"Gertrud is so interesting because it’s a film that seems to be so close to literature, so bare cinematically, austere in every sense apart from words. There are so many of them, and the events are completely dramatic and constructed. But Dreyer, being one of the best filmmakers in all of history, manages to make a truly cinematic film. Everything that you hear and everything that you see transcends its significance as information and becomes meaningful in itself. It starts feeling like you’re experiencing life, not just living sentimentally in someone else’s drama. I think it took ten years to make the film, and it shows—not in how spectacular it is but in how everything is so subtle and so well designed, so well prepared. Everything has a reason, and that reason makes the film strong and unique, and you can feel that without anything being pushed."
Source