On Mon, 21 Oct 1996 10:35:46 -0400 Dennis Doros said: > >What was lost was Dreyer's first version of the film. The orignal negative >was lost in a fire shortly after the film opened in Denmark in the late 20s. >Dreyer made other versions from the outtakes and the foreign negatives. IN >1981, one of the two prints he made for Denmark showed up in a Danish mental >hospital, and so the original version is now preserved and is touring the Not to split hairs, but it was a Norwegian mental hospital. As I recall the story, a doctor at the hospital was particularly interested in issues of possession and delusion, and requested the film. He neglected to return it, and there it stayed in a storage area in the hospital until the early 1980s. (The catalogue of the Toronto Film Festival, where I saw the film in 1985, says that the print turned up in 1984.) Dreyer had practically the entire film, on a shot for shot basis, in alternate takes, I understand, and so was able to construct a version that circulated for many years. The most astonishing facet of the new/old version of the film that I recall resulted less from any modifications of structure, imagery, or performance, and more from the simple difference in seeing a beautiful, pristine, 35 millimetre print on a big screen, accompanied by a score performed by a chamber ensemble. <Sigh.> Blaine Allan [log in to unmask] Film Studies Queen's University Kingston, Ontario Canada K7L 3N6 ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]