Danish Film Classics

Two films in beautifully restored tinted versions by A.W. Sandberg, the leading director at the Nordisk Films Kompagni from 1916 until 1926. The Golden Clown is one of the masterpieces of Danish silent cinema and develops the love triangle between the lovable clown, the circus princess and the Parisian bon vivant. Like so many films of the silent era, it is a tale of the old rural world and the glamour and danger in the big city. The Hill Park Mystery is an entertaining detective story, where a tabloid journalist tries to save the woman he has fallen in love with.

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.

One of the very first long feature films in film history is an amazing adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann's novel and refers to the sinking of the "Titanic". For the visually stunning DVD release a new high definition scan was made from a restored negative, and tinting was recreated using an abbreviated version from The National Film Center in Japan. A video transfer of this version is added as well as an alternative ending for the Russian export and a fragment of an early Danish adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's play "Liebelei".

Benjamin Christensen (1879-1959) is probably the most innovative director of Danish silent cinema. He had full control over the creation of his films, not only as a director, but also in many cases by being producer, author and protagonist. Christensen's first films clearly show his mastery of cinematic expression as well as his charismatic screen appearance.

In four episodes, we witness how Satan must walk the Earth and tempt men to do evil: Judas betrays Jesus, the Inquisition in 16th-century Spain, an episode in the French Revolution and a family tragedy during the Finnish civil war in 1918. Carl Theodor Dreyer's lavish period piece is presented here in its most complete version, even with an alternative happy ending. For this DVD a HD transfer was done from a restored duplication negative.

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.

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.

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.