is quite strange theology and one wonders, who is the sadist here, God or The Devil? What the author of the script and Dreyer are probably doing here is putting the emphasis on the fact that the Devil never makes anyone do anything. We are all tested all the time (by the devil) but this test is to see how pure our love for God is. It is our hands that do evil deeds. The message of the film is therefore; stand strong when tested, it's part of life and the creation.
The Jesus part is awful. If Dreyer's Jesus film was going to be anything like that then it is just as good he did not make it. In Dreyer's defence, he personally dismissed this flim as "a dreadful collection of oil prints." He is correct there. The film is quite inter-title heavy and it does not really work because the filmed scenes are not the story but rather a decoration to the story (which is told in the inter-titles). The best scenes in the film are those where Dreyer's tells the story visually and skips the inter-titles.
This just might be Deyers worst film. Not a bad film but not good either.
Well, I have here with seen every single film Dreyer directed!