Abgründe

"Afgrunden" is a clearly primitive movie. It isn't stylistic revolutionary, and doesn't invent any new way to tell a story. However.... Though "Afgrunden" is from 1910 there is one scene I just can't seem to forget. It sticks to me in some strange way. The famous dancing scene with Asta Nielsen clearly has a sexual context. Even compared to modern films tendency to make sexual contents seem as dirty as possible, "Afgrunden" represents the same standard with a lot more modest use of effects and 'moves'. Try to see it, just for that one scene.

One doesn't think Swedes as prudes. But when the Danish film "The Abyss," was released in September 1910, the movie in which future star Asta Nielsen made her debut, Sweden and Norway both censored it. The otherwise tragic story of a settled wife who ends up leaving her husband for an exciting circus performer, was spiced up with a three-minute "gaucho dance" number that had the censors' eyeballs popping. The twerking dance seduction scene Asta performs with her boyfriend on the stage caused even the United States' censors cutting taking the scissors to it before they allowed the movie to be released.

Nielsen became a huge star, largely in Germany, soon after "The Abyss" was released. She introduced a more subtle, naturalistic style of acting as opposed to the more common theatrical over-acting in films. "The Abyss" set the stage for her on-screen persona of the strong woman with an independent streak who would eventually, because of her own actions, found herself trapped in tragic circumstances. Her films were especially popular in Germany, where Asta eventually moved. Signing on to a huge film contract in that country, she became cinema's first international movie star. Her movies were shown throughout the world, that is if the censors approved of them, which in numerous instances they didn't because of crossing the immoral line.

Asta's career came to a screeching halt during the transition of movies from silent to talkies. Adolf Hitler, in 1936, invited her to have tea with him to convince her to make propaganda films for the regime. After the meeting Nielsen promptly left Germany to return to her native Denmark. By then, she had enough money to live a robust, comfortable life. Asta lived to be 90, passing away in 1972.

I'm still trying to figure out what the woman is paying for. It's obviously a metaphor for her life going off-kilter in a way that doesn't always happen to the average everyday person. Her bouncing from her husband to an untrustworthy circus performer is totally destructive. Throwing away her life to be treated horribly by that same individual, was mostly brought on by her own carelessness and at the climax of the movie, that same carelessness and immaturity leads to the death of someone. So, I was trying to figure out what was so bad about her life, other than she being the one who screwed it up. This is what romantic dramas usually have an issue with, weather it is 1910 or 2010. Is the message that is supposed to be conveyed being lost amongst a smattering of skits and scenes that muddy the goal in mind. I felt this way with this movie. Why are we worried about her destructive end when she created most of it? A change in the title might help things with this one. The original title, The Abyss, is a much better title. It's all worth going through, because Magda has a seductive dance number that really is ahead of its time and is the most jolting part of the film. It's worth that.

6.0 (D MyGrade) = 6 IMDB

Magda meets her fiancé, Knud, in a casual way during a tram trip, at that same moment both fall madly in love with each other; few days later, Knud invite Magda to spend a thrilling weekend at a vicarage, where his father works.

Meanwhile Magda are spending so particular weekend with her fiancé, comes to town a circus; Magda will fall in love with a cowboy who performs at the circus, exchanging at once the bored fiancé for the hefty cowboy and running away both without thinking very much this new situation.

The relationship between Magda and her cowboy it will begin to be very problematic, tormented, and full of suspicions, jealousies and humiliations suffered by Magda by her cowboy and despite that the bored fiancé appeared from time to time in her live trying to put an end to such wild passionate abyss, those efforts will be finally in vane.

"Afgrunden" it's a film directed by the great Danish and unfortunately not well known director, Urban Gad and starred by Asta Nielsen, actress whom Herr Gad discovered and married.

Despite the film it's sometimes a simple and exaggerated melodrama, Herr Gad endow always their films with a stunning modernity as in style as in content, being able to diminish those typical deficiencies of the film, in the other hand, standard for an early 1910 film production, not mentioning Damen Nielsen good presence and versatility (it is necessary to emphasize the Damen Nielsen erotic dance scene, in this way you'll see how modern and alluring your grandmothers were ), two reasons, the Herr Gad film direction and Damen Nielsen performance, enough to watch this early Danish film.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because when this Teutonic Count heard about storm relationships, remembered that he must to talk something about it with some of their German fat heiresses.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

A big, two-reel feature picture, naturally acted, with Miss Asta Nielson in the leading role. She is well supported by a large cast. The story is perfectly clear and smooth, demanding no strain on the spectator's attention. It is extremely well photographed, and shows most delightful backgrounds, glimpses of street life in Copenhagen, and glimpses of a village street, with an old church tower, in rural Denmark; also other scenes, among them a wayside beer garden under a grove of pines. The story is sensational and ends very dramatically in a tense climax. It deals with passion in a clean handed, honest way. It opens with a meeting of a young man and woman, shows a glimpse of the courtship and carries us on through a married life without love, to the coming of the man, a circus performer, who excites passion in the wife. The rest of the picture shows a good deal of her sensational experiences with this man. Twice her husband tries in vain to recall her. Their last meeting comes by chance in the piney beer garden and results in a sensational struggle, in which the woman kills her paramour and is led away by the police. - The Moving Picture World, April 27, 1912