This article seeks to articulate the explicitly minimalist periods of the works of Carl Theodor Dreyer and Ingmar Bergman in order to reveal their aesthetic similarities and issues. By recalling the artistic context, it underlines that the works of Dreyer and Bergman are in dialogue with each other, but also in the wake of a Nordic tradition. Thus, the idiosyncrasy of these two authors is relativised and the aesthetic correspondences articulated around a principle of purity are revealed. The article shows that the works of Dreyer and Bergman share three functions, namely the figuration of the human condition, introspection and transcendence, which unfold a similar understanding of the world for both filmmakers.