The Parson's Widow

Dreyer's first great film, a lovely comedy of manners set in 17th-century rural Norway, charts the intrigue that arises when a young curate awarded a living at a parsonage finds himself also having to wed his predecessor's widow. In pretending his fiancée is his sister and moving her in as housemaid, the new parson seriously underestimates his elderly wife... Inventive, often ribald comedy turns steadily into a lyrical, wondrously touching tale of bitter conflict yielding to compassionate understanding.

With live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney on Sat 3 Mar and Neil Brand on Tue 6 Mar.