Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

The Restoration of Dreyer’s
Der var engang
Casper Tybjerg, Thomas C. Christensen
Restorations
Restaurations
Restauraciones
This is an account of the 2002 restoration of Carl Th. Dreyer’s 1922 film
Der var engang. It is a description of the various choices made in the
course of the process, and also includes a few interesting findings
about Dreyer’s film made in the course of restoration.
The Film: Structure
In order to clarify the descriptions that follow, an outline of the film is
listed below. The Swedish censorship title list is divided into seven
numbered sections, which probably corresponded to reels or acts; the
sections certainly work well as large-scale dramaturgical units. The film
is structured as follows:
Section 1 The royal palace of Illyria: the Princess and her suitors;
she rejects all of them, including the Prince of Denmark.
Section 2 The Prince obtains a magic kettle; disguised as a tinker,
he sits outside the gate of the Princess’s garden; she
agrees to let him sleep in her chamber in return for the
kettle; that evening, the Prince’s musicians serenade the
Princess.
Section 3 The disguised Prince in the Princess’s bedchamber;
discovered by the king, the Princess is thrown out and
must become the companion of the tinker-prince.
Section 4 The Prince and Princess live together in a hut in the
forest, bickering constantly.
Section 5 The Princess takes clay pots to market, but they get
smashed; as they are penniless, the Prince turns to
poaching, but when he is pursued by the royal foresters,
she fears for his life and declares her love for him.
Section 6 She goes to the castle to beg for food in the kitchen,
when it is proclaimed that the Prince is going to marry a
foreign princess, but since she has been taken ill,
someone who can fit the wedding dress must take her
place. The dress fits the princess.
Section 7 The wedding takes place, and the Prince offers the
Princess to become his queen, instead of his promised
bride, but she rejects him for the beggar she lives with in
the forest - and then it is revealed that the two are one
and the same.
This structure also mirrors that of Drachmann’s play rather closely.
Drachmann’s Der var engang has five acts, but a total of eight scenes,
as follows:
31 Journal of Film Preservation / 67 / 2004