ISN’T SHE LOVELY?

Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer was 75 when his final film, Gertrud, premiered to a nasty reception in—where else?—Paris in December 1964. As our own Elliott Stein wrote about that opening-night press show in Sight and Sound in 1965, “full-mouthed jeers and catcalls began [and] continued with such force throughout the evening that the soundtrack was eclipsed.” Tonight, after a screening of Gertrud, Stein, who is also the delightful host of BAM’s Cinemachat, discusses what those Parisian critics so terribly misunderstood about a film now considered to be a grand experiment in cinematic form. The story follows the strong, independent Gertrud (played by Danish actress Nina Pens Rode) on her difficult quest to find true love with a man who treats her as his equal. The film, in Danish with English subtitles, is part of BAM’s series on the works of Dreyer.

Thu., March 26, 6:50 p.m., 2009