Afgrunden

Interesting film, though it does seem too long at some points. The film however do contain especially one interesting scene. Magda, the young girl whom the story revolves around, is performing on stage, with her love, a circus artist. On stage she ties him up with rope, and slowly starts to dance around him. But it ain't polka she's dancing! She rubs against his body, feeling him up, while she slowly moves around him. Now this of course doesn't sound very provocative today, but at that time it made the mountains move! In fact, it was so provocative at the time that it was forbidden for young men to see. Of course not any young man... only to the young men from the working classes (we all know who easy "they" /working class men/ are influenced! One simply couldn't afford to poison a young workers mind!)

In my opinion there are movies before "Afgrunden", then there are movies after "Afgrunden".

Up to 1909, movies were mostly trick films, with limited story-telling and exaggerated film acting. Then came "Afgrunden". Not only is the theme more mature than earlier films, it is also beautifully shot (a quality evident in much of Nordic cinema) and then there is the extraordinary performance of Asta Nielsen who became an instant house-hold name (my ex-wife's grand-mother, born in Australia in 1913 was named after her!) The quality of cinema rapidly improved from 1910 onwards and "Afgrunden" was the turning point.

Asta Nielsen graced and livened many films over the remaining Silent Period (working mostly in Germany) and her natural, believable performances raised the bar in film acting by several notches. She became the new standard!

Director Urban Gad is not as well known as he should be but this film and "The Black Dream", made the following year, indicate he should be re-evaluated.

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

"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.

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/