There are things you do hate, Lord. Perfume-smellin’ things, lacy things, things with curly hair.
For all the predictable moralism of the story – girl of good family gets seduced by a travelling circus performer, falls into a life of debauchery, it all ends in murder – there’s nothing primitive about the control of mise-en-scene and the flow of the narrative; this for a 1910 film that predates Griffith’s more famous early efforts. Was this a golden age of Danish cinema I’ve never heard of? There’s also a strong eroticism at work – it’s pretty sexually explicit, and Asta Nielsen brings a natural energy – and an in-the-audience’s-face erotic dance which involves her tying up a gaucho and then rubbing her body over him. Not quite my idea of movies in 1910.
by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
25 Jun 2007 2:06 PM | Submit Comment