The Films of Asta Nielsen
‘Die Asta’ was silent cinema’s Danish diva, whose mesmerising performances helped invent modern screen acting. From February to March 2022.
March
“She was and is the great actress, the canvas that makes dignity visible”
Leopold Jessner, film producer
Asta Nielsen was born in Copenhagen, but it was Germany where she made most of her films and was beloved as ‘Die Asta’. This month, we explore more of her German work, including her brilliant collaboration with GW Pabst in The Joyless Street, and her highly acclaimed performances in a series of provocative melodramas. We’ll also show Nielsen’s first (and last) talkie, Impossible Love, and her most impressive achievement: her audaciously androgynous Hamlet, in which the Danish star plays the Danish prince who is secretly a princess. Nielsen increasingly turned to literary sources as she played characters who were as strikingly modern as they were deeply passionate. In each of these films her performance technique edges her further away from her peers, and reveals a rare talent for conveying thought and feeling on screen.
Pamela Hutchinson
Hamlet + intro by Prof Judith Buchanan
Asta Nielsen plays the Dane, in her own inimitable way.
The Decline (AKA Downfall) + intro by season curator Pamela Hutchinson
The diva faces her own mortality in this poignant melodrama.
The Joyless Street
Asta Nielsen and Garbo navigate the back-alley meat market in this silent masterpiece.
The Joyless Street + intro by BFI Inclusion Team Coordinator, Miranda Gower-Qian
Asta Nielsen and Garbo navigate the back-alley meat market in this silent masterpiece.
Earth Spirit + intro by season curator Pamela Hutchinson
Nielsen embodies the femme fatale as Lulu in this theatrical adaptation.
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