
Scandinavian RealismFilm 3 of 19
Prästänkan
Dreyer, Svensk Filmindustri, 1920, shot in Sweden from a Norwegian story. A young theology student (Einar Röd) wins a parish and learns the local rule: he must marry the dead pastor's widow (Hildur Carlberg) before he can keep the post or the girl he wants. Carlberg, in her seventies, plays the widow without asking for pity. Dreyer keeps the comedy inside farm rooms and a churchyard. SFI lists it among his Swedish pictures, made before the German and French work.
Dreyer, funny. A student wins the parish and has to marry the previous pastor's widow, and Hildur Carlberg, in her seventies, plays her without asking for anyone's pity. Farm rooms, a churchyard, real hay. The severity came later, and it was a choice.