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ABSTRACT 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. 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. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: Dreyer’s Work in a World of Digital Media ......................1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 1 THEORIES OF AUTHORSHIP AND AUTEURISM ........................................... 8 TOWARDS A NEW THEORY OF RE-MEDIATION ...................................... 15 THE COLORIZATION CONTROVERSY OF THE 1980S .............................. 16 CRITICAL METHODOLOGIES OF FILM AND DIGITAL RESTORATION .. 19 IS RESURRECTING THE “ORIGINAL FILM” AN URBAN LEGEND? ........ 24 CHAPTER SUMMARIES .............................................................................. 25 Notes to CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................28 CHAPTER 2: Transitioning from Analog to Digital for Cinematic Presentations: Re-mediations of Dreyer’s Early Apprentice and Auteurist Work ............................................................................................ 34 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 34 EARLY BEGINNINGS AT NORDISK ............................................................ 36 FIRST FILM: AN APPRENTICESHIP .......................................................... 37 NORDIC MELODRAMA ............................................................................... 39 RE-MEDIATING THE PRESIDENT .............................................................. 42 THE BIRTH OF AN AUTEUR.......................................................................

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