This 37-minute Danish film launched the
career of Asta Nielsen or as she came to be known The Asta. In documentaries
about silent films, I kept hearing about her and wanted to see one of her
films. She was a huge star in Europe during the silent period, but her sexuality
got her banned in a few countries and America didn't show many of her films.
Sexuality back then was of course a lot more demure than what it is today
- but she has a dance in this film that would clearly have overheated men
back then. Like another silent film I watched recently - The Last Days of
Pompei - there are no close-ups of The Asta, so it is difficult to gauge
her beauty, but she clearly had a wonderful figure.
Here she plays Magda, a middle-class piano
teacher and one day on the tram she meets Knud, the proper son of a reverend.
They hit it off and he invites her to his parent's home for the summer vacation.
She accepts but is soon bored and so when the circus comes to town she goes.
And is quickly enamored with Rudolf, one of the performers in his large sombrero
styled hat. What woman could resist that. Rudolf comes to her at night
through her window and it is nearly instant sex and they ride away on his
horse leaving poor Knud to his misery. She joins the circus and the two of
them perform the dance I mentioned in which she lassos him, ties him up and
then seductively rubs her body against his - groin to groin at one point.
As these stories of immorality usually played
out back then, it does not go well. He beats her and cheats on her, but she
can't leave him; not even for Knud who wants her back. The last inter-title
is "Slut'. But that dance made The Asta famous and she moved to Germany where
she set up a production house and became so popular that after she retired
when sound came in, Hitler met with her and asked her to come back. Smartly,
she moved back to Denmark in 1936. And later sent money to help the Jews.
