Synopsis
The power of Satan is highlighted in four historical tales: the betrayal and subsequent arrest of Jesus, the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution and the execution of Marie Antoinette, and the Finnish War of Independence in 1918.
1920 ‘Blade af Satans Bog’ Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
The power of Satan is highlighted in four historical tales: the betrayal and subsequent arrest of Jesus, the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution and the execution of Marie Antoinette, and the Finnish War of Independence in 1918.
Leaves From Satan's Book, Blätter aus dem Buche Satans, Leaves Out Of The Book Of Satan
Cinematic Time Capsule
1920 Marathon - Film #6
…the words of doom rang in his ears:
“Continue thy evil doings!”
Have you ever tried to save the woman you love from the Guillotine only to have her turn around and say, “Let’s just be friends”? That’s just the kind of thing that could lead a soul into temptation.
Speaking of which… Welcome to the adventures of Satan, where according to some bizarre math clause, he’s been given the ability to alter the duration of his damnation. For every soul he tempts, one-hundred years are added to his sentence, however, for every soul who’s strong enough to resist his temptation, his sentence will be reduced by a thousand years.
Let the…
For somebody whose favourite class at uni was about Scandinavian silent movies and who briefly considered writing her thesis on that topic I haven't seen a lot of Scandinavian movies from the 20s. I've seen my fair share of earlier films but otherwise my knowledge is pretty much limited to Dreyer and Christensen and considering I choose to watch yet another Dreyer movie this isn't going to change soon. To be fair I might have chosen a different film if this week's theme had come up later but I'm currently having a lecture on Dreyer and I thought I might as well watch one of the movies we don't have time to watch in class.
When I saw the runtime…
2018 Film School Drop Out Weekly Challenge
Week 3 - Scandinavian Silent Film in the 1920s
Progress - 3/52
In four episodic tales of human suffering, Satan attempts to win God's favor. The tales depicted are the temptation of Jesus Christ, the Spanish inquisition, the French Revolution, and the Russo-Finnish war of 1918.
The biggest problem for me was that each of these stories took entirely too long to unfold. Averaging 30 minutes per story shouldn't have been too much of a problem really but each story didn't really say enough to warrant the length. Perhaps it was because I was familiar with each of the general time periods but it just was too familiar and I couldn't really get…
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…
Leaves From Satan's Book is a minor work from the Danish masterclass director Carl Theodor Dreyer. While knowing that in advance and not having large expectations, I still wanted to see this film for the interesting concept and story. It is a four part segmented story each taking place in a different major event in history all with Satan embodying a certain figure of that era and is from his perspective.
But the result I got even with lowered expectations was pretty much what many of the reviews I had read warned about. Overall I would say the major issue with this film is it is a non-visual silent film which is doomed to fail. Silent cinema relies on visual…
C'est un peu comme regarder ton cinéaste à petit budget favori signer un contrat pour réaliser le prochain Marvel.
Techniquement irréprochable, au point que c'est pas particulièrement différent des films que Dreyer allait faire 30 ans plus tard, mais il oublie complètement, dans cet énorme blockbuster à la Intolerance, la nuance et la profondeur qui caractérise ses oeuvres pour faire dire «Satan, quel bad dude ce gars-là quand même».
Film School Drop Outs - Weekly Challenge 2018
Week 3: Movement - Scandinavian Silent Cinema in the 1920s: TAKE TWO
Dreyer takes us, the lucky audience, on an Intolerance-inspired tour of moments in history where Satan’s death grip was particularly strong: Jesus’ arrest, the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution, and the then-recent war for Finnish independence in 1918. Dreyer’s striking sense of composition as well as his use of negative space and light are the most compelling aspects of this film, to me - the stories themselves aren’t terribly unique or compelling.
The Jesus segment is fine, but DeMille has Dreyer beat. The Spanish Inquisition segment is my favorite, and it’s unfortunately on the shorter side; the French Revolution segment,…
Carl Theodor Mayer’s feature on the ease of temptation on Man is a finely crafted feature with its director filming with an elegance as he recreates famous images associated with his four stories that compromise its narrative in a thoughtful piece on the fragility of will.
The four stories/four historical era format doesn't leave much room for subtlety/craftsmanship, storytelling here is correspondingly blunt and basic.
Plotted in a way that suggests that whenever established churches do bad things, it's because Satan himself has personally intervened? How... convenient. I'd think that a career Christian like Dreyer would have thought twice before rewriting the Gospels to make them fit his imaginary thesis, though.
Episode 4 has some attractive Finland/1920 imagery, Episode 2 is a crude first-draft of Day Of Wrath...
Splendid, passionate, somewhat melodramatic story of the life of Satan being cast down by God to try to tempt Man's fate away from virtue.
Four chapters which range from Judas betraying Christ, the Spanish Inquisition, the execution of Marie Antoinette, and a modern day story in Finland with a Rasputin look alike.
A bit dated but still a clear example of Dreyer's thinking as an early director. Ideas about good and evil, about judgement, love and devotion; all themes which he would go much further with in the course of his career.
Perhaps the film will appeal to fans of the director more than anyone else. Yet the production quality remained in tact and it must have looked truly spectacular in 1920.
A clear labor of passion even if it survived with a few rough edges.
I propose a Letterboxd promotion in which the winner, chosen at random, who is me, is given a week all-expenses-paid trip to 1920 Copenhagen where I'll be given a nice hotel by the studio (such as it was) and will be allowed to join the crew of Carl Th. Dreyer's production shooting of LEAVES OUT OF THE BOOK OF SATAN. There it is, first item in my bucket list. I just want to watch Dreyer closely, perhaps find how he can construct even a less-than-stellar picture like this one, and yet come so close to transcendence in so many scenes and compositions. Come on Letterboxd cough it up.
C'est un peu comme regarder ton cinéaste à petit budget favori signer un contrat pour réaliser le prochain Marvel.
Techniquement irréprochable, au point que c'est pas particulièrement différent des films que Dreyer allait faire 30 ans plus tard, mais il oublie complètement, dans cet énorme blockbuster à la Intolerance, la nuance et la profondeur qui caractérise ses oeuvres pour faire dire «Satan, quel bad dude ce gars-là quand même».
Oh dear. While so far, I had nothing but praise for Carl Theodor Dreyer, this anthology film (only the second film he ever helmed) is a misstep, and a grave one at that. It's like he watched Intolerance and decided to one-up it, and while the film doesn't look bad, the stories he tells are tedious. Worse, especially for Dreyer: They completely lack any attempt at depth. He basically portrays fourth vignettes from religion and history as Satan's work, wich just doesn't allow for nuance.
And yeah, I usually review the segments of anthology films individually, but I just couldn't be bothered with this one, sorry.
Carl Theodor Mayer’s feature on the ease of temptation on Man is a finely crafted feature with its director filming with an elegance as he recreates famous images associated with his four stories that compromise its narrative in a thoughtful piece on the fragility of will.
There are many moments of breathtaking cinema in Leaves from Satan's Book. Jesus' humanity heralds a precedent for Pasolini's Gospel, while the preparations for Marie Antoinette's execution glow with fatalistic dread and an odd serenity. No one is born a master, and even geniuses like Dreyer have to perfect their art before they dazzle the world with faultless miracles. The Passion of Joan of Arc wouldn't exist without Leaves from Satan's Book. Because of that, I'll always be thankful for this century-old picture.
Read more: thefilmexperience.net/blog/2020/11/15/100th-anniversary-leaves-from-satans-book.html
Cinematic Time Capsule
1920 Marathon - Film #6
…the words of doom rang in his ears:
“Continue thy evil doings!”
Have you ever tried to save the woman you love from the Guillotine only to have her turn around and say, “Let’s just be friends”? That’s just the kind of thing that could lead a soul into temptation.
Speaking of which… Welcome to the adventures of Satan, where according to some bizarre math clause, he’s been given the ability to alter the duration of his damnation. For every soul he tempts, one-hundred years are added to his sentence, however, for every soul who’s strong enough to resist his temptation, his sentence will be reduced by a thousand years.
Let the…
Tiene cosas interesantes como los encuadres o la música, pero, en general, se me ha hecho extremadamente lenta y vacua. Las historias no me han gustado y no me engancharon en ningún momento.
My Points: 6.8
My Letter Grade: B+
My Stars: ★★★½
My Rating: Very Good -> This film has something special and that makes it unforgettable.
Average Rating: 6.629
Review
-> Carl Theodor Dreyer learned the craft of filmmaking at Nordisk, writing titles, adapting novels and plays, and editing most of the company’s features from 1915 to 1918.
-> His talent was recognized, and he was given a large budget to make „Blade af Satans bog“, the biggest production of the year 1920.
-> Dreyer was not satisfied with the available resources, however, and he left the company in anger after completing the film.
-> Yet, even though the script is unbalanced (the complicated French episode sags), this grandly conceived film…
Perhaps the the only time a film from Dreyer has felt so amateurish. Leaves from Satan's Book is honestly a confused mess. When a film that is supposed to show triumphs over evil makes the audience feel like God is the antagonist and Satan is doing nothing wrong it's a failure. If that was the goal, then it still would be a messy film, but with the very premise of the film, that is proven to not be true.
1920
Although a touch overlong, especially when viewed today, this is of some interest as both an early effort from Dreyer and as a work so transparently influenced by D.W. Griffith's Intolerance.
Why this doesn't work anywhere near as well as Griffith's film is attributable to the linear editing approach taken by Dreyer here, and perhaps from the unifying theme between segments being much more obtuse. Worth checking out for anyone curious enough to be aware of it, and technically accomplished for its time in just about every other sense, but the flat narrative construction hobbles any kind of viewer engagement almost from the jump.
Dreyer is a great director and this is another good looking film. Too bad it's so cold and much too long.
Death by intertitles, Satan’s Book is a really wordy one indeed. Thank heavens he would improve by the time he got to The Exorcist.
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