She acts, that’s the thing… she does not just pose
before the camera… She impersonates a character, she makes it live and have
meaning, a hundred meanings…
Once more unto the BFI to take my place in seat A11 and
marvel at the depth of talent possessed by Asta Nielsen. I’ve seen Asta before
but mostly in her greatest hits, Hamlet (thrice), Joyless Street
(twice), Afgrunden (so many times…) but it’s a real connoisseur’s
delight to be able to dig deep into a body of work that is very rarely screened
in this breadth and depth. Tonight, there we four different films showcasing
her dramatic skills as well as the more madcap, melodramatic moral tales and
Asta as a businesswoman, entirely summarising the future in both subject and
performance.
As you watch you can begin to fully understand just why
she was so popular and it’s that rare occurrence when star quality is fully
deserving of the adoration because Asta was, as has been noted so many times,
developing the art of screen acting as she went. In her programme notes, season
curator Pamela Hutchinson notes how Asta was the pin up for both sides in the
Great War and even in the USA, where her films often fell foul of censorship,
the New York Times critic gave the rave review quoted at the top in 1921.
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| Asta the clothes horse in one of Dora's posh frocks |
Whilst, if she had socks, they’d be strewn all over the
floor by the end of each film, Asta has something deeper and her ability to
connect is almost unparalleled in this era. So often at the start of her films,
she’s seen smiling straight to the audience before the action begins, melting
hearts and renewing her intimacy with the watchers and unflinching honest look,
the only time she’s out of character, or at least the character she’s about to
play. As a person she’s a mystery and her pre-show smiles just hint at the
complexity to come whilst showing how easily she can draw us in… it only takes
a few seconds looking at those huge dark eyes.
So, it proved with some of the scenarios she worked with
and as Hutchinson recounts, Asta made a joke of the minimalistic scripts she
was given and was then able to expand with her uncanny expressiveness. No were
else in London can you find anything like what we’re now seeing… nothing as
pure as the crafting of some of the first interior monologues on screen. Asta has the blues but no one's ever expressed them in such a physical way... she draws you in and leaves you drained.
Directed by Magnus Stifter, following her break with
husband/director/writer Urban Gad, Dora Brandes is a melodrama that plays
with the already well-worn Star is Born tropes. Asta plays the titular Dora, a
successful actress who finds herself having to chose between an older man, politician
Grev d'Albert (Max Laurance) and a much younger journalist, Gustav Calvia (Ludwig
Trautmann).
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| Asta with Ludwig Trautmann |
d’Albert is to be sorely disappointed as she choses the
man at the start of his career and the two live in bliss albeit in an increasingly
hard to fund happy home, with Dora having retired from the stage. Gustav has
political ambition of his own though but lacks the funds to make a go of it, he
asks d’Albert for financial help but is refused. Dora makes the fateful
decision to ask the old man herself, knowing that he still holds a candle and thinking
only of her love’s future. She tells Gustav she got the money by selling jewellery
and, none the wiser, he proceeds to get elected as an MP.
Only a chance encounter with d’Albert in a club as he
celebrates his win, reveals the truth to Gustav - d’Albert has a signed letter
from Dora to prove she accepted the money. This is too much for the young man
and he returns home and kicks Dora out…
So, high on pride and ambition, Gustav continues to make
his way as Dora drifts down into an alcoholic underworld. It is only years
later when he and d’Albert end up on opposing sides and the old man threatens
to expose his secret that Dora reaches out to her old friends… it’s not too
late to save honour, love and career is it?
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| Asta and Leo Peukert in Poor Jenny |
Poor Jenny (1912) was from the early days of the
Asta series written and directed with Urban Gad who the actress insisted at the
time came with her to Germany to carry on the work begun with Afgrunden. It’s a
more typical rags to riches and rags again narrative but, as she joked, this
was more than enough to feed her dramatic energy.
Another striking point is how different the actress looks
in these productions, here she starts off with a centre parting and simple
plaits and looks so different from Dora. Her protean qualities were reinforced
by her slim figure and atypicality… she was a clothes horse, physically
expressive with long fingers and a dancer’s grace whilst her strong, largely
regular features could be varied so much by make-up and, her look.
Asta Nielsen is Jenny Schmidt, a poor cleaner who meets a
wealthy man Eduard Reinhold (Leo Peukert) returning home after a long night out
as she scrubs his stairs. Eduard impulsively kisses her and agrees to meet her
the next day. The date goes well, too well, and despite resistance, Jenny is
led inside Eduard’s flat only to return home the next day with explaining to
do. She’s thrown out by her father (Emil Albes) and, ends up being a kept
woman.
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| Pride coming before the fall |
Falling out with Eduard, she finds another lover Kellner
Fritz Hellmann (Hans Staufen) and there’s a superb sequence for city spotters,
on the top of a double decker bus/tram, driving down a main street in Berlin as
the two talk. It’s a stunning sight and the actors’ naturalism reinforces the
window on this long-lost reality… time travel via silent film. Such happiness
cannot last though, Jenny is outside of accepted society and she will not be
able to rely on the good faith of such men for ever.
Stephen Horne accompanied with subtlety and variety using
piano and flute. With an actor who absorbs more concentrated attention than
most the music follows Asta’s lead and there were many poignant lines along
with a thunderous run of repeated scales that would have done Philip Glass
proud as the climax was reached for Dora.
The Asta Nielsen season continues apace through to March, full details are on the BFI site.
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| Jenny in the bar about to hear very bad news... |
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| Asta also chomps a mean cigar! |
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| Only Gish comes close in terms of the physical demonstration of emotional trauma. |
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