The frivolous countess, who toys with men and their
feelings the same way she played with dolls as a child…
This was Asta Nielsen’s last film in her Danish homeland and
she’d already enjoyed much success in Germany and beyond – the first European
screen superstar and a performer who helped establish the art of screen acting.
From the start she was so measured in her expression, micro-managing her
emotions in ways that were seemingly intuitive and which, even now, has you
watching in vain for any sense that she’s consciously “acting”. Even with this
melodramatic and largely predictable script she injects so much passionate
febrility that you identify with even the shallowest of her emotions.
Acting has never been a competition – despite all those
awards – but in Asta we can see the impenetrable security of someone who feels
their way through any role and who never gives you doubt in her performance.
She is always very much in the present on screen and engaging with her imagined
surroundings as much as the direct narrative and other characters. At one
moment, devastated by twists of fate, in floods of tears, she pulls her
handkerchief to her mouth, biting into it in a way Greta Garbo might ten years
later…
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| All for charity? Asta Nielsen and Augusta Blad |
The film starts as Asta’s character, Ysabel, hosts a
charity bazaar with her mother Countess Prosca (Augusta Blad) and very quickly
we see the runners and riders in the race for her heart or, more practically, just
her head? There’s Baron Sandro Grec – a rich adventurer with a “heart of lead”
– who’s her current beau and then, his “competition” the younger noble, Felix
(Harry Komdrup). Felix is the nephew of Professor Manini (Nicolai Neiiendam)
whose daughter Inga (Lilly Jacobson) longs for her cousin but he wants the one
he can’t have and Ysabel is not one to let affectionate attention go to waste…
Asked by one guest whether she would put her talents to
the service of religion, Ysabel is dismissive: I never insult religion or
its practitioners, however, I will not adorn myself with a belief I do not hold
in my heart! For the first, and not last time, director Holger-Madsen
cuts for contrast, to a different party, one being hosted by the “poverty
preacher” Elias Renato (Alf Blütecher), who is helping his poor flock snatch
some enjoyment just as Ysabel pours drink from an amusing porcelain figurine
for her well-heeled guests.
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| Harry Komdrup and Lily Jacobson |
Later that day as the rich men smoke cigars and play
cards, Elias rescues a desperate young woman, Wenka (Astrid Holm) from throwing
herself into the river. Her miserable story of domestic abuse is conveyed with
Holger-Madsen cutting across to those who can afford to gamble their riches… as
the day closes Elias prays and thanks God for his blessings in saving the girl.
The next scene jars for being alongside this moment as Felix arrives at
Ysabel’s front gate the following morning, just as she’s about to drive out in
her limousine. He joins her and they come across a small crowd listening to
Elias preaching. As Felix looks on with alarm, the Countess is moved by the hot
priest’s presence if not necessarily his message.
He was so beautiful when he spoke! … it is the first
time a preacher’s words have touched my heart!
But poor Felix can’t compete with the preacher’s allure
and nor has he a chance against Sandro Grec’s wealth and masculine power. He
announces that Ysabel has agreed to marry him even though we can see the doubt
in her and her mother’s minds. But worse is to come as Felix, hopelessly in
love, is devastated reading the announcement of their union in the paper, and, as
his cousin looks on, he heads out to drown himself.
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| Astrid Holm and Alf Blütecher |
The power that Sandro Grec holds over Ysabel makes her
believe that she has truly found happiness…
When Felix does not return, Professor Manini and Inga go
to Ysabel’s palace in the hope he might be there but not only has she not seen
him, she has no desire to accept responsibility. When Elias arrives with the
young man’s body and his note, she seems to privately revel in the dramatic
testament of his fatuous longing. The Professor reminds her that whilst he does
not judge her, what you sow you will reap… (especially in melodramas of this
period). Then, from the selfish to the sublime, we cut to the community for
orphans Elias has established on an island outside the city with charitable
donations.
Karma comes quickly though when Sandro is implicated by a
former partner in crime on the day of his wedding. He’s not a fine rich baron at all but Loen
Spontazzi a master criminal who the police rush to arrest, wedding night or
not. Just as “Sandro” reassures his new wife their carriage is stopped by the
police and he is arrested. Ysabel’s new life is snatched away and after she
burns her bridal veil, she stares at herself in the mirror only to imagine the
Professor there remining her of his prophetic statement. Six months later she
is at her lowest ebb with her mother physically and emotionally broken yet
pride still comes before her fall/possible redemption.
I did not acknowledge religion when life was fair, and
I am now too proud to do it now that my happiness has been cast aside!
The kitchen sink is thrown at the closing segment of the
film and whilst you might be able to guess some of what happens it’s still
worthwhile watching our heroine “live” through it. This was a film made for a
largely Christian audience and at a time of continent-wide grieving both for
soldiers lost as well as flu pandemic victims; the socio-theological context is
perhaps baffling for a world now fuelled by cultural disconnection and pure dislike
even amongst a similar pandemic.
You can see it on the DFI Asta Nielsen collection DVD which
comes with Afgrunden (1910), The Black Dream (1911) and The
Ballet Dancer (1911) altough this looks to be hard to find now. The first two as well as this film are however, available
to stream for free on the DFI site although Mod lyset runs a little
faster than on the disc and comes in shorter.
There’s also an enlightening essay on Die Asta – Bosslady
- on the site from film scholar, Nanna Frank Rasmussen. As if you needed any
further reason to go to the DFI site, where there are literally hundreds of
silent films to stream for the Lockdown and beyond!
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