706 Master of the House

[swo17]

Master of the House



Before he got up close and personal with Joan of Arc, the Danish cinema genius Carl Theodor Dreyer fashioned this finely detailed, ahead-of-its-time examination of domestic life. In this heartfelt story of a housewife who, with the help of a wily nanny, turns the tables on her tyrannical husband, Dreyer finds lightness and humor; it’s a deft comedy of revenge that was an enormous box-office success and is considered an early example of feminism on-screen. Constructed with the director’s customary meticulousness and stirring sense of justice, Master of the House is a jewel of silent cinema.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 2K digital restoration, with a recent score by Gillian Anderson, presented in uncompressed stereo on the Blu-ray
• New interview with Dreyer historian Casper Tybjerg
• New visual essay on Dreyer’s camera work and editing by film historian David Bordwell
• New English intertitle translation
• One Blu-ray and one DVD, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Mark Le Fanu

[domino harvey]

Before he got up close and personal with Joan of Arc

GET OFF THE STAGE

[Red Screamer]

Really glad to see another Bordwell visual essay

[HerrSchreck]

Wow-- I totally didn't see this one coming. And if this was one folks knew was on deck then I have really been out of the loop (which is quite possible).

[domino harvey]

Wow-- I totally didn't see this one coming. And if this was one folks knew was on deck then I have really been out of the loop (which is quite possible).

Kristin Thompson spilled the beans a couple weeks ago

[Tommaso]

In any case, a main reason to rejoice as this film was the only Dreyer whose current R2 releases are all a little sub-standard, and not just because of the replaced intertitles. It's not among the most important Dreyers, but certainly a most welcome release which I hope bodes well for a Dreyer Eclipse set which would do away with those almost unreadably small, new bilingual intertitles on some of the DFI releases.

[mfunk9786]

Wow-- I totally didn't see this one coming. And if this was one folks knew was on deck then I have really been out of the loop (which is quite possible).

Kenan Thompson spilled the beans a couple weeks ago

[HerrSchreck]

Yeah, I didn't mention that I have that old BFI disc, which is definitely subpar--but there's a reason for this in that the film certainly is not up there with the highly labored pictorialism of his early silents like President and Blad af Satan's bog (nobody, and I mean nobody, could cast a vintage tale like Dreyer), or the dynamism and innovation of Joan and Vampyr.

But the film has never had an R1 release, and it shows Dreyer in the chamber drama mode about family and emotional stoicism which worked so well for him from Day of Wrath forward. I'm glad it's being released.

And Funklet-- naw dude, he spilled the beef.

Faux beef at that.

[Drucker]

Incredibly excited for this, and with it I will own every (main) film he released (not including Two People). I've been on a long Dreyer kick for the last few months, read his book of essays and will be reading a few other books on him shortly. So again, very excited and very, very welcome release.

[Moe Dickstein]

From the plot description this sounds like a fun time, and I love silents. Looking forward to it

[Tommaso]

Incredibly excited for this, and with it I will own every (main) film he released (not including Two People).

Yeah, "Two People". Probably the only person who didn't like it was Dreyer himself, but unbelievably it has nevertheless been released in a quite good Spanish edition for which someone made subtitles in the backchannels. Now this would certainly be worthy of an official release (Eclipse or otherwise). And they could easily include the resto - which even has seen a blu release from the DFI - of "Die Gezeichneten", too, as long as they do it with the reconstructed (from the censorship cards, I think) original German titles as shown in an arte transmission some time ago. All right, I want some up-to-scratch "Rare Dreyer" box in any form

[flyonthewall2983]

• New 2K digital restoration, with a recent score by Gillian Anderson, presented in uncompressed stereo on the Blu-ray

Scully?

[Gregory]

Nope, Gillian B. Anderson. Her work has been previously heard on Criterion's Häxan and Pandora's Box DVDs.

[What A Disgrace]

I love The X-Files!

(This is one of my favorite Dreyers, and the April title I am most excited for).

[Drucker]

Incredibly excited for this, and with it I will own every (main) film he released (not including Two People).

Yeah, "Two People". Probably the only person who didn't like it was Dreyer himself, but unbelievably it has nevertheless been released in a quite good Spanish edition for which someone made subtitles in the backchannels. Now this would certainly be worthy of an official release (Eclipse or otherwise). And they could easily include the resto - which even has seen a blu release from the DFI - of "Die Gezeichneten", too, as long as they do it with the reconstructed (from the censorship cards, I think) original German titles as shown in an arte transmission some time ago. All right, I want some up-to-scratch "Rare Dreyer" box in any form

Yeah, I was going to make the point that I'm very happy this made it to mainline, and not some "early Dreyer" Eclipse. I'm fairly certain all the DFI releases are region-free...so it would be a bit redundant.

[ola t]

Yeah, "Two People". Probably the only person who didn't like it was Dreyer himself, but unbelievably it has nevertheless been released in a quite good Spanish edition

Oh wow, I had no idea about the Spanish release. Thanks for that info! Two People was only shown in Stockholm for five days, even less or not at all in other cities, and did not get sold to any other countries. So it would perhaps be more accurate to say that nobody saw it than that nobody liked it. But the reviews in the Stockholm papers were in fact generally negative. The film was one of the biggest money losers ever for Svensk Filmindustri, despite not costing much to make.

[Yaanu]

This release will be getting a DVD-only edition, as well as RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11, A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, and IL SORPASSO.

[chatterjees]

In addition to the dual-format ones, right? Your post scared the hell out of me for a moment

[Yaanu]

In addition to the dual-format ones, right? Your post scared the hell out of me for a moment

Oh, yeah. Sorry about that.
They'll be Dual Format and DVD-only, like THE GREAT BEAUTY.

[EddieLarkin]

Beaver

English intertitles? Are these Criterion's own creation or are they perhaps from an English language export print or something? They certainly look more authentic than the BFI's attempt. Perhaps the Danish originals no longer survive.

[Tommaso]

Yes, it seems that the Danish original doesn't survive, then. It's not a big point perhaps, but it has been good practice for many editions of German silents that derived from export prints to re-create the original intertitles from censorship cards, and so I must say that I'm somewhat disappointed that this hasn't been done here. The Criterion is surely far superior to the BFI version, but then it still won't give me the feeling of finally watching the 'original', even if such an 'original' were merely a fake, a re-creation...

[EddieLarkin]

Yes, it's not the same as scrapping foreign titles for the sake of making the film more American friendly, like Kino like to do. But the incongruity will bother me; Danish title card, Danish text in the film proper (letters etc.), but then English intertitles...

[Gregory]

Is Danish text + English intertitles really more incongruous than Danish text and re-created intertitles + English subtitles?

[RyanGallagher]

From the booklet:

"When Master of the House was originally released, Palladium distributed two versions: one with Danish intertitles and the other with English ones. For this edition, Criterion returned to the original Danish version to create a new set of English intertitles. The translation was done by Signe Juul Hansen and Ina Bjerre Larsen."

[EddieLarkin]

From the booklet:

"When Master of the House was originally released, Palladium distributed two versions: one with Danish intertitles and the other with English ones. For this edition, Criterion returned to the original Danish version to create a new set of English intertitles. The translation was done by Signe Juul Hansen and Ina Bjerre Larsen."

So, they did scrap the intertitles from the Danish version? How hard would it have been to include them as well?! Even Kino have done that before! I can understand Criterion wanting to present an English version; historically that version is just as valid as the Danish, and it's certainly what English speaking audiences in the 20s would have seen. But choosing to go with digitally recreated titles over the original filmic ones doesn't sit right with me.

Is Danish text + English intertitles really more incongruous than Danish text and re-created intertitles + English subtitles?

I think so. The subtitles are not part of the presentation, but an optional overlay generated by the player. Realistically I'm not learning Danish anytime soon, and so would have always used them, but for whatever reason subs do not cause such a feeling of incongruity. They always feel separate from the video (unless they're non-disabling subtitles, a bugbear of many here).