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».

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.

Intolerance in a nutshell

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 Dreyer films ranked

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

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.

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.

not the devil but the men all the time

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.