From Working Class Drama to Academic Showdown: On Carl Th. Dreyer’s Use of His Literary Source in Två Människor [Two People] (1945)

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The aim of the article is to analyze Danish film director Carl Th. Dreyer’s motives for using Willy Oscar Somin’s play Close Quarters (1935) as a source for his twelfth feature film, Två Människor [Two People] (1945). This film is almost completely forgotten today, in part because the director himself chose to disown it, but in part because film historians have hitherto been unable to locate its exact textual source. My concern has been to examine how loyal Dreyer actually wanted to stay to the themes and narrative of his source. Newly discovered archival material demonstrates that Dreyer actually thought of making a more political movie. This material leads to a more general discussion of Dreyer as an adaptor of literary works. I conclude that Dreyer made Två Människor in a period of his directing career where he wanted to distance himself from his literary sources.