OK, it sounds crazy, but hear me out on this one. In 1946 Finnish writer, Tove Jansson published Comet in Moominland a story about the impending impact of a large comet with the potential to destroy much of Moomin civilisation, they hear about the astral threat from the local observatory and set off to warn others and find shelter deep in a cave. Jansson’s book, as so much of her writing, contained much subtext and hear she was providing solace to an audience of young readers who had just experienced another huge disruption and for whom the resilience of her characters would help show that life could carry on.
In August Blom’s film, inhabitants of a Danish town discover
from their local scientist that a comet is on course to crash into Northern
Europe which could spell the end of civilization and, whilst some hide in a
mine, others take refuge in a cave… awaiting a fate that may or may not be catastrophic.
Of course, Jansson was only two when the film was released and in a different
country but she did study art in Sweden and Paris – it’s possible that she saw
the film. If not, she almost certainly saw Abel Gance’s End of the World
(1931) in Paris and this was based on the novel Omega: The Last Days of the
World by Camille Flammarion which was published in 1894 and probably
influenced Blom!
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| Destruction hanging over them |
Whatever the connections, Blom’s film is quite extraordinary
and probably made with similar purpose to Jansson’s at the height of a great
European conflict in which his country was neutral. Verdens Undergang is
a parable as much as it is science fantasy and is focused on the behaviour of
those whose lives are under threat as much as the threat itself and its
conclusion is not a particularly optimistic one for large parts of humanity
even if, as always hope remains.
Blom had had huge success with his proto-disaster movie
Atlantis, influenced by the Titanic sinking, and here the memories of a close
encounter with Halley’s Comet in 1910 were still fresh along with the fears
that Earth could have been caught by noxious tail gases. The utter destructiveness
of events across the border were clearly on the minds of many and Verdens
Undergang delivers powerfully in its depiction of impending doom as well as
wide-spread devastation with the director flooding and burning not just models
but full-scale buildings as doom approaches. Sparks fly and smoke fills the
screen as his cast of thousands look up helplessly and try to escape and whilst
the painted image of the comet grows bigger and bigger overhead, modern
audiences may not be impressed but it looks rather good to me.
Is this really the end? You’ll have to find out for yourself
and really that’s not the film’s main point as the director looks to the
behaviours of mankind at the last chance saloon.
The human elements revolve around the West family headed by
the local mine’s foreman (Carl Lauritzen) who is father to two daughters Dina (Ebba
Thomsen) and Edith (Johanne Fritz-Petersen). Dina is in a relationship with
mineworker Flint (Thorleif Lund) and Edith is sweet on ship’s mate Reymers (the
ubiquitous Alf Blütecher). Flint is too earnest and Dina too easily distracted
and when mine owner Frank Stoll (Olaf Fønss) offers to take her away from all
this she agrees and meets him in the early morning as the deposed Flint arrives
too late yet just in time for Stoll to knock him to the ground.
Faith and science play equal parts in the drama as a
wandering preacher (Frederik Jacobsen) arrives before the drama unfolds and
befriends the Wests whilst astronomer Professor Wissmann (K. Zimmerman) spots the
oncoming comet which he calculates could hit Earth with enough force to destroy
all that they know. Wissmann warnings go unheeded by some whilst others pray
and Stoll preys on the markets.
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| Carl Lauritzen, Frederik Jacobsen and Johanne Fritz-Petersen |
Stoll genuinely loves Dina but months into their marriage
she’s bored and Stoll feels that only more money can buy him the love he needs.
Tipped off by the editor of the newspaper about the comet’s threat, he buys
stock as the market sells, keeping his head whilst all around are losing it,
and then, following confirmation of likely disaster, gets his friend to write a
contradictory headline so that he can sell as the relieved investors buy back
into a recovery that will never come.
Blom clearly had a dim view of stock market speculators but
Stoll’s bloodless cynicism is not only cruel but also potentially pointless
unless he can survive the comet. He finds a route to the mine deep beneath his
house and resolves to wait out the apocalypse and emerge as the ruler of the
new world. He hosts a massive party on the eve of destruction and there’s food
and dance aplenty with Dina on stage performing suggestively for Stoll’s chosen
people.
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| The Dance of Death for the wealthy |
The world may be ending but there’s still time for revenge
and Flint rouses his fellow workers to storm Stoll’s house and take what
property they can; class war clashes with cabaret as the West family pray and Reymers
hopes that his ship will somehow still come in…
It’s dramatic stuff and whilst it may run unevenly for
modern audiences it’s a very well-made film, proof of Nordisk’s high level of
production values at a time when they were the equal of pretty much anything in
Hollywood.
I watched the Danish Film Institute’s 2006 restoration which
is available to stream for free on their a-mazing site and on DVD from Editionfilmuseum and other retailers.
There’s no accompaniment for the DFI streaming and so you
can make your own musical choices; some Holst perhaps, some Hans Zimmer, Laurence
Rosenthal’s score for Meteor (1979) or perhaps just REM’s It’s the End of
the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) on repeat.
Happy New Year!
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