Danish cinema before 1972

Silent film

In 1906, Ole Olsen founded Denmark‘s first film-producing company, Nordisk Film. It had its first big success with The Lion Hunt (1907). The company Kosmorama introduced the erotic melodrama with Urban Gad‘s The Abyss (1910), which launched the great Danish silent film star Asta Nielsen and formed the basis of the golden age of Danish silent film. Benjamin Christensen started his career with successes such as The Mysterious X or Sealed Orders (1914) and Blind Justice (1916) before producing the silent film masterpiece The Witch in 1922. Carl Th. Dreyer made his breakthrough as an international auteur with films such as The President (1919), Leaves from Satan‘s Book (1921) and The Master of the House (1925), which led to his French-produced masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Another solid success was created by Lau Lauritzen Senior and Palladium with the series of farces starring the comedy couple Long and Short: Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen.

With films like The Word (1955) the director Carl Th. Dreyer is regarded as one of the all-time greatest masters of Danish cinema. Photo: Det Danske Filminstitut/Billed- og Plakatarkivet.

Sound films and the popular breakthrough of the 1930s

In 1929, Nordisk Film Kompagni was reestablished as a sound film company. The first entirely Danish sound film was The Pastor of Vejlby (1931), directed by George Schneevoigt. The film reinforced Nordisk Film‘s dominance of the Danish market. The 1930s were dominated by light comedies, which made cinema the Danes‘ favourite entertainment medium. Schneevoigt produced several of the big Danish comedy successes of the 1930s. Nordisk Film‘s other big name in the 1930s, Emanuel Gregers, is mainly remembered for his modern comedy of mistaken identity, Mille, Marie and Me (1937).

Danish cinema during the occupation

The German occupation of Denmark 1940-1945 provided favourable conditions for Danish cinema, which achieved a special national status and became extremely popular. It became possible to make more serious art films. Film versions of literary works continued with for instance Svend Methling‘s Summer Joys (1940), while Bodil Ipsen with Black Tie (1942) and Melody of Murder (1944) produced a romantic comedy and a psychological thriller of international standard. With the episodic Eight Chords (1944), Johan Jacobsen produced one of the most stylish films of the period.

The greatest Danish film from the Occupation is Carl Th. Dreyer‘s masterpiece Day of Wrath (1943), his first feature film for 11 years. Set in the 17th century, it concerns the oppression of sensuality and love in an arid society. After the Occupation, Dreyer was to make only two more Danish films, The Word (1955) about the power of faith and love in a West Jutland parish, and the psychological love drama Gertrud (1964).

The post-war fillm culture - the popular and the artistic

In 1945, Johan Jacobsen produced The Invisible Army and Bodil Ipsen and Lau Lauritzen Junior The Red Meadows, which with realism and melodramatic pathos attempted to portray the Resistance Movement. Johan Jacobsen‘s A Stranger Knocks (1959) entered the debate about the Occupation and its aftermath in a much more critical way.

The realistic line from the 1940s continued with Bjarne Henning-Jensen‘s convincing film of Martin Andersen Nexø‘s Ditte, Child of Man (1946), Johan Jacobsen‘s The Soldier and Jenny (1947), Ole Palsbo‘s Take What you Want (1947) and Lau Lauritzen Junior‘s and Bodil Ipsen‘s portrayal of an alcoholic in Café Paradis (1950). In the 1950s, youth became a subject of public debate. Films such as Palle Kjærulff-Schmidt‘s Dregs (1957) portray the problems of young people in a socialrealist and pessimistic style.

The film company ASA‘s first film of a Morten Korch novel, The Red Horses (1950), remains the most frequently seen film in Denmark ever, having sold 2.4m tickets. Up to 1976, a total of 18 films were produced in the Morten Korch series, combining a special Danish popular comedy tradition with a reassuring portrayal of a rural environment at a time of frenzied modernisation.

The modern breakthrough of art cinema

Around 1960, the New Wave flourished in European film, while television was encroaching on the cinemas. A new generation of film directors emerged with a modern, realistic film language, while others experimented with the genre film. Together with the author Leif Panduro, Bent Christensen created fine social comedies about the welfare state such as Harry and the Valet (1961). Palle Kjærulff-Schmidt and the author Klaus Rifbjerg created two powerful expressions of the Danish New Wave with Weekend (1962) and Once There Was a War (1966). Henning Carlsen had an international breakthrough with his film version of Knut Hamsun‘s novel Hunger (1966). Carlsen subsequently directed major films such as Oviri (1986) about Gauguin and the Hamsun film Pan (1995). The couple Lene and Svend Grønlykke produced a unique film masterpiece with The Ballad of Carl-Henning (1969).

Apart from this relatively small stream of quality films, Danish cinema largely continued with the well-tried popular formulae. The legalisation of picture pornography in 1969 introduced the soft porn genre. Mention should also be made of the unique Danish farce tradition, for instance in Sven Methling‘s welfare satire We‘re All Daft (1959) with Dirch Passer and Kjeld Petersen in two of their best roles. From 1952 to 1978, Ditch Passer was virtually synonymous with Danish farce in a huge number of films of varying quality.

In 1954, Erik Balling was given a leading director‘s role with Nordisk Film, where he set a new high standard for Danish popular cinema. His greatest contribution was the series of The Olsen Gang films, totalling 13 from 1968 to 1981. The fixed formula of the Danish petty criminals, who are constantly cheated by big business and foreign criminal syndicates but finally win over superior forces through their own inventiveness, seems to appeal to something central in Danish mentality. The series is one of Danish cinema‘s biggest national successes and achieved great popularity abroad. In addition, Balling was responsible for the most successful Danish television series ever, Matador (24 episodes, 1978- 1982), which also reached a large foreign audience.

Denmark‘s most discussed film project in recent years is the Dogme concept. The photo from 1999 shows the directors of the first four Dogme films, from the left Thomas Vinterberg, Søren Kragh Jacobsen, Lars von Trier and Kristian Levring. Photo: Scanpix Nordfoto/Rolf Konow

The documentary tradition

Particularly since the 1930s, Danish cinema has developed an internationally recognised documentary tradition. An early example of the genre was Denmark (1935) produced by Pout Henningsen, also known as PH. The Occupation resulted in a particular need for educational and cultural films, often with concealed national messages, and directors such as Theodor Christensen, Karl Roos, Ole Palsbo, Bjarne Henning-Jensen, Hagen Hasselbalch and Carl Th. Dreyer contributed to the classic golden age of documentaries in the 1940s and into the 1950s.

The best-known classic documentary producer is Jorgen Roos, with more than 100 films covering many subjects and styles, including a series of important films from Greenland. Around 1960, a new documentary style emerged influenced by the international cinema vérité movement, but also more experimental and poetic. The central names here were Henning Carlsen and Jorgen Leth, who made a name for themselves in the 1960s, while younger directors such as Jon Bang Carlsen and Anne Wivel have continued the strong traditions of Danish documentary film. 

The documentary seems to have undergone a revival around 2000. A powerful new generation is emerging, winning both awards and a large audience. This applies for instance to Thomas Gislason with the film Maximum Penalty (2000) about the Danish victims of Stalinism and the very personal documentary Family (2001) by Sami Saif and Phie Ambo, which won the main award at the documentary film festival in Amsterdam.

The danish film culture and its institutions

Danish film policy dates back to the 1930s, but the cultural political line was not really established until the 1960s. In the 1930s, the main state initiative was the creation in 1938 of the Government Film Office with responsibility for the distribution, and in 1972-1997 also the production, of short films and documentaries. In 1941, the Danish Film Museum was established as a private enterprise. The National Film School of Denmark was established in 1966 and the Film Act of 1972 founded the Danish Film Institute with responsibility for public subsidy of feature films.

As a result of the new Film Act of 1997, the Danish Film Institute was reconstituted as a unified organisation comprising the Government Film Office, the Danish Film Institute and the Danish Film Museum. The institution thus brings together all public subsidy sources for Danish cinema, including the Film Workshop and the Video Workshop in Haderslev, which are open to both amateurs and professionals. Another important independent institution is the European Film College, which accepts both Danish and foreign students. A new trend in Danish film culture is the establishment of regional funds and film production environments, such as Film City in Avedore south of Copenhagen, housing among others Zentropa and Nimbus, FilmFyn and the Jutland Film Fund associated with Århus Film City.

Ib Bondebjerg
Professor, ph.d.