The Parson’s Widow

This steadily won me over more and more as it went along. A light comedy with a surprising amount of pathos in the end, The Parson’s Widow, Dreyer’s second film, is a wonderful little find from the earliest days of cinema. There’s a confidence to the filmmaking and subtlety to the performances that had been largely missing from The President, his first feature, that helps provide a strong emotional base on which the movie’s final act requires in order to work.

It’s the story of a young pa...