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13 August 2024 Bonn (Germany)
Internationale Stummfilmtage: Thora van Deken
M-cine (saxophone, grand piano) - Arkadenhof der Universität Bonn
Program Info: On her divorced husband's deathbed, Thora van Deken learned that he had left most of his fortune to a retirement home. After his death, Thora steals his will and claims to have burned it at the express request of her late husband. This means their daughter Esther can receive the inheritance that is rightfully hers. But at what cost? Pauline Brunius, who also worked as a director, shines here in the lead role of the mother, whose desire to care for her own child brings her into a wrenching conflict with her sense of moral duty.
Available to stream from August 11th to 13th, 2024 on https://stummfilmtage.culturebase.org
Standing at the deathbed of her ex-husband,Thora van Deken learns that he has left the majority of his fortune to a retirement home. After his death, Thora steals his will and claims to have burnt it at her late ex-husband's express wish. This way, their daughter Esther can claim the inheritance she is entitled to. But at what price? Pauline Brunius, who also worked as a director, shines in the leading role of the mother torn between her desire to care for her own child and her sense of moral duty.
THORA VAN DEKEN received positive reviews for its strict dramatic structure, logical consistency and harmonious form, but the critics' attention was primarily directed at the debutant Pauline Brunius, who received effusive praise.
“Since THORA VAN DEKEN came into the cinemas, our country will soon be able to claim to have a world-famous actress.” (Stockholms-Tidningen)
“Pauline Brunius' Thora van Deken is probably the best female character in Swedish film to date. You have to look with a magnifying glass for more freedom from artificiality, more unwavering near the camera, more physical and mental composure than is embodied here. The role seems tailor-made for her. She is a confident tragedian and is completely in control of her facial expressions.
Apart from the fact that it is of course Skandia Film's strongest work to date, it undoubtedly occupies a place of honor among the best Swedish productions. It's another one of those films that makes you deeply proud and happy. A film that, as a completely successful representative of solid, sophisticated Swedish film art, one can happily wish luck on its journey out into the world." (Svenska Dagbladet)
https://www.svenskfilmdatabas.se
The film is based on a short novel written in 1900 by the Danish 1917 Nobel Prize laureate Henrik Pontoppidan, “LilleRødhætte” (Little Red Riding Hood). It was adapted for the stage in 1914, retitled “Thora van Deken”. John W. Brunius directed the play in Stockholm in 1916, and his film version features several cast members from that production.
Considering Brunius’s previous work with Pontoppidan’s story on stage and the fact that the film is mostly set indoors, it is interesting that here he doesn’t fall into the use of a theatrical tableau staging style. Instead, THORA VAN DEKEN, with its first-class camerawork, editing, and narrative structure, is an intense cinematic drama which brilliantly reflects its characters’ psychological conflicts.
Much of THORA VAN DEKEN’s strength undoubtedly rests on Pauline Brunius’s stunning performance in the title role, which is arguably the best of her film career. (Pauline Brunius, who also directed a few films on her own, had only a limited screen acting career and is today best known as a stage diva and the first female director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.) Interestingly, the film is consistently structured around Thora’s – and, in few scenes, her daughter’s – point of view.
THORA VAN DEKEN is one of the foremost examples of films by the minor directors of the Swedish “Golden Age”. Yet sadly it has been overshadowed by the work of the masters Stiller and Sjöström in both film history and screening praxis.
Magnus Rosborn, Casper Tybjerg, in: The Days of Silent Film Catalogue. Pordenone 2017
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