Asta nielsen biography for kids
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When it comes to celluloid divas from Scandinavia you would be forgiven for thinking of Greta Garbo first. But even Garbo herself acknowledged that the woman who ‘taught her everything she knew’ was the Danish silent film icon Asta Nielsen.
In an era of silent cinema when language barriers did not exist, making it possible for national stars to become international successes, Asta Nielsen rose to fame as the star of Danish and German-produced films.
Nielsen was in charge of her own image and career, uncommon in those days, and even started her own production company in 1921. Yet until recently, the Asta Nielsen phenomenon has remained largely forgotten – especially among English and American audiences.
And it’s a shame – apart from the impressive body of work (including some 74 films shot between 1910 and 1932), Nielsen’s life reads like a charged melodrama, made-to-order for the Golden Age of cinema.
Tough beginnings
Nielsen was born into a working-cl
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All screenings take place in Collins Cinema beginning at 6:30pm (except where noted)
*indicates special framställning in 35mm
Presented to utöka upon the special exhibition That Right Promethean Fire: Shakespeare Illustrated, this urval of six films demonstrates the sustained and diverse engagement with Shakespeare that has inspired filmmakers around the world for nearly a century.
Generously supported by the Davis Museum Film schema Gift, and co-hosted bygd the Cinema and Media Studies and English departments.
February 24: by (1921, Dir. Asta Nielsen)*
Asta Nielsen, born in Denmark in 1881, was the first primadonna of europeisk silent spelfilm. To realize her artistic vision, she founded her own company, Art-Film, in 1920. Her production of Hamlet, produced that same year, features a hona Hamlet character and initially survived only in a black-and-white US export utgåva. A colored vintage print of the lost German original utgåva of 1921 was discovered in 2005. The restored f
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Astas Shadow
English sample available
German sample available
The Danish actress Asta Nielsen (1881-1972) was the highest-paid silent film star in Europe from 1910 to 1920. Known as “Die Asta” and living in Berlin, she appeared in more than seventy films. Her gift for dramatic gesture enchanted audiences around the world, while her strong sensual characters and personal independence made her a feminist role model. Even Hitler was a fan, but Die Asta was no fan of Hitler’s – and so she moved back to Denmark in the 1930s, where she confronted closed doors and eventual obscurity.
Propelled by a series of coincidences, the author of Asta’s Shadow, Eva Tind, also a visual artist, explores the traces that Nielsen left behind. This hybrid work includes meditations on art and identity, interviews and transcripts of phone conversations with Nielsen that were secretly taped in the 1950s, showcasing her wit and strong opinions.
Silent film star Asta Nielsen was the first and great