After talking about Bergman’s ‘The Silence’ last week, I am
talking about a film with a similar theme regarding spirituality this time –
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s ‘Day of Wrath’, which was made during the Second World
War.
The story took place in the 17th century, at a
time when witches existed and witch hunting was an important act for
normalizing the beliefs of people. The story was divided into 2 parts, and they
paralleled each other as similarities could be observed. The protagonist was a
young woman called Anne, who married Absalom due to obligation. Absalom was a
pastor who served as a judge for the prosecution of witches. An old woman,
Marthe, was insinuated as a witch, and she was hiding from the church
officials. What connected the two women was that Absalom was actually one of
the judges responsible for Marthe’s condemnation. Before Marthe was captured
and eventually burnt at stake, she chanced upon Anne and told her a startling
truth - Anne’s long dead mother was actually a witch. This revelation fascinated
Anne, and yet jeopardized her because she would be seen as a descendent of a
witch, and would likely face condemnation when the appropriate reason came to
her. On the other hand, Anne could not find happiness with her marriage to
Absalom, and she found out that she loved Martin, Absalom’s son instead. When
Anne was increasingly consumed by paranoia and suspicions, what would
eventually come out of these characters?
Day of Wrath was a film very representative of Dreyer’s
style because it illustrated a tug-of-war between his two predominant styles –
the spiritual and the psychological. Dreyer has always expressed the
transcendental aspect of the human condition in his films, most notably in
‘Ordet’ and ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’. Yet, he was just as inspired by
Expressionism, and the resulting psychological edginess could be in particular detected
from ‘Vampyr’ and this film.
For the first half of the story, when Marthe was condemned
as a witch, the plot paralleled ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’. It has been
pointed out that Dreyer did not make any moral judgment on Marthe, unlike the
characters in the film whom definitely saw witchcraft as something evil. I
think this amoral stance is important for the film because Dreyer was
questioning either there was a clear boundary between the spiritual /
psychological or the morality debates.
The tones between the two parts were different. In the first
half, the viewer could easily conclude that witches did exist. Yet, the second
part’s concern was naturalistic. Anne’s paranoia had no supernatural elements, and
the origins were totally psychological – jealousy, insecurity, and mental pressure.
In a sense Anne had to hide from her true feelings – because the person who she
really cared and loved was Absalom’s son , Martin, hence those intimate
excursions in the green fields. Of course, the time of intimacy was tragically
brief. The pressure also arose from her duty of marrying Absalom and the
appreciation that she might be connected to witchcraft, given that she was
living in such a non-secular era – meaning that there would not be a runaway
explanation for involvement in witchcraft and the activities would not be
tolerated.
Whether Anne could be considered as a genuine witch was
meant to be ambiguous. Marthe did inform Anne that her own mother was a witch,
and that seemed to be the only connection between Anne and witchcraft. What was ironic was that Anne’s nasty wish for Absalom’s
demise did eventually materialize, and that might suggest she did possess the
gift of some black magic. Critics did point out that the apparent miracle
(albeit a nasty one) was more an expression of Anne’s delusion, and that made
sense because the philosophy behind Expressionism was often to externalize the
psychotic feelings in one’s mind into the mise-en-scene, hence the edgy
composition and setting. Indeed, Dreyer made Anne appear witch-like by using
very high contrast lighting, and staged her as catatonic in certain scenes. When
she creepily looked out of a window to witness Marthe’s death, it sounded as if
a foreshadowing was taking place - soon it would be her turn to be condemned as
a witch.
The final condemnation of Anne could also be interpreted in
a social context, though Dreyer had no intention of making a political
statement or making allegories on Nazism and the Second World War The story
took place at an age which was ruled by totalitarian power, and the need for scapegoating
was an aspect that defined such a political system, which relied on a black-and-white
logic to govern the people. When Absalom died, someone had to be held
responsible for that. Therefore a witch hunt has taken place, and irrational
judgments have been passed onto Anne to deem her guilty. The scenario has bore
similarities to the totalitarian powers and racial hatred around the time of
Second World War. While the story was medieval, it was ironic that a modern
blend of witch hunting appeared only a decade after ‘Day of Wrath’ was first
shown – the House Un-American Activities Committee and McCarthyism in the
1950s. Critics since then appreciated the relevance of the film to the modern
world – when paranoia and prejudice joined forces, only the innocent ones would
be victimized.
Film Analysis
