Dreyer was evidently influenced by Griffith's monumental Intolerance in making Leaves from Satan's Book, which follows Satan's path through four historical periods (presented, however, consecutively, not concurrently). Appearing as the Pharisee leading Judas to betray Christ, as the Spanish Grand Inquisitor, as a police officer in the French Revolution, and as a revolutionary monk in the Russo-Finnish war of 1918, Satan functions in all four cases to disrupt the social order by encouraging evil in already powerful (male) forces. Dreyer here already associates the figure of Christ with the female forces, and “all four episodes reflect Dreyer's lifelong preoccupation with the dark side of life, his fascination with cruelty and death, his anguished compassion. Filmed on orthochromatic stock, the photography anticipates the distinctive functionalism and flawless composition of his later Joan of Arc. There are even some close-ups (in the last, innovative montage section) as breathtakingly beautiful and moving as anything later shot” (Museum of Modern Art).