The torchbearer (1919)

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Movie
German title The torchbearer
Original title Mod lyset
Country of production Denmark
original language Danish
Publishing year 1919
length 55 minutes
Rod
Director Holger-Madsen
script Holger-Madsen
production Nordisk film
camera Sophus Wangøe
occupation

The Torch Bearer (OT: Mod lyset , dt. Zum Licht ) is a Danish silent film in six acts by Holger-Madsen from 1919.

action

The wealthy Countess Prosca is giving a party centered around her daughter Ysabel. Ysabel carelessly plays with men's hearts. Although she is in a relationship with the supposed nobleman, Baron Sandro Grec, she also flirts with the nephew of Professor Manini, Felix, who loves her immortally. Manini's daughter Inga, on the other hand, loves Felix and sees desperately as Felix lets Ysabel ensnare her. At the ceremony, Professor Manini is betrayed by a group of card players, including Sandro Grec, and robbed of a lot of money.

Provost Cordes is also at the ceremony and tries in vain to win Ysabel over to support the church. Although she accepts the ministers' work, she does not believe in God. At the same time as Prosca's and Ysabel's celebrations, another “festival” takes place not far away: Priest Elias Renato feeds the poor in the city. A little later he stops young Wenka, who has fled desperately from her violent and alcoholic stepfather, from suicide and places her in his community. The next day, Ysabel is about to take a trip in her carriage when Felix shows up in front of her property. They both go on a trip together, disrupting a sermon by Elias Renato. They listen to the sermon, but Ysabel is unimpressed and also rejects Elias' offer after further information. Back at her house, Sandro Grec is already waiting for Ysabel and reacts angrily to her long absence. Suddenly he tells Prosca that he will marry Ysabel, and she doesn't manage to deny it. The marriage is announced publicly and the desperate Felix takes his own life. Professor Manini prophesies to Ysabel that everything that is sown will also mature, and in fact, misfortune soon overtakes Ysabel: During their wedding, Sandro Grec is arrested for aiding and abetting in fraud against Professor Manini and others. Prosca suffers a shock from which she has not recovered even six months later.

Thanks to generous donations, Priest Elias Renato was able to build a village for the homeless on a small island not far from the city. Huts have been built and everyone who is poor but wants to work is accepted. Wenka now lives here too. She is in love with Elias, but knows that this love will never be returned. Ysabel, who witnessed her mother's decline, now asks Elias for religious assistance. He takes her to his island to open her eyes, but Ysabel only wants to convince him to come to her property. Elias almost succumbs to temptation, but breaks free from Ysabel - thinking of the temptation of Jesus by the devil. Elias brings Ysabel back to the mainland.

The conversation between Ysabel and Elias was overheard by the jealous Wenka. She is seen by her stepfather, who has since also been taken on the island. He locks her up in a hut. During the fight, the hut ignites and soon the entire island is on fire. Elias sees the catastrophe from the boat in which he brought Ysabel back to the mainland. His late rescue attempts cannot prevent all the houses on the island from burning down. When Ysabel returns to her property, she learns that her mother died while she was away. For the first time Ysabel begins to pray. She returns to the island and offers Elias how to dedicate her life to God. A little later both got married. Their denomination has grown so much that they both preach the word of God. In the end, Ysabel is stylized as an "angel of light".

production

The torchbearer was filmed in Copenhagen during World War I in 1918 . It was the fourth and last Danish film by Asta Nielsen , who had only recently returned to Europe from a stay of several months in the USA. A second film on Nordisk, which Nielsen mentions in her autobiography, was never released after the war.

The Torch Bearer premiered in Denmark on August 21, 1919 . The film was released in German theaters on February 27, 1920. For the German version, the figures were partially renamed, so the Danish Countess Ysabel became the German “Countess Isabella”, Sandro Grec became “Werner von Eschebach” and Professor Manini became “Professor von Ranke”.

The Torchbearer and the three other Danish silent films Abgrund (1910), The Black Dream (1911) and Ballet Dancer (1911), in which Asta Nielsen played a role, appeared in 2005 in the series Danske Stumfilmklassikere in restored form and with new musical accompaniment on DVD .

criticism

Contemporary critics called The Torch Bearer “a strange spectacle. Religious and profane are closely connected, but mostly fused together. [...] One does not believe the beautiful young Countess Isabella the change to the selfless helper of the 'torchbearer' […] Asta Nielsen cannot design here because she is not given the opportunity to do so, and what she offers is nothing more than spoiled A girl who plays with a man's heart and in the end flees to the man who, in his novel appearance, promises her an interesting change. "

Marguerite Engberg wrote in 1967 that “Asta Nielsen [...] here [looks] like a peacock among sparrows. Holger-Madsen apparently made no attempt to fuse her style with that of the other players. And so it became a star comedy, the lying story of a cold-hearted woman who awakens to faith at her mother's deathbed and becomes a lay preacher ”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Asta Nielsen: My way to film. 8. War experiences around the film. In: BZ am Mittag , October 10, 1928.
  2. ↑ "By the way, in the meantime [1918] I had acted in two films for Nordisk ..." Cf. Asta Nielsen: The Silent Muse (= Henschel Taschenbuch. Vol. 13). 1st edition of the paperback edition. Henschel, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-362-00596-9 , p. 222.
  3. ^ Börsen-Courier , February 29, 1920.
  4. ^ The torch bearer (DK 1920). In: Film.at , taken over from Filmarchiv.at, accessed on August 5, 2018.