The Master of the House

By now, Dreyer was producing one gem after another, and this simple but supremely effective comedy-drama - virtually a proto-feminist manifesto - sees a devoted but much-nagged wife and mother persuaded by her own mother, her teenage daughter and (delightfully) her hubby's former nanny to take a break from domestic drudgery, in the hope that the couple will see the error of their ways. A forerunner of neo-realism in its focus on the ordinary lives of ordinary people, the film is both psychologically astute and utterly credible in its low-key naturalism.

With live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney on Sun 11 Mar and Neil Brand on Tue 13 Mar.