Centennial Screening!
“A jewel of the silent cinema” -- Criterion
Long before Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, or the Michael Keaton-starring Mr. Mom, Danish vanguard Carl Th. Dreyer made the original domestic satire with his Master of the House. An “authentic silent masterpiece” (Mark Le Fanu, Criterion), Master of the House is a stunning portrayal of a housewife fed up with her husband’s cruelty and neglect. With comedic notes, it is lighter than most Dreyer material, yet nevertheless Master of the House was ahead of its time in its proto-feminist portrayal of women taken for granted.
Mother of three, Ida Frandsen (Astrid Holm) turns the tables after her husband Viktor (Johannes Meyer) takes out his business’s failing on the family, bringing bitterness and animosity into the domicile. With the aid of her husband’s former nanny (Mathilde Nielsen), Ida vows to make her errant husband realize who is the true “Master” of the house.
Meticulously crafted, Master of the House was a box office sensation in Denmark, making a name for Dreyer and paving the way for his magistral The Passion of Joan of Arc. While it may not be as lauded of Joan, it is no less a remarkable work of empathy and modernism, and a must-see of the silent era.
Silent Revue is curated by Alicia Fletcher
Live accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner
Digital presentation courtesy of Janus Films.