Featured Audience Ratings

• AJ V

  
  I understood what this movie was wanting the audience to understand with just watching the first couple of stories, but then it just keeps going on and on telling more stories that are exactly the same, and you just get bored with it.

• Drew S

  
  Ambitious, but not wholly successful. Dreyer was still finding his footing here; none of the imagery resonates, as it so often did in all his later pieces, and his multi-epochal narrative is in equal turns interesting and dull (the Spanish Inquisition segment feels like a complete… More
  Ambitious, but not wholly successful. Dreyer was still finding his footing here; none of the imagery resonates, as it so often did in all his later pieces, and his multi-epochal narrative is in equal turns interesting and dull (the Spanish Inquisition segment feels like a complete waste of time, and the Jesus segment isn't all that much better). The fact that it was cribbed directly from Intolerance at Dreyer's admission makes it feel a lot less impressive overall, but Leaves from Satan's Book's actual accomplishments still stand. The final two segments are stirring, but ultimately nothing here will really stick with you like it did in Joan of Arc or Day of Wrath.

• Eric B

  
  This film does not live up to its sensational title, but Carl Theodor Dreyer ("The Passion of Joan of Arc") crafts an interesting look at Satanic temptation. Separated into four parts a la D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance," the film spans stories from… More
  This film does not live up to its sensational title, but Carl Theodor Dreyer ("The Passion of Joan of Arc") crafts an interesting look at Satanic temptation. Separated into four parts a la D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance," the film spans stories from Christ's time, the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution and Dreyer's own era. Satan (Helge Nissen, in his only screen role) is portrayed as a weary pawn of God who's ambivalent about his evil work but forced to carry on in hopes of shortening his banishment. In each tale, Satan adopts human form and conspires to tempt a virtuous person into betraying his or her peers. The fourth segment (set in Russia-occupied Finland) lacks universality and the sins of Judas have been depicted better countless times, but the middle sections fare better. In the second part, a priest weighs loyalties to the Church and his forbidden romantic love, while the third finds the fates of Marie Antoinette and a (fictional?) countess and daughter resting on the moral quandary of a well-meaning servant.

• Marion R

  
  Boy was I disappointed, I thought this was going to be really cool, but it was basically like the Rolling Stones song "Sympathy for the Devil" except it isn't totally awesome.

• Eduardo C

  
  A stunning epic. Not at the same level as Dreyer's subsequent "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (but then, nothing is) but still an incredibly rewarding film. The lighting is not only exquisite, but experimental at times. The shot composition, the editing, the imagery...… More
  A stunning epic. Not at the same level as Dreyer's subsequent "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (but then, nothing is) but still an incredibly rewarding film. The lighting is not only exquisite, but experimental at times. The shot composition, the editing, the imagery... many of the characteristics of modern cinema are already present here. One of the more interesting aspects is how the film manages to convey, visually, what it cannot through audio. There is a sequence where a woman is playing a harp and singing a song and the film, through images, illustrates what the song is about. There is another sequence where a flagelating monk sees the cross transformed into the object of his desire and guilt. The rest of the film is laden with imagery and symbolism, some more subtle than others. Helge Nissen is unforgettable as Satan, the thematic link between the four stories that comprise the film. He embodies each of his guises well, refusing to overact, and generating true pathos for his predicament. For each soul he turns away from god he has 100 years added to his sentence. For each soul he is unable to sway, he has 1000 years removed. Forced to tempt, he goes through the motions but gets no pleasure from it, feeling heartbroken at his successes. The film may not be a transcendental experience, but it is a great work of art nonetheless. Carl Theodor Dreyer is that rarest of breeds: a director who managed to make timless films both in silent and spoken format, as evidenced here.