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09 August 2024 Bonn (Germany)
Internationale Stummfilmtage: Seine Frau, die Unbekannte His Wonderful Adventure Seine Frau, die Unbekannte
Daan van den Hurk (Piano) - Arkadenhof der Universität Bonn
Program Info: After going blind in World War I, the talented artist Wilbur Crawford lives in seclusion with his mother. He meets a widowed Red Cross nurse and marries her. In the USA, Wilbur regains his sight through an operation. But how is he supposed to recognize his wife back home when he has never seen her? After the scandal surrounding his film HÄXAN (1922), which is now celebrated as a classic, the Danish director Benjamin Christensen made this cunning marriage comedy and thus helped the later audience favorite Willy Fritsch's breakthrough.
After losing his sight in The First World War,the talented artist Wilbur Crawford lives a reclusive life with his mother. He meets a widowed Red Cross nurse and eventually marries her. An operation in the USA restores Wilbur's sight. But how is he supposed to recognise his wife back home when he has never seen her to begin with? After the scandal surrounding his film HÄXAN (1922), which is now considered a classic, Danish director Benjamin Christensen made this clever marital comedy which contains a breakthrough performance from Willy Fritsch, who would go on to become a popular leading man.
The old motif of the husband falling in love with his own wife without knowing that it is the wife he desires as his mistress has been transformed into a lively pictorial plot in a new, original variation. The last problem of Eros, from which all the tragedy of love life arises, is echoed here: this painter basically loves in his wife what he once saw in the adventuress who enchanted him on a carnival night: not the creature in his reality , but his idea of woman, his artist's dream, the realization of which he only finds in his imagination. Christensen has created a cultivated comedy film with fine lines, soulful humor and that touch of sentiment that is inseparable from the essence of the comedy. A delightfully chatty picture feature, the conversation of which has been completely translated into film. Above all: this film has atmosphere, a milieu through which the plot is determined. People move within the framework of a certain social class, from which they never step out, despite all their arrogance. The humor of the work is tamed without losing any of its effectiveness. The hilarity never turns into a grimace, the comedy never turns into a farce. It is not the goblins of the foxtrot, but the geniuses of the waltz whose tunes are heard here.
The film is lit with great skill by the cinematographer Frederik Fuglsang, who was one of several Danish cameramen who came to work in Germany in the years after 1913. Danish cinematographers wererenowned at the time for the exceptional quality of their work. There are,furthermore, many touches that reveal Christensen’s hand.
Besides the obligatory champagne-drinking scene,there are some shots toward the end which display the intricate light-and-shadow interplay of which Christensen was so fond. We see a wide corridor at night, lit only by the moonlight which slants in through a row of tall windows on one side, the shadows of the window bars falling in criss-cross patterns across the floor and the characters moving about in the hallway. The film is lit throughout in key lighting, bringing out faces and details. This may be somewhat unconventional for comedy, but it gives the film a feel of elegance and stylishness. Both the look of the film and its doubled mistaken-identity story are distinctly fairy-tale-like. Even the publicity photographs stress the oriental elements of the décor, so that the film despite its modern trappings becomes suffused with the heady atmosphere of the Arabian Nights.
Casper Tybjerg, in: Benjamin Christensen: An International Dane. New York 1999
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