Scandinavian film (1952)

on the same theme, The Last Victim of the Slave Traffic (191 1) and Dealer in Girls (191 2). It had been suggested that the international success of these films prompted Carl Laemmle to make his Traffic in Souls in 19 13. There were clearly other reasons, however, for the appeal of the Danish films. Contemporary critics wrote of their carefully prepared stories, naturalistic settings, restrained acting and skilful direction. Already it seems that the Danish films were acquiring a reputation for clear photography and much of it reflected the love of the countryside characteristic of the Scandinavian peoples. In addition, the standard of acting appeared to be considerably above the crude, over-emphatic stvle common in other countries. Two players helped to win an international audience for the early Danish films. Asta Nielsen and Valdemar Psilander. Asta Nielsen's first film, The Abyss (1910), was written and directed by Peter Urban Gad, who later married the actress and accompanied her to Germany. It was an immediate success and audiences everywhere responded to a sensitive, expressive style of acting which contrasted sharply with the grimacing antics of her contemporaries. Even as a girl, we are told, her face was already a tragic mask, almost impassive yet strangely expressive, with great burning eyes. Through the films she made in Denmark before going to Germany her name became known to cinema audiences everywhere and the character she created — a beautiful and intelligent woman in the grip of destiny — was one of the first to be identified and recognized. Although most of her films, and the most important, were made in Germany, she helped to lay the foundation of the Danish cinema, and through her interpretations of Nordic legend and romance many thousands of cinema-goers came nearer to an understanding of Scandinavian culture. In Germany, Asta Nielsen's most notable films were a silent version of Hamlet and Pabst's The Joyless Street. She had no sympathy with the Nazi regime and returned in 1937 to Copenhagen where she still lives. Valdemar Psilander, a handsome, manly actor, made his first film for Nordisk. At the Prison Gates, in 191 1. His restrained, expressive acting gave him something in common with Asta Nielsen, with whom he appeared in The Ballet Dancer (191 1) and The Black Dream (1912). His most popular film was The Clown (1916), directed by A. W. Sandberg, of which nearly four hundred copies were sold. Paradoxically when his popularity was at its height he became a victim of melancholia and committed suicide in 1917. Just before his death he had formed an independent company which was taken over by Olaf Fonss, an actor who achieved some popularity in Danish films before going to Germany. There were several other interesting achievements in this highly-productive period of the Danish cinema. Benjamin Christensen, a director who later worked in Sweden and Hollywood, made The Mysterious X for Dansk Biografkompagni in 1913. In the same year Danmark Studios made The Island of the Dead, based on Bocklin's painting. The Four Devils, based on a short story by Hermann Bang, was produced by the Kinografen Studio. Nordisk, however, remained the most 2