Man With A Movie List

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer Year: 1943 Run-time: 1 hr 40 min There's too much to break down here. But while there are fascinating readings of this film that reflects a totalitarian society like the Nazi rule of Denmark at the time, I feel like that allegory is a little indirect. Ultimately, I see this as Dreyer's return to the themes and pacing of The Passion of Joan of Arc , and though the comparison is interesting, the film can't really escape the large shadow that the predecessor casts. Dreyer expressed much more with faces in the earlier silent film than he does with the simple and plaintive dialogue in this one. Though there are beautiful, haunting moments, it doesn't quite work for me. 

Director: Urban Gad Year: 1910 Runtime: 0:38 Source: Youtube The list begins with this short Danish work, the first film starring Asta Nielsen, who (according to Wikipedia) would become one of the first international movie stars, well known for playing troubled yet sympathetic women.  (It was directed by her first husband.) The scene that kick-started that fame, and also the sole reason this movie is still remembered, occurs late in the movie, when her character Magda is at the bottom of the titular abyss.  Dancing on stage for money with her bohemian lover, she gives an arresting performance that was extremely risque at the time.  Watching it today, it's still extremely mesmerizing in its understatedness; she carries the whole thing with ever-so-slight movements of her hips, refusing to look at the man she's pretended to tie up with a rope.  It's a powerful cinematic moment, and absolutely worth seeing. However, the film has other moments that stick out to ...