The Talking Muse (2003) - full transcript

Have you ever been completely frank?

Has anybody?

I don't know.

On 12 September 1910,

"The abyss" was screened
at the Kosmorama, Copenhagen.

At a stroke, Danish actress Asta Nielsen,

who was 29 the day before the
premiere, became world famous.

The success of the film spread
from Denmark, through Europe,

and thence to other parts of the world.

Asta Nielsen was the first
female star of the silver screen.

Film reveals something we
cannot see with the naked eye.



An atmosphere, an aura.
Everyone has his own radiance.

I can tell immediately
when I see somebody on film,

whether he is an honest man
or a swindler.

There is something revealing about film.

She started her career in Denmark,

but German film gave her global renown.

She worked in Germany from 1911 to 1937,

and made 70 films there.

"Germany is my second homeland", she said.

Nevertheless the political climate meant,

that in 1937 she returned
to Denmark and Copenhagen.

One of her few dose friends,
the writer Johannes V. Jensen,

after the war she wrote her autobiography,

"The Tenth Muse", published
in two volumes in 1945 and 46.



She described her career as an actress,

but said little about her
two failed marriages,

or her partner in Berlin for 13 years.

Her daughter, Jesta, is completely omitted.

Jesta was illegitimate, and born in 1901.

But a new edition of the book in 1966,

was dedicated to Jesta,

and Asta wrote "There may
be readers who wonder,

why my memoirs do not mention
the most important aspect of life,

love. But if I started talking
about my daughter,

there would be no room for anything else.

If I were to describe but a fraction
of the joys and pleasures,

she has bestowed upon me from
the day she could think and feel,

my book would be as large as the Bible."

This was written two years after
Jesta committed suicide in 1964.

- Frede Schmidt, how are you?
- Very well, thank you.

Could you phone mummy?
She's in such a foul mood.

I'd just got up and I was
about to telephone her.

How droll... she went out yesterday,
which was very nice.

But her voice seems to tiny and sad.
- She was ill in the winter.

But I thought she was blooming.
- You are so kind to her.

Yes, you are. I am ever so grateful.

All the books you find for her.

Your extraordinary attentiveness...
It helps enormously.

She is very lonely after a life
of being spoilt so much.

That's why it's so hard if nobody
does anything any more.

- I enjoy her company so much.
- Don't tell her I phoned you.

Of course not.

Though if you let it slip, she'll
just have to be cross with me.

- I won't, really I won't.
- Jolly good. And thank you.

There's nothing I'd rather do.

Please give me EVA 5594. Thank you.

- Hello?
- Hello, Mrs. Asta Nielsen.

- Or good morning, rather.
- Oh, have you just got up?

Well, well! You must have had a late night!

I didn't get to bed till 6 a.m.
From a party at Birthe and Hamlet's.

- You must have been having fun!
- Did you sleep well?

Not at all.
Not until 7 a.m.

I slept from 7 to 10.30.
I cannot sleep.

I haven't been able to sleep
for thirty years now.

I used to sleep in my youth,
but not once I started making films.

And I really needed my sleep then!

When I was young I was so terribly nervous.

I was always so fraught, always so tired.

I don't remember being ill much
but when I read old letters,

or talk to people, they say
"Oh, you were so ill!"

You were under constant pressure.

Your nerves...
It was quite incredible.

And my parts were so emotional.
I was on screen almost non stop.

It was dreadful.

The worst thing for one's nerves
is not getting enough sleep.

It has been said when she decided
to return to Denmark in 1937,

she snuffed out her own flame,

and that she chose to live a quiet life,

with Jesta, her son-in-law Paul Vermehren,

and her sister, Johanne, who died in 1939.

But Asta may not have deliberately
chosen the quiet life.

It just turned out like that.

She saw few people
and had few dose friends.

One of them was the voice on the telephone.

Frede Schmidt, antiquarian bookseller.

A theatre, ballet and music lover.

A passionate enthusiast from
a burgeoning Bohemian milieu.

He must have met Asta in the mid 195Os.

From 1956 onwards they spoke
by phone several times a week,

and almost always for quite a long time.

By the way, I was wondering,

if you'd like to come
for dinner on Saturday...

Yes, please! I'd love to.

How nice! And my birthday
is the following Saturday.

- How old will you be? 43?
- No, I was born in 1916.

So you'll be 42. Next time I'll be 77.

Once you're 70 you decline rapidly.

In my case I've declined
very rapidly in the last two years.

So much that it counts for five.

I looked my best from 29
until my early forties.

That is when a woman is in her prime.

Actually I looked much younger than my age.

It was my nicest period.
It's any woman's nicest period.

Being one of the elderly is cruel.

They look so weary and dissatisfied
as they drag their old bodies along.

When I catch sight of my face in a window,

I think I'm looking at my mother.

She looked so tired and malicious
and I look just like her.

There was an age difference of
35 years between Asta and Frede.

But in his own way Frede
grew very dose to Asta.

He called her Our Lady.
Many of his circle came, too.

It was a very, very close
friendship on both parts.

In Frede's case,

it was coupled with worship.

Frede was fond of Asta
Nielsen in many ways.

He worked his way closer and closer to her,

and began obtaining the books she wanted.

- Have you run out of reading matter?
- Indeed I have.

I've brought several newspapers
home from Jesta's.

I shall read them this evening.
- I have several books for you.

If you were in tomorrow at some point...

Tomorrow? I have Bridge tomorrow.
So I shall be at home.

- May I come by in the afternoon?
- Of course. But do phone first.

I can't hear the doorbell, you see.
- I'll telephone just beforehand.

I think she was incredibly fond of him.

She was captivated by his
frankness and cheerfulness,

but also by his unashamed devotion,
admiration and affection.

He managed to convey these things.
It was quite simply...

...a very special friendship.

For an awfully long time
she was completely alone.

Suddenly she got to know Frede Schmidt

and there was an explosion in her life.

It was just what she needed.

Somebody entered her life,

who was thoroughly
acquainted with the arts,

who could give her something new,

in terms of the muses and the theatre.

She had a blast!

She didn't realize that he was
recording their telephone calls.

I mistakenly recorded a
conversation on that tape,

which was not intended for your ears.

I have a special reel for my
conversations with Asta.

They are private and I keep them
in a tin with my other private calls.

Frede was fully aware of what he was doing.

She wouldn't kill me.

But one can't do such things.

Frede referred to his collection
of tapes as his cultural heritage.

Along with the fact of
Asta Nielsen's memoirs,

and a few radio and TV interviews,

his "cultural heritage" enables us,

to compose the first personal,
complex portrait of Our Lady.

Asta was born on 11 September 1881.

Her family was poor.

Mother, father, and
an elder sister, Johanne.

Her father was constantly ill.

He died in August 1895, a month
before Asta's confirmation.

Asta and Johanne had to work,

to ensure the family's existence.

It was while she was 14 or 15,

that the decision to become
an actress took shape.

Johanne had a subscription
to the Dagmar Theatre.

She went once a fortnight.

One day she received a ticket
for a play she had already seen.

She gave it to Asta.
It changed Asta's life.

I had read "Brand".

I was interested in the scene,

in which Brand's wife picks up
the garments, their child's garments.

No words were required there.

So I acted it mutely.

Asta's way to the stage was not obvious.

She was in her school choir.

Her singing teacher
thought she was talented.

He knew people at the Royal Danish Theatre.

Asta auditioned at the age of twelve,

and was admitted to the children's chorus.

Each performance contributed
two kroner to the household kitty.

In 1899, entirely of her own doing,

she managed to obtain an
audition with Peter Jerndorff.

He got her into the drama school
and took her on as a private pupil.

I was quite uncultured
when I came to Jerndorff.

I came straight from a municipal
school and a working class home.

He had so much to teach me.
My language was so common!

He taught me twice a week.

Finally he said I was his
best student of Danish!

- He was really...
- He was lovely.

Asta only stayed at drama school a year.

In 1901 she progressed
to the Dagmar Theatre,

and the following year was
given a new production.

But she never had an easy
time in Copenhagen theatre.

She threw herself into a
theatrical company, "The Eight",

which planned to open its
own theatre in Copenhagen.

To fund it they undertook a long
tour of Sweden and Norway.

I went to Norway with "The Eight".

I had six months with Fjelstrup...

...before we got that far.

Did you get involved
in film quite by chance?

- By chance?
- Yes.

Yes... one may say so.

In 1908 The New Theatre opened
in Vesterbro, Copenhagen.

Asta Nielsen was in
the opening performance.

But the theatre had trouble
pursuing its stated aims.

Audiences were fickle.
The manager, Viggo Lindstrøm,

had to resort to a safer,
more popular repertoire.

Asta Nielsen slipped
out of the great roles.

At the New Theatre she met Peter Urban Gad,

a director and set painter
also rendered superfluous,

by the safer operetta successes.

He had noticed the unusual actress.

He was also deeply fascinated
by the new media, film.

Urban Gad shared my fate.

We expressed our indignation
at our passive lives as artists.

"If I write a film", he said,
"will you act it?"

"That very much depends", I said.

"Do you know what I shall have to act?"

He thought so,

and that day he started writing the film,

that would carry our
names all over the globe.

That was in June 1910.

The film was "The abyss.".

It also included a young star,
Poul Reumert.

Gad's dose friend, Hjalmar Davidsen,

the new manager of the Kosmorama Cinema,

invested 4,000 kroner.
The film cost twice that much.

Firstly, for the times
it was a highly sensual film.

Hitherto, films had all been
farces or cultivated dramas.

Suddenly the lovers were
people of flesh and blood.

Passions run high.

It soon turned out that Reumert
was best at standing still.

We made a virtue of necessity.

His dancing was reduced,

to evading the lasso with
which, symbolically enough,

I tried to ensnare him,
caught him, and hogtied him.

They are all what we
call sensual melodramas.

I.e. films with powerfully sensual plots,

so suggestive that "The abyss"
was banned in many places.

In Norway and Sweden people
were very prim in those days.

In Norway the mischievous
dance was cut entirely,

and the Swedes cut bits.
It was too strong, they said.

Unable to assume any more poses,

he stood centre stage,

and, arms crossed, his face contemptuous,

he received my declarations of love,

by way of a passionate belly dance.

I pressed close to him,

and writhed erotically
around my poor victim.

Unaware of the moderation film required,

as a profession unfamiliar to me,

I put all the longing, unrequited
love, and burning desire I could,

into my rhythmic movements.

Though shooting was slow,

as few in the film crew
had ever made a film before,

and it was shot outdoors
at a time with lots of rain,

- people felt that something
great was happening.

Asta Nielsen knew how to
exploit the new film length.

In 1910 films suddenly
became twice as long.

She played out each scene without hurrying.

They started using half close-ups.

In the course of that film
she became a prima donna.

The first great film prima donna.

I realized,

that to perform vital
scenes in dramatic films,

one must be able to tear oneself
away from the surroundings.

The opportunity film
actors no longer enjoy,

to develop character and mood,

- can only be replaced by
a kind of autosuggestion.

No skills or technique will help one.

All that counts is an absolute talent,

to live to the full each fragment,

that one has arranged in one's
imagination beforehand,

and which has to be expressed truthfully,

before the all-revealing lens.

The idiom of "The abyss" was
tremendously influential.

The greatest progress was in
the development of the actor.

Actors realized that they really
could perform well on screen.

They could act properly, come
across, make a name, gain respect.

Asta Nielsen is responsible for that.

The first scene we shot was
the final scene of the film.

We chose the steps to
the ballroom at the Lorry.

I was about to take my first
step on the rotating celluloid.

It was quite new to act
situations out of sequence.

The signal to shoot began.

I was conducted down the steps,
past the whirring camera.

From the first, the sound
was strangely inciting.

A future director, Benjamin Christensen,

happened to pass as they shot the scene.

He halted, and stood there, moved,
as the scene was played out.

Then he said,
"Now I know that film can be art."

The premiere at the Kosmorama,

was no less than a sensational success.

It was soon being shown all over the world.

Everyone agreed that
the artistic film had arisen,

and a turning point had occurred
in the history of the cinema.

"The abyss" was an immediate
success with audiences.

It moved from Denmark
through Scandinavia,

Europe and other continents.
Its producer, Davidsen,

made 25,000 kroner out of it.
But it made 100,000 kroner,

for its German distributor,
Gottschalk, from Düsseldorf.

Around the world "The abyss"
triumphed on the silver screen.

There were men out there
who could see and count.

When the sums were totted up,

their pens scored thick
lines beneath the totals,

making a sound that soon dissolved,

into the creaking of door
hinges all over the world,

as they opened for me.

Germany, and Berlin not least,
welcomed Asta Nielsen warmly.

Urban Gad followed in her wake.

They had agreed to a partnership.

There were few film producers
at the time, so it seemed natural.

Less than a year after the
Danish premiere of "The abyss".

they had major contracts abroad
ensuring three years' work.

The sums were dizzying for the times.

From International
Films-Vertriebsgesellschaft alone,

they received 80,000 kroner
a year for six films... each!

In Berlin a dedicated film studio
was built for Asta's films.

It was the start of the mighty Babelsberg.

The artistic life was germinating,

that would make Berlin
the cultural capital of Europe.

What luck, what a combination!

That precisely these two people met!

We went well together then.

Firstly, he was a highly
cultivated man of great taste.

He was a painter.
He could do splendid interiors,

and knew how to choose exteriors.

My assignments were wonderful.
His great talent,

was that he could write great parts for me.

He couldn't tell me how to act them.

But he gave me situations.
And I filled them in.

That was his great talent
and my great chance.

Nobody else could see it.
Nobody would employ him.

I always insisted he should be there.

I knew very well how to act.
I didn't need any direction.

If I was given the situations
everything was all right.

It was what people wanted.

Peter Urban Gad was two years
older than Asta Nielsen,

but out of an established,
highly respected family.

His father was an army officer,
and his mother, Emma Gad,

was already a renowned writer.

In an interview in autumn 1911 Asta said,

"We are employed together
and have the same contracts.

We have moved together
from "The abyss" upwards."

On 11 May 1912 Asta and Urban got married.

In Berlin they took a
huge flat on Kaiserallee.

We had some lovely years. Thank goodness!

Those are the years in which
one develops so strongly.

And receives all the assignments one...

Yes, that, too.
On stage and on screen.

It must have been particularly
wonderful with your background.

Yes, indeed! And we were
welcomed by the greatest artists.

It seemed like a fairy tale to me.

Their specialty was initially
the combination,

of the sensual and the tragic.

Asta's parts were those
of the traditional tragedienne,

so much so that she soon
insisted on comedy, too.

The most popular film she made
in Germany was "The little angel".

The 32 year old actress plays
18 year old Jesta,

who has to pretend to be a girl of 14,

an illusion Asta carries off
without any trouble.

She acted with her entire body.

As she said, "The film is silent
so I must seek other effects."

You could tell her character
from the clothes she wore,

the furniture she sat on, etc.
Costumes were vital.

She knew that she must use her eyes
more than the rest of her face.

So she was very careful
with her eye make-up,

and she used her eyes.

She said "It's no good playing a
tragic scene in knickerbockers.

The two things counteract each other."

For a tragic scene your costume
must not counter the emotions.

She loved lines, stripes, this and that.

She loved dressing down for scenes,

where the emotional temperature was lower.

For comedy she brought
out the stripes again.

"Engelein" is considered her best comedy.

It came at the peak of her
career in Germany with Urban.

She was asked which qualities
a film actress required.

"Talent!" She replied.
"Just like the stage!"

"We talk during each take. Urban
writes all his films line by line,

just like a play for the real theatre."

Later on she insisted that Gad
never wrote extensive parts for her.

Her scripts would usually say
"Now comes Asta's great scene".

I received no direction.
I never did. Not on stage, either.

But the film itself, the plot...
I had nothing to do with that.

Urban Gad dealt with it quite on his own.

She was world famous.

So famous that they named
cinemas after her.

They named perfumes after her.

As she said, "I hear that in Budapes
they've named a chop after me.

It must be awfully lean,
for there's no fat on me!"

You had many cinemas named after you.

Yes, in Germany...

Yes, but I have nothing to do with it.

It really was a wonderful time.
- Yes, a good time.

The best time to go there.
- Yes, and I'm truly grateful.

The best years of one's life.
Just when you need them.

When you can take them in, and develop.

Yes, because Our Lord
had something for you.

He certainly did.
He gave most generously.

Goodness, yes.

By summer 1914 Asta had made
32 films directed by Gad.

The outbreak of World War I mean
no new contracts in Germany.

Asta and Urban split up.

The idyll had been superficial.

He knew that if I left him he was through.

He was incapable of developing.

He was not a good director.
He didn't keep up with the times.

He carried on with his "drafts"
which I fleshed out.

He could do nothing but give
me these assignments.

On 19 October 1915
the couple separated.

- Was he bitter?
- He wrote to "Politiken",

"Now the star vehicles are over.
Now the directors will emerge."

For goodness' sake!
- Dearie me!

He did all he could to harm me.
He told the police I was a spy.

I know for certain.

We didn't have rows.
But he was so vengeful.

It'd have been different if I'd
thought he was a good person.

But he wasn't.
I didn't like him as a human being.

Yes .

Things sometimes turn out like that.

Gad remained in Germany
and continued to make films.

In 1919 he published the first
work on film production theory.

In 1922 he returned to Copenhagen,

as manager of the Grand Theatre.

His sporadic film work included
directing Little and Large,

in "Wheel of fortune" in 1919.

He died on 26 December 1947, aged 68.

In "Engelein" Asta Nielsen's
character was named Jesta.

But her own daughter Jesta
was not with her in Berlin.

Postcards from
Asta and Urban to Jesta,

reveal that Jesta was living
with Asta's mother, Ida Nielsen,

and that her surname
until autumn 1912 was Thomsen.

She saw her mother
at weekends and holidays.

She was an adult before she
became doser to her mother.

What did the First World War mean to you?

The First World War...

Well, it meant that I had
to come back to Denmark.

Of course it was a major interruption
but it couldn't be helped.

Asta went on a cruise with Swedish friends,

and met the young captain, Freddy Wingårdh,

with whom she crossed the Atlantic.
He was a good match.

His father was a wealthy
Swedish shipping magnate.

He was also described
as divinely beautiful.

He would become Asta's second husband.

In 1916 Asta returned to Berlin,

this time with Freddy Wingårdh,
who funded "Neutral Film",

Asta's own production company.
They got a contract for eight films.

They moved into the Union
film studios for the summer.

They made their eight films
but of fluctuating quality.

The war meant a lack of
good directors or crew,

or audiences.

Asta and Freddy went back to Copenhagen.

But in 1918 the bells of peace rang out,

summoning me back to Berlin.

Great changes had taken place.

Germany was now in a twilight
of grief and poverty.

The Germans experienced
unprecedented inflation.

Asta's return to her beloved
city was a triumph.

Germany needed the great film diva.

Entertainment and survival
were what mattered.

Asta was a light in the darkness.

I fitted into Germany quite splendidly.

I have never been very
enthusiastic about Denmark.

I have never been happy in Denmark.

I never received my due
from the stage there.

In Berlin I was part
of the very finest circles.

Immediately I had a circle
of great artists around me,

who raved about me.
It was mutual, of course.

The atmosphere was wonderful.
I miss that in Denmark.

The films were built up around her.

The plots were designed
as vehicles for her.

The other actors and actresses
just served to feed her.

She said, "I haven't appeared
in that many good films.

But I was pretty good in many of them."

She didn't hide her light under a bushel.

Indeed she did not appear
in many good films.

Very few directors matched her ambition,

or knew how to use her properly.

Unlike the other actors
I have talked to,

who are disappointed the first
time they see themselves on film,

to me it was a pleasant surprise.

I had been too pessimistic.

It hadn't helped when the
photographer declared beforehand,

that my face was quite unsuited for film,

and advised that my part be recast.

Oh, those experts!

Much has been said
of Asta Nielsen's appearance.

Most people thought
she was enormously ugly.

Ole Olsen, head of Dansk
Nordisk Films Kompagni,

the leading European film
company in the early 1910s,

wanted nothing to do with
her even after "The abyss",

because he considered her so ugly.

She was also considered too thin.
Thinner than was fashionable.

What made her the great
star she went on to become,

was partly that she became
part of the argument,

on the role of women.

In the 1920s Germany was
fascinated by die neue Frau,

i.e. the new woman, modern woman.

The modern woman satirized in magazines,

was quite androgynous.

She didn't only think
she did everything herself.

She fervently believed that
the others were mere artisans.

I wasn't satisfied with
any of them, of course.

I think they could all have been better.

The strength of the women she played,

and an interesting aspect of the films,

is that although they face such adversity,

they are also tragic.

She created characters for whom
you don't just feel sorry.

They're not just "little women".

Her acting and characters
are full of pathos,

tragically makinq us aware that
her emotions are greater than she.

The hugeness of these emotions
also makes her characters greater.

One of her first great
assignments was "Rausch".

It was a film of Strindberg's
"Crime and Crime",

directed by the young Ernst Lubitsch.

What if you'd had a good
director for example...

I never saw that.

- Oh, you did ... you had Lubitsch.
- Yes, I worked with him once.

He wasn't a director in that sense.
He could set a scene.

He understood great actors.
He never interfered with what I did.

He knew very well that he could not do so.

Because you knew what
you could do and had to do...

And he knew that there
was nothing he could do.

They didn't work smoothly together.

Asta was not at all happy with
his interpretation of Strindberg.

He planned scenes
she refused to take part in.

To "Kinorevyen" in 1919 she said,

"Strindberg's spirit has been blown away,

leaving a mish-mash of a film
that I won't put my name to."

She didn't like admitting
that anyone had talent.

But when she discovered that
Lubitsch was now world famous,

she changed her tune.

She was used to long scenes featuring her.

He was a modern director
who edited and used short scenes.

She'd say, "I want this scene to
last so-and-so-many minutes."

"But Asta Nielsen, in just 15 seconds,

you've expressed all the scene needs."

Was he the director you were
most satisfied with in Germany?

Yes; he was the only one to know
his job technically speaking.

Artistically, of course,
I needed no directing.

The 1920s were a fertile
time for German film.

Exciting new directors appeared.

Murnau, Fritz Lang, Von Stroheim.

A genius was waiting for Asta Nielsen...
George Wilhelm Pabst.

- What was Pabst like?
- Oh, he was terrible.

- He was?
- Yes. It was his first film.

He had no idea.
He was a lovely man.

We got on very well. But he had no talent.

But he had great actors
to play the parts, so he got by.

Once the film was finished and edited,

I thought he'd been very good
at setting the scenes.

But when one worked with
him in the studio, it was terrible.

The only thing we agreed on was
that Greta Garbo was talentless.

He thought so, too.

She didn't like fellow actresses.

There are no other beautiful
young women in her films.

Only her.

She had no time for the others.

Pabst took the liberty of not
only employing a Danish actress.

He also chose a Swedish one. Greta Garbo.

You appeared with Garbo in the mid 1920s.

How do you rate her?

Excuse my laughter.

She was the most beautiful ever.

But talent? I can't find any.

She acted in quite a different way
to other female silent movie stars.

She acted inwardly. They acted outwardly.

Asta Nielsen used tiny effects,

to portray seething passion.

This was perceived as the way
film should express itself.

Film was not meant to be like the stage.

So she became the great diva,

the masses sought in
their hysteria for stars.

In the early 1920s Asta
started another company,

again funded by Wingårdh's family.

Art Film produced three films.
"Hamlet" was the most famous.

Asta Nielsen plays Hamlet,
a princess in disguise.

She had a lot of control
over Hamlet, made in 1920.

It was heavily criticized.

Justifiably so,

as it employed the device
of making Hamlet a woman,

a princess whose mother forces
her to pretend to be a prince,

and hence heir to the throne.

This results in a tragic tale,

of a woman forced to live
as if she were a man.

At one point the film states
she is neither woman nor man.

Despite luke-warm reviews in Europe,

it was one of her few successes in the US.

In Art Film's final production,
"Der Absturz", 1922,

Asta played opposite
Grigori Chmara from Russia.

He was from the Stanislavski school.

He'd fled to Berlin during
the Russian Revolution.

His encounter with Asta
must have been dramatic.

Freddy and Asta's marriage
suddenly dissolved.

From the moment I got divorced
from Freddy Wingårdh,

sleep abandoned me.

Not because I worried about him,

but I was so disturbed by this Russian man.

My nerve snapped.

Yes, and of course
practically and financially,

he had been so good
at organizing everything.

Yes. I'd had my own company as
long as I was married to Freddy.

But it ceased as soon as we parted.

From that moment onwards
it was a matter of chance,

as to whether one could get a film
to do and maintain one's prestige.

The last silent movie Asta made
was "Das gefärliche Alter", 1927.

Her last film of all, and her only talkie,

was "Unmögliche Liebe",
released at Christmas 1932.

Miss Holck!
Such high spirits?

- How would you know?
- You were singing.

Oh, was I?
Interesting!

Very interesting!

I only made one talkie,
the awful "Impossible love".

But didn't it go very well?
Lots of people went to see it.

Oh, yes, but it was dreadful,
and I wasn't particularly good.

It wasn't right.
Oh, it was a big lead, but...

When I read the script
I wished I could get out of it.

- I just wanted to say good morning.
- I can't talk for long.

And anyway I don't want to.

"Impossible love" was actually
quite a box-office success.

Asta received splendid reviews
for her performance, too.

Hr. Steinkampff is a fine man.

Besides, he is a great artist.

It isn't so easy to act
in a foreign language.

Nevertheless I'd rather act
in German than in Danish.

German is much more resonant than Danish.

It felt more natural than Danish.

My voice has never been
placed correctly for Danish.

And I adored acting in German.
I could express myself better.

I even dreamed in German.
- Surely not!

- Yes, I did!
- My goodness!

I thought in German and dreamed in German.

They say that the talkies put
paid to me, but they didn't.

I retired in 1926,

and talkies didn't reach Germany till 1929.

- Oh, yes, that's right.
- I didn't only make films.

I acted on stage there for ten years.
- That's right.

But talkies didn't interest me.

Asta Nielsen, the Duse
of the silent movie, spoke.

Not on film, but on the
stage in great parts,

like la Dame aux Camilles,
Hedda Gabler, and many others.

She continued to be fêted in Germany.

She kept to parts,

where the character spoke
affectedly or with an accent.

It was wonderful,

to have this contact with the audience.

But on camera I felt that I
was acting to the whole world.

I didn't feel that it was
just a piece of apparatus.

But I gradually tired of it.
I was so sick of film.

Not of making them, but the entire milieu

Ugh! It was all awful!

As an actress, the technology
became too complicated for her.

She could no longer do what she had done,

before and just after the war.
So much else appeared.

Her age was against her from the start.

She was 29 when she made "The abyss".

The Griffiths stars were 15 or 16.

Asta Nielsen was in her early forties.

The audience was made up
of what we now call teenagers.

They preferred watching
youngsters of their own age,

to her as Hedda Gabler.

We had an impresario
who organized the whole tour.

When we'd seen what he did,
Jesta took over.

She sat at the typewriter
and started off our tours.

When you know the routes,

all you have to do is to send
a number of letters around,

stating that we can perform
at that or that time.

I loved touring.

I was often in a new town every evening.

One was fêted in every single one of them.

So I had ten wonderful years on stage.

The ten happiest years of my life.

It was probably via her
work as an impresario,

that Jesta met a Dane in Berlin.

The singer, painter, future
writer and speech teacher,

Paul Vermehren.
They got married in 1929.

When Jesta married Raul Vermehren in 1929,

Asta was delighted.
Jesta was "safely married".

We may reasonably question
the real reasons for this marriage.

But Asta decided to put up with it.

Jesta had had a hard time of it.
She was a fat, ugly girl,

with a world star as a mother,
a beauty worshipped by the world.

She had always been totally
eclipsed by her mother.

Of course her grandmother, sister,

and sister's friends had done
what they could for her,

but Jesta was always sidelined.

In the early 193Os Asta and
Gregori moved into a huge flat,

in the heart of Berlin.

There Asta became renowned
for her artistic soirées.

She had get-togethers with
celebrities like Thomas Mann,

Picasso and Einstein.

Asta's home was a literary salon.

I've spoken to people
who frequented this salon.

I asked how such celebrities had sat down,

with a proletarian girl from Nørrebro.

Erich Kästner told me it was "She
who talked, and we who listened".

She also acquired a sanctuary
on the island of Hiddensee,

where many leading German
personalities escape from the city.

A number of artists went there.
From the theatre, writers ...

Thomas Mann, Ringelnatz,
and Hauptmann had property there.

Hiddensee was very remote.

There were no cars.
You got there on the postal packet.

There was so much health
and happiness there.

I was so happy in that house.

It must have been where you were happiest.

Yes.

So I can't bear to think that I've lost it.

I had nine lovely years there.

Gradually things became more
and more unpleasant in Germany.

The early 193Os returned
Germany to the post-war days.

The economy was in ruins.

Unemployment and poverty
were the order of the day.

The way was paved for new ideas
and a strong man: Adolf Hitler.

Goebbels had these afternoon teas.
I was invited.

I sat next to Hitler.

They tried to get me to make films.

I told him I didn't think
he would have any luck,

as "I have never been in a political film".

He said "You won't need to.
Choose whatever you please!

Unlike you I can say 2000 words,

without anyone understanding me.

But one movement from you
and the whole world understands."

So I said "Do you mean this movement?"

It was very hard for her to
witness what was happening.

The disappearances,

or the censorship at the theatres
that affected not only the words,

but who was acceptable as a
member of "Reich Film Kammer',

or "Reich Teater Kammer" and
thus allowed to perform at all.

These restrictions must have
troubled her enormously.

In summer 1936 Asta visited Copenhagen.

A newspaper asked her how she
viewed the situation in Germany.

She regretted the present situation,

but emphasised "Germany
is my second homeland".

"I don't wish to live elsewhere".

In spring 1937 she nevertheless
decided to leave Germany.

She moved into a fine
apartment on H. C. Ørstedsvej,

and radiated an aura of wealth and beauty.

In "House and Lady", March 1938,

a reporter describes
Asta Nielsen's apartment thus:

"I enter a room,

the largest, most peculiar,
loveliest I've ever seen.

I am overwhelmed by its beauty.

I sense immediately the
harmony of this home,

assembled by a refined art lover,

and composed by a master
of image and emotion."

To him Asta Nielsen revealed
her disappointment,

at her reception in Denmark.

"Do I want to work again?
Of course I do

I had intended to start
my own theatre here.

But do you think Danish theatre
is any encouragement? I don't."

One of my friends,

a well-known film maker from Denmark,

asked 'Why doesn't Asta
Nielsen make films here?

Goodness no, she has ideas
of her own, she's no use.

She'll never work in Danish
studios.', he said.

That's Denmark for you."
Well, it is a small country.

Can't they experiment?

She had thought that Denmark
would welcome her with open arms.

Opportunities in Danish theatre
and film would appear forthwith.

But they didn't.
Or they were very limited.

She did appear in
"Tony paints a horse" in 1939.

That was their only attempt.

On 9 April 1940 the Germans
occupied Denmark.

They hadn't forgotten their Asta.

On the first day as I got out of the lift,

two officers saluted me,
saying "Ach, die Liebste!"

I walked right past them.
It was very difficult.

It was awful.

In October 1940 Asta
moved to Peter Bangsvej.

Though her new flat was much smaller,

she had to let a room to make ends meet.

Copenhagen during the German
Occupation was a trial for her.

One of the German connections
she lost was Heinrich George.

During the Occupation
celebrated German actors visited.

George shouted up from
the street "Asta, Asta!",

with a bottle of whisky in his hand.

But she didn't admit him. She said,

"I'm through with the Third Reich."

It wasn't easy. We'd been
terribly fond of each other.

We were such good friends, Heinrich and I.

The only problem was politics.
We had no personal differences.

He refused to understand
why he couldn't drop in,

when he was doing guest performances here.

I was very sorry for him,
for I was very fond of him.

I cannot associate with
Nazis or Communists.

The Third Reich representative
in Denmark approached her,

to tell her they wanted her back,

and that Die Fuehrer had forgiven her.

She replied, "But I haven't
forgiven Die Fuehrer."

I sometimes tell Jesta,
"I shouldn't have left Germany.

Then I wouldn't have lost my money."

But Jesta says "You could never
have held out down there."

And I couldn't have.
Not under the Nazis.

It would have meant living
quite contrary to my convictions.

I could never do that.
And one just has to pay the price.

As I did in full.
- Yes, I absolutely agree.

I EXTINGUISHED MY OWN STAR

ASTA NIELSEN IS WRITING HER MEMOIRS

She came home to distrust, envy,
a mixture of all kinds of things.

Strange rumours were spread about her.

It was as if she was "undanish",

although she in fact always
remained a Danish citizen.

She made most of her films in Germany,

and Germany gave her the
chance of becoming a world star.

But at home it was as if
the country was too small.

I thought the offers would flood in.

But I received none.
I'd have liked to direct a film.

But I never did.

There was a lot of gossip.
They said I was a Nazi.

- They did indeed.
- Victor Bendix wrote about me.

Yes, during the Occupation,

he wrote "Asta Nielsen is also
a Nazi", with a big photograph.

What a dastardly thing to do!

She was too big for Denmark.

There were actors here,

who went as far as accusing her of
procuring little boys in Germany.

Really mean stories.

They all said I gave
the Germans my labours.

- I think it was due to envy.
- Enyy.

They said I worked for the Nazis.
And it got repeated.

Yes, it is cruel.

People are so mean.
People are so malicious.

So malicious.

ASTA NIELSEN SAY SHE IS AN
ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORTER OF THE NAZIS.

She was never given the cinema
license she so much needed.

She lost a lot of money
during the two world wars.

Her property in Germany was sequestered.

Considering what they said about me,

no wonder I never got a license.

- And there was no reason why not.
- They said I was a Nazi.

That was the only reason.

In those days the minister of justice
granted licenses to achievers,

from the film industry.
She applied 13 times.

She was never given a license
or a reason for not getting one.

The ministry must have thought
there was no smoke without a fire.

It was scandalous.
She applied 13 or 14 times.

One untalented person after
another received licenses.

They couldn't claim that she was
an actress with no head for money.

She had had her own production companies.

It was petty. Really petty.

People say to me on
the tram, "It's a scandal."

- Everybody says so.
- Yes.

Whether it was the mandarins
or the minister,

the minister was responsible.

It's hard to judge whether her name
was recommended to him properly.

That's Denmark for you.

Danish film is where it was in 1910.
It hasn't changed.

Not one superb film actor has emerged.

No, I don't believe so.

The Christmas after I came home,

"Politiken" asked me to perform
at their Christmas concert.

When I got there, Cavling looked at me.

I was the only person there
with no official decorations.

You could see Høegh Knudsen
and Poul Reumert...

...their chests were covered.

Yet I was the only international celebrity.

When she moved to Peter Bangsvej
she was anonymous.

She was "Mrs. Nielsen" on her
staircase and at the baker's.

She could visit the Tivoli Gardens
without being recognized.

"Die Asta" had vanished.
"Mrs. Nielsen" was all that was left.

Names get forgotten quite dreadfully.

20 years ago everyone knew my name.

The young generation
don't know my name at all.

Frede Schmidt entered
her life in the 195Os.

A young man full of respect and
admiration for the ageing diva.

Frede returned her to her pedestal.

Frede worshipped Asta uncompromisingly.

She was the queen.

By now Asta Nielsen was no
longer getting what she wanted.

The cinema license, for example.
Things she really wanted.

She wasn't getting any attention.
But where would she get it?

But then Frede came into the picture.

It was an event in the old lady's life.

I think that he helped
to maintain Asta Nielsen,

in the belief that she was unique
in the history of the cinema.

Frede's generosity
made Asta open up to him.

She told him intimate
details of her life...

...and about Jesta and Paul in particular.

I met Jesta and Paul Vermehren
at my first dinner party there.

They were both present.

Paul Vermehren was a tall,
elegant, slender man.

He behaved as if he were the host
and Asta Nielsen the hostess.

Jesta sat there, large and
ponderous, saying little.

As I looked from Jesta to Asta,
and Asta to Jesta,

I thought Asta was the daughter
and Jesta the mother.

Jesta listened attentively, smiled amiably,

replied when talked to,
but did not take the initiative.

Asta talked about her
summer home on Hiddensee,

and at one point asked Jesta,
"Do you remember Hiddensee?

We were happy there, weren't we?"

Jesta looked back at her and said
"Yes, we were happy there."

Almost all the books about Asta Nielsen,

describe her relationship to Jesta
and Paul as idyllically happy.

It is said they couldn 't do
without one another.

But is this the whole truth?

When Asta wrote
her memoirs in 1945 and 1946,

she wrote Jesta out of her life.
She had never had her.

The truth is that Jesta
was an unwanted child,

born in secrecy at the Maternity
Home, Copenhagen, in 1901,

and then given up for adoption,

though Asta's mother
reclaimed her a month later.

Jesta's story is hard to fathom.

Asta never revealed the
identity of Jesta's father.

There are several theories.

Jesta is a very unusual name.

Asta said she wanted a name
that was close to her own.

Where she found it, I do not know.

My guess is that Jesta is a combination
of Asta and Jerndonfif.

Asta's teacher at the Royal Theatre,
Peter Jerndorff,

had a sickly wife.
Jerndorff was in his early fifties.

Various circumstances,

including a monthly allowance
from Jerndorff's wife,

meant that Asta did not have to take a job,

but could study and take her lessons.

Suddenly this allowance ceased.

The maternity home records show,

that Asta Nielsen was
admitted on 9 July 1901.

The baby was born the next day,
and christened Jesta Thomsen.

To "Søndags BT" in 1967,
Asta described the situation.

"There was great shame attached
to being an unmarried mother.

But I was sure I didn't
want to marry the father.

I told my mother I'd been
invited to go away on holiday.

But actually I moved
into a room in town.

Thanks to my fiance's father, a doctor,

I was admitted to the maternity home."

Asta Nielsen imparted a little
more information to Frede.

I don't really know what he was like.
He wasn't specially energetic.

But he passed his exams.
He had a law degree.

I admit he never got anywhere as a lawyer,

but that may not have been be his fault.

Not that there was much energy in him,
though on the other hand...

The Thomsen surname has hitherto
been regarded as a coincidence.

But what if it was not such
a coincidence after all?

The list of law graduates from 1900,

the year before Jesta was born,

reveals a Thomsen whose
father was also a doctor.

Niels Hans Robert Thomsen.

He was three years Asta's senior.

His father had a surgery and
lived at 8, Nørrebrogade.

This was in the quarter where Asta lived,

- with her mother and
sickly sister Johanne.

Robert Thomsen's career
in law was unsettled.

He practised in Copenhagen,

but in 1910 he quit the bar,

and subsequently only appears
as an "assistant" or "secretary".

Words are one thing.
A photograph is another.

Could this be Jesta's father?

She refused to go on a diet.

That's why she got diabetes
and why she is too fat.

I suppose it is.
It's quite incomprehensible.

Ever since she was 18 I've been
telling her about her obesity.

All the money I've spent!
All the places I've sent her!

She has the same need as
a drunkard has for alcohol.

She wants cream and chocolate.

She spends a lot of time alone.
Paul is busy from dawn to dusk.

It depresses her.
- Of course.

She is lonely. He keeps himself busy.

But between the two of us,
all his amateur painting...

He should take care of his home
rather than his filthy muck.

She is on her own from dawn to dusk.

When he gets home he
doesn't say a word to her.

He sits in his study.

Then he goes to bed
without saying goodnight.

The marriage was a marriage of friends.

They were friends.

She never had any children.

She was badly affected by diabetes.
She needed care.

- Has she any lady friends?
- No, she never has had.

At first lots of people went to see them.

But they criticized them all away.
I was living in Germany.

Their house was always packed;
they were living on my money.

They sent the bills to me.

People always go where
they can get a free meal.

Even so they failed to keep any of them.

Not one.

Asta did not know

that the attachment Jesta and Paul felt

came from something they had in common.

Jesta had never been given a father.

Paul was also fatherless.
He'd been adopted -

but was obsessed with the desire
to emulate his real father,

Kammersanger Herold.

Paul was also an unrecognized
genius, if genius is the word.

He studied acting and painting.

Nothing ever came to anything.
He also tried singing.

Paul has no charm.

To perform cabaret you need charm.

Or a superb voice. Or be a comedian.

But Paul is quite unsuited to performing.

That's why he has never got anywhere.

He was most unpopular at the Royal Theatre.

In Berlin, if I got him into a cabaret,

they came to me afterwards to complain.

The imbalance grew clearer and
clearer as the years went by.

She was used to being pushed aside.

And then she married a homosexual.

He wrote touching letters
to her from his travels.

Every day.

Jesta's fate was also special.
Born with elephantiasis,

she married the biggest queen in Berlin.

It wasn't a relationship a woman
would ordinarily put up with.

She had a hard time.

Jesta's fate makes me shudder.

If you were gay you kept quiet about it.

On that first evening,

I remember clearly in
the cab on the way home,

thinking "Isn't Paul Vermehren gay?"

Today he'd have lived with another gay.

But in those days it was all so furtive.

Hello, Mrs. Vermehren, it's Frede Schmidt.

I just wanted to thank you for that dinner.

It was ages ago.
- I hardly remember it.

But I must be very depressing
to other people.

Oh, I don't think so, really.

Mother and Paul always say
I used to be so cheerful.

I don't feel like doing anything.
I am so cross and dull.

One worries so much, doesn't one?
- Yes, one does.

I can't help it where Jesta is concerned.

I take everything else lightly.
It isn't important.

But Jesta is the most
important thing in my life.

She always has been.

On 1 May 1964 Paul Vermehren
went into hospital

for a series of tests.
He was given a dean bill of health.

But the next morning he suffered
a fatal heart attack.

His sudden death sent Jesta
into deep depression.

On 12 October 1964

Asta received a phone call
from Jesta's house in Vanløse.

The police had found Jesta dead in bed.

Beside her was a letter written
just before she killed herself.

It was addressed to Asta.

Dear Mummy, my nerves are in such a state,

that I fear for my sanity,
my future, everything.

I can't go on.

Thank you for everything,
my darling mummy... Jesta.

Jesta Vermehren, née Thomsen, was 63.

Minutes after the phone
call from the police

Asta met one of the other
residents on the stairs.

She mumbled "I'm free at last".

From that day onwards I stayed with her.

I spent eight or nine months there.

She was wretched.

I was installed in the living room.

She lay in the bedroom, with the door ajar.

Every night she would break into tears.

I'd get up, sit down on the edge
of her bed, and comfort her.

I held her and kissed away her tears.

It sounds awful.

But I'd get her up and we'd
play two handed bridge.

A bottle of whisky would
appear on the table,

and she felt better.

By then Asta Nielsen was so frail,

that she needed someone
who could give her constant care.

Frede Schmidt was definitely
not able to do so.

You can say lots of nice things
about him, but not that.

In 1967, Stangerup,
a young man at the time

wanted to make a film with her in it.

I think she thought the film
would be therapeutic.

So she allowed Stangerup to start his film.

Stangerup found he was up
against the very same woman,

neither Pabst nor Lubitsch
had been able to control.

Henrik hadn't made any films.
He had no idea.

The first day of shooting,

we were all rather overawed.

She was a fine lady.

She'd taped her double
chin behind her ears,

and put on a little toupee to
make her look a bit more chic.

I stood there with the clapboard.
Nothing happened.

Asta sat there. Henrik sat there.

They looked at each other.
I gesticulated...

We said "Ready for action".
He said...

Henrik said loud and clear,
"Action, Mrs. Nielsen!"

She looked into the camera
with her kryptonite stare,

that would have melted the lens
and said "Young Stangerup!

Call me either Mrs. Asta
or Mrs. Asta Nielsen.

Mrs. Nielsen is what you call my charlady!"

I have always known that fame
is but a word written in sand.

What made her so angry with
Stangerup and his film crew?

She'd been so celebrated in Germany,

and so unappreciated in Denmark
that it was logical,

when somebody like Stangerup
wanted to do something for her,

that she decided to give him what for.

It would have happened
whatever they had done.

The film would never have come out.

She'd made up her mind.

I have had many joys,

but many sorrows, too.

The greatest of all sorrows
came in my old age.

Perhaps it is quite natural at my age,

that one is one of the survivors.
But so alone!

Today's press conference is being
held outside Radio House.

For this special occasion,

we're seated in a
large flat in Frederiksberg,

full of wonderful old objects,

with one of Denmark's few world stars,
actress Asta Nielsen,

who requires no introductions.

Apart from one thing,
Mrs. Asta Nielsen.

May I reveal how old you are?

Yes, you may!

87 years old and still active.
- I don't know about active...

In addition to her memoirs,

in the 1950s and 1960s she
wrote several short stories,

that were published in newspapers
and magazines.

But she had yet another
artistic talent, too.

I have a summer place on Hiddensee.

It rained and rained and I got bored.

I said, "I must do something...
so as not to just sit around here".

In a desk I had some dresses
my daughter had worn as a child.

I took them out and began to appliqué.

Then I thought "It'd be far
easier if I used adhesive".

And in that way
I began making collages.

As early as 1954 she
mounted a small exhibition,

at Ole Haslund's house
in centra! Copenhagen.

This was at the instigation
of the artist Kirsten Kjær.

They'd become friends while she
was painting his portrait in 1952.

Kirsten Kjær was a member
of the Bridge Club,

along with Clara Pontoppidan
and Maria Garland.

In autumn 1964,

Kirsten Kjær took Asta
and Frede for a drive,

which ended at art dealer Anders
Christian Theede's home in Møn.

Asta and Theede, 18 years her junior,
liked each other at once.

I live quite a different life now, don't I?

In the last couple of years?

Isn't it a couple of years since we met?

Four!

Oh, yes! But I didn't love you then!
Nor you, me! We merely met.

No, it progressed...

But in 1969 they met more and more often.

She spent two summer months
at his house on Møn.

What was it about Asta Nielsen
that you could not Resist?

Her directness, her...

...her entire nature,
her entire personality.

I had always admired Asta Nielsen.

After years of retirement
you have got married?

Yes.

How did it come about?

It's a bit of a fairy tale for both of us.

But we fell in love.

So all we could do was get married.

Don't you want to see him?

- I'd love to.
- Where is Christian?

- I'm over here. Come over here.

- I've got an apron on.
- We want to see you.

- It doesn't matter.
- Where are you?

Come here... we want a look at you.

- Do we?
- Yes.

This is my husband.
It's the happiest time of my life.

The years I've spent with my husband.

I've been married three times.
But not happily.

Now I am happy.

I didn't propose to my wife,
but I said to her,

"If only we were a bit younger
we could have got married."

And Asta said loud and clear,
and sincerely,

If you ask me I'll say '"Yes'".
So I asked at once.

In May 1972
Asta had a fall in her flat.

She hurt her hip badly.

On 25 May 1972 at 0.15

she died at
Frederiksberg Hospital, aged 91.

Christian Theede was beside her.

When I look back at my life

I see a narrow, sunny path
meandering through it.

It teems with tiny flowers
in delightful pastel hues.

Mrs. Asta Nielsen, may I ask you
again: was your life a fairy tale?

It has become so,
through Christian,

my one great love.
Yes, it turned into a fairy tale.

Her urn was interred in the common
grave at Vestre Cemetery,

where her daughter Jesta
is also buried.

I always sleep incredibly well.
- After one has eaten, eh?

But there was one night
when I did not sleep well.

No, I don't want to read war books.
I've read so many.

They make me so angry.
- I've read lots of them, too.

One just can't get enthusiastic.
- I just don't know.

Does it matter if one
dies of enthusiasm or not?

I tell you: the people who make war
are beyond our influence anyway.

That's one way of looking at it.

So it is actually... harmful
to read that kind of thing.

One might well conclude so, yes.

Yes, we need some books
in praise of war.

Yes, quite frankly.
- To give us a bit of fun.

Yes... it'd be worth
writing an article about.

"Why publish books that make
people regret going to war?"

"Better to shout Hurrah! and
make them feel like heroes!"

I think I've got
the right end of the stick there.

I'll begin condemning books
about war...

How silly!

...and end up being
regarded as a war lover.

I might as well be that
as being called a Nazi.

Both are equally far from the truth.

All this laughing has woken me up.
- Oh, dear, what a shame!

We should have talked about
something sad instead.

Yes, about something sad.

Anyway, thanks for the laugh.
- Same to you.

Thanks for the chat.
Have a good liver!

Goodnight...