The white slave (1906)

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Movie
German title The white slave
Original title Den hvide Slavinde
Country of production Denmark
original language Danish
Publishing year 1907
length 8 minutes
Rod
Director Viggo Larsen
script Arnold Richard Nielsen
production Ole Olsen
camera Axel Sørensen
occupation

The White Slave is a 1906 Danish silent film directed by and with Viggo Larsen .

action

A young girl reads a job advertisement in a newspaper that she finds very interesting. To do this, however, she would have to leave her hometown and move to another city. Her fiancé is anything but enthusiastic about it. It lets her go, but gives her a carrier pigeon with her in case something should happen to her abroad , with which she can send him a message in an emergency.

The fiancé's concerns should actually prove to be correct, because the newspaper ad was placed by a dangerous girl trafficking ring. The young woman shows herself to be extremely rebellious and does not want to bow to the wishes of the men who are now holding her captive. That's why she is locked away at first. Then she thinks of the carrier pigeon, which immediately ascends into the sky with a cry for help. A little later the young man is there and can free his fiancée.

Production notes

The White Slave is the first film in the so-called Sklavin film series , which enjoyed great popularity in Northern and Central Europe, especially in the early 1910s. This 155 meter long film was premiered on January 12, 1907 in the Copenhagen Biografteater. In Austria-Hungary, The White Slave was advertised by Nordisk Films as early as March 1907 and consequently started there in the spring of the same year. A German premiere in 1907 is also very likely.

For director and leading actor Viggo Larsen and his cameraman Axel Graatkjær , who still operated under the name of Axel Sørensen, The White Slave was the first international success. Both men went to Germany for a long career just a few years later.

Robert Krause created the film structures.

criticism

“A change for the cinema programs, an upswing for the entire industry meant…. the appearance of the first modern sensational drama "The White Slave". The social moment is characteristic of this new genre. (...) With this, the film production seems to have encountered a field of material that today claims a large place in the sphere of interest of all social classes. A Danish company brought this drama onto the market and thus laid the foundation for the current importance of the Danish film industry. "

- Emilie Altenloh : On the sociology of the cinema. The cinema company and the social classes of its visitors. Jena 1914, p. 9

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