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Now that I've had a few days to process the experience, I can talk a little bit more about Ordet. The title means "The Word" and it's about faith, or lack thereof, in the well-off Borgen family: the father who displays outward piety but is only going through the motions; the eldest son who has gone over to atheism; the youngest son who doesn't care about religion and wants to marry a girl of another faith; and the middle son who is insane and believes himself to be Jesus Christ.

After seeing the movie I did a bit of reading online, and apparently the religious conflict in the movie is based on the situation in Denmark in the late 19th/early 20th century. The Borgen family's faith, described derisively as "bright, happy Christianity," was mainstream Lutheranism. Which was in crisis at the time, with many people giving up religion altogether (like the oldest son in the movie) or converting to dour, evangelical sects, throwbacks to the Reformation, like the one the youngest son's girlfriend belongs to.

Like every Dreyer film I've seen, the photography is stunning. Almost every shot is so perfectly composed it could be hung in a museum. And also like every Dreyer film, Ordet isn't easy to watch. At first because it's slow moving and doesn't seem to be going anywhere, then because it's so emotionally intense. The slow pace builds the tension, and adds to the power of the final sequence. About which I am not going to say anything: I would be quite a spoilsport if I wanted to ruin those scenes for someone else. If you have any intention of seeing this movie, please don't read any reviews beforehand. Some of them do spoil the ending, which is a crying shame.

I'm also not going to say anything about the ending because honestly, my thoughts about it are too emotional and too personal to share. I'll just say this: as powerful of a statement as Day of Wrath makes about fear, oppression and evil, Ordet makes an equally powerful statement about faith and joy. I will be lucky if I ever experience another work of art as transcendent as Ordet.