Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vi
3. List of illustrations viii
4. Acknowledgments ix
5. Why a book about Gertrud? 1
6. If Gertrud is such a great failure, how is it so great? 8
7. What does the “Real” have to do with Gertrud’s “talkiness”? 12
8. Why was Dreyer so fascinated with the “real” Gertrud? 18
9. Why can’t images and words (and men and women) stay married in Gertrud? 22
10. Why are Dreyer’s images, when they “quote,” so obscene? 28
11. So what, after all, is the tapestry quoting? 33
12. Is Gertrud an ekphrastic film? 38
13. At last, here’s Dreyer’s probable source—but does it matter that we found it? 45
14. Is Dreyer quoting Botticelli? 48
15. What is Dreyer teaching us about the history of perspective, and how is Gertrud so interesting a contributor to this topic? 55
16. What does perspective have to do with free will? 61
17. How is Gertrud a kind of remake of The Passion of Joan of Arc? 64
18. How did the Virgin Mary really get pregnant (and is that why Gertrud is childless)? 69
19. Why are Joan and Gertrud so “hysterical”? 82
20. How does the struggle between Dreyer’s words and images open us up to the Real? 91
21. Credits 101
22. Cast 103
23. Bibliography 105
24. Index 111