(Svend Gade, Heinz Schall, Germany 1921, 125 min., 35mm)
Many silent filmmakers turned to Shakespeare for source material, transforming the Bard’s verbal poetry and drama into visual equivalents, but none more unusually than this project spearheaded by the legendary Danish actress Asta Nielsen. Nielsen, who takes the title role in this production, brings more than one kind of ambiguity into her portrayal of the “melancholy Dane,” which also gains weight from being shot at some of the actual settings (such as Elsinore Castle) called for in the play.
35mm print from the George Eastman Museum collection.
Upcoming Events in this Series
Film Screenings | A Kiss for Cinderella (16mm)
Silent Tuesdays Director Herbert Brenon and star Betty Bronson reunite after Peter Pan for another adaptation of a J.M. Barrie play. Jane (Bronson) is a house slave who dreams of a Prince Charming and is nicknamed Cinderella by an artist whose studio she cleans because she always talks of the wonderful things that will one day befall her.