International cinema

This DVD edition is a new restoration of Carl Theodor Dreyer's adaptation of Holger Drachmann's popular nationalistic play from 1883 is based on Hans Christian Andersen's Svinedrengen and William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Despite the loss of approximately half of the moving picture content, the surviving scenes can now be seen in a complete narrative supported by still photos and new intertitles based primarily on original sources.

This DVD edition is a restoration of Carl Th. Dreyer's first feature film as director. Already in his debut we are witnesses to the thematic mainstay of most of his later films; the mother left to her own destiny with her illigitimate child. In this film the man is haunted by guilt, which he is not allowed to repent. Besides this DVD presents the one minute fragment of a Zola film adaptation written by Dreyer.

Both films display the high production value Nordisk Film Co. had attained after almost a decade as one of the leading film production companies in the world. In The End of the World (1916) the rumour spreads that a comet is on a collision course with Earth. Inspired by the fear evoked by Halley's Comet in 1910, this film was clearly addressed to a public in an age of war. A Trip to Mars (1918) is a lavishly produced space-travel picture and a milestone in the science fiction genre. The contemporary fascination with aviation is evident: the space-ship has wings and a propeller, and the crew is clad in leather aviator outfits.

In celebration of the 60th Anniversary of The Danish Film Institute / Archive & Cinematheque the first films donated to the Danish State are published on this DVD. The first film archive contains a total of seventy films showing Danish events and people of the period 1899-1913.

Over five decades, Jørgen Leth has created a cinematic oeuvre that is unique in all respects. In more than 40 films, Leth has maintained his experimental approach to the medium, exploring film as language, testing film's possibilities and limitations. Coming from a starting point in language-conscious modernist poetry, Leth has examined the world not only through language but through the film camera's lens, showing images combined with a singularly detached, descriptive tone all the while carried by an aesthetic and sensuous delight in images. The first volume of a DVD edition which covers all his films contains the anthropological films: The Perfect Human (1968), Life in Denmark (1972), Good and Evil(1975), Notes on Love (1989) and The Five Obstructions (2003). Also included in this DVD set is a booklet and extra notes on a new production entitled Tropical Mix.

The second box of the series "Jørgen Leth Collection" contains Leth's sports films, primarily emphasising the cycle film classics Stars and Water Carriers (1974), The Impossible Hour(1975), and A Sunday in Hell (1976). The director was tired of clichéd sports journalism and found "the inner psychological drama of the battles between great cyclists" more absorbing. The set also contains a documentary about the unique Basque ball gamePelota (1983) and two experimental films about the phenomenon of movement and speed Motion Picture (1970) and Chinese Ping Pong (1972), a coversation with Jørgen Leth and a 40 page booklet about the films.

The only two surviving films of the film company Det skandinavisk-russiske Handelshus (Scandinavian-Russian Trading) which was specialized in sensational topics. Alfred Lind is the star, the director, the writer and the cinematographer of the successful Den flyvende Cirkus which was soon followed by its sequel Bjørnetæmmeren.

Asta Nielsen is probably the greatest Danish film star. However, she only starred in four Danish films, all of which are on this DVD: From her breathtaking appearance in The Abyss (1910) to Holger-Madsen's moral tale Towards the Light (1919). In the Danish films she starred with the greatest Danish male protagonists of the period: Poul Reumert, Valdemar Psilander and Alf Blütecher.

Valdemar Psilander (1884-1917) was probably the greatest male star of Danish silent cinema. He died in 1917, only 32 years old. Despite his early death, he nevertheless acted in 83 films during his 6 years with the Nordisk Films Kompagni. The three films on this DVD are not only representative of Valdemar Psilander's qualities as an actor, but also the production of Nordisk Films Kompagni during the most productive and successful years of Danish cinema.

This DVD edition contains the German version and the - with different actors in the main parts parallely produced - English version of a little known classical film noir which shows Vienna in unusually dark pictures. A 183 pages book (in German) analyzes the differences of the two versions and reflects the production story as well as the reception of the film.