Table Of ContentABSTRACT
LARSON, STEPHEN LARRY. The Birth, Death, and Re-Birth of an Auteur: the Analog to
Digital Conversion of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Films. (Under the direction of Hans Kellner.)
This dissertation explores how DVD and digital media can deviate from an original
filmmaker’s intent by being used as a tool for re-mediation. It addresses an important issue
about what happens to an author’s work of art from the pre-electronic age to the present
when it is re-mediated or repurposed via a new platform. The Scandinavian filmmaker Carl
Theodor Dreyer (1889–1968) is an ideal prototype for studying the phenomenon of re-
mediation. Dreyer began directing movies at the peak of the silent years and made his first
talkie at the beginning of the sound era. Thirteen out of the fourteen feature films that Dreyer
directed are available on LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray, and digital streaming platforms.
Dreyer deserves a renewed appraisal and fresh investigation into his life and work.
Why Dreyer and why in this postmodern era of digital cinema? Dreyer’s oeuvre has always
been in a state of re-mediation through continuous, changing circumstances. Some rather
infamous instances illustrate how the original aesthetic intentions of his films were either
compromised or altered. For example, in 1951 the Italian-born film historian Joseph-Marie
Lo Duca acquired an original negative of La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (The Passion of Joan
of Arc, 1928) and cropped the left side of the picture in order to accommodate a sound track
of preexisting music. He also marred the image by superimposing some intertitles over the
shots. This sonorized print was recently transferred to Blu-ray. Vampyr (1932) also suffered
an ominous fate when Image Entertainment’s technical authors added large Gothic subtitles
that covered nearly half the picture to Dreyer’s personal print on the distributor’s LD and
DVD releases. While Dreyer is a prominent example of this trend, these kinds of re-
mediations have become common and need to be studied. Dreyer’s films are representative
of how re-mediation is crucial and unavoidable in cinema work. Film history is being re-
mediated and this challenges any notion of the auteur in a digital domain. In fact, these
practices call for a complete reconsideration of the notion of auteur.
This dissertation employs a mixed-methods, integrated theoretical approach to chart
the genesis of Dreyer the auteur, his death as an author (especially in the case of The Passion
of Joan of Arc), and ultimately the re-birth of his work rather than the re-birth of him as
author. This study of an auteur also interweaves media theories of re-mediation and critical
methodologies of film and digital restoration. It also examines key transformations of
Dreyer’s films through the practices of archiving, conservation, and restoration. As we
navigate the historical watershed of digitization, my work examines the cultural and
historical implications of converting older, analog media formats to digital ones. This “case
history” of an auteur’s work—mainly Dreyer’s silent movies—acts as an illustrative example
for the assessment of how film as a medium gets pushed out of existence after it undergoes a
digital makeover.
I cover nine of Dreyer’s works starting with their inception and stretching from their
original theatrical runs to their release(s) on home video. I account for competing versions
that feature different distributors, different extra features, and different subtitle translations.
Through archival research, critical questions I seek to answer include: who is the “producer”
of the DVD/digital copy? Who is heading up those projects? Who emerges as the alternative
auteurs for the films and do they supplant the role of the director? Do they assume control of
new material in some way and exhibit authorship? What ethical imperatives do modifying
Dreyer’s images pose for a viewer? This detailed study strives to set standards for future
work on authorship and re-mediation.
© Copyright 2015 by Stephen Larry Larson
All Rights Reserved
The Birth, Death, and Re-Birth of an Auteur: the Analog to Digital Conversion of Carl
Theodor Dreyer’s Films
by
Stephen Larry Larson
A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of
North Carolina State University
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media
Raleigh, North Carolina
2015
APPROVED BY:
_______________________________ _______________________________
Hans Kellner, Ph.D. Ora Gelley, Ph.D.
Committee Chair
_______________________________ _______________________________
Melissa Johnson, Ph.D. Sarah Stein, Ph.D.
Xiaoyong Zheng, Ph.D.
ProQuest Number: 10112826
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ii
DEDICATION
Dedicated to the enduring legacy of Carl Dreyer whose films hopefully will connect with
future generations.
iii
BIOGRAPHY
Stephen Larson is a media studies scholar with diverse research interests that include
film authorship, film genres, cinema as a critical reflection of social and political history, the
hermeneutics of the book-to-script-to-screen translation process, and phenomenological
theory related to cinematic spectatorship. He grew up in a suburb near Minneapolis and
earned his B.A. in 2003 at the University of Minnesota in Studies in Cinema and Media
Culture. He later focused on the intersection of rhetoric and film in the Communication M.A.
program at Villanova University. In 2009, he matriculated in the interdisciplinary doctoral
program of Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media at North Carolina State University.
His work examines the narratological similarities and differences between books and films as
well as the aesthetic representations of literary sources. Stephen’s work has appeared in
Senses of Cinema and the Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance. He has also
presented work at the National Communication Association Conference.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First to the members of my committee:
I would like to express my gratitude to Hans Kellner for agreeing to serve as chair of
my committee. He provided me with many helpful directives over the course of my project.
Our phone conversations and office meetings yielded sharp insights into my exam and
dissertation’s topical areas.
To Ora Gelley who gave me astute observations on directions that I could go with
certain subtopics and content points.
To Sarah Stein for agreeing to serve as a reader. I have enjoyed the working
relationship we have had on our various projects.
To Melissa Johnson who agreed to come on board the committee at a later stage. She
is one of the finest proofreaders and editors that I know.
To Maria Pramaggiore for serving on my exam committee and for supplying editorial
comments on my prospectus.
And also:
To Peter Schepelern who generously devoted a great deal of his time to translate
newspaper and journal articles, sections of books, and letters between Dreyer and his studio
bosses for me to include in my dissertation.
To Birgit Granhøj who also kindly set aside time to translate letters between Dreyer
and his business associates during the making of Leaves from Satan’s Book.
v
To Lisbeth Richter Larsen at the Danish Film Institute for delving into the archives
and obtaining valuable information from primary sources.
To Lesley-Ann Brown for translating an important section from Hvorledes skriver
man en Film?
To Nyima Sabally, Clitha Mason, and Kailey Miller for scanning and digitizing
numerous book chapters for me.
To my former CRDM colleague and friend Shayne Pepper for reading early drafts
and providing ongoing suggestions to the shape of the overall work.
To my good friend Nick Engan for sharing his thoughts on Dreyer’s work over dinner
conversations and for encouraging me to explore the connection between Voices of Light and
the Greek Dramatic Chorus.
I would like to thank my parents (especially my mother), family members, and
friends for their continual love, support, and encouragement throughout my college and
graduate school years. I could not have gotten this far without them.
