Leaves from Satan's Book
About Leaves from Satan's Book
Satan (Helge Nissen) is barred from Hell until he has overseen a run of temptations. Each soul who yields adds a hundred years to his exile; each soul who resists takes a thousand off. He tempts Judas to betray Jesus, then moves through the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution and the death of Marie Antoinette, and the Finnish civil war of 1918. The four episodes are the film.
Cast & crew
More about Leaves from Satan's Book
Carl Theodor Dreyer's third film as director. He and Edgar Høyer wrote it; Marie Corelli is also credited on the script. George Schnéevoigt photographed. It opened in Norway on 17 November 1920 and in Denmark on 24 January 1921. The Danish title is Blade af Satans bog. An English title is Leaves Out of the Book of Satan.
Themes
Background
The last episode is the Finnish civil war of 1918, still close when the film opened in Norway in November 1920.
Making
Schnéevoigt shot the four periods as separate pageants, with Nissen returning as Satan in each, including the Grand Inquisitor.
Reviews
Troy Howarth wrote that without Satan the film would not belong in a horror survey, and that it plays more as a pageant than as a horror film. He added that the cast emotes beyond even silent-film habit.
Look
George Schnéevoigt photographed the four historical episodes.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Prints survive. Silent Era times a DVD edition at 121 minutes, shorter than the 157-minute release.
Notes
- The structure follows the episode plan of D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). Writers have also set it next to F. W. Murnau's Satan (1920).
- A DVD timing cited by Silent Era is 121 minutes, against the 157-minute running time.
- Halvard Hoff, Jacob Texiere, and Johannes Meyer are among the cast.
- Dreyer made it before The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) and Vampyr (1932).
- A print is on the Internet Archive under the English title.
Scenes
- Satan prompts Judas toward the betrayal.
- The same figure reappears in the Inquisition, in revolutionary France, and in Finland in 1918.
Influenced by
- Intolerance (1916)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-leaves-from-satans-book)
