Thora van Deken
About Thora van Deken
Pastor Bjerring calls the divorced Thora van Deken to the deathbed of her former husband, squire Niels Engelstoft, hoping the two will reconcile. She finds that his will leaves a large part of the estate to a nursing home instead of to their daughter Esther. She asks him to change it. He dies before he answers. Thora steals the will, takes the estate as Esther's guardian, and says it was burned with his consent. Esther does not care about the money. She falls in love with Bjerring, the man Thora tries to keep away.
Cast & crew
More about Thora van Deken
John W. Brunius directed and wrote the script with Sam Ask, from Henrik Pontoppidan's 1900 novel Lille Rødhætte. A 1914 stage version had already been retitled Thora van Deken. Hugo Edlund and Arthur Thorell photographed it. Vilhelm Bryde and Gustaf Hallén designed the sets. Shooting ran through the summer, autumn, and winter of 1919. Skandia's own distribution office released it. Pauline Brunius plays Thora. It was her first film, and Jessie Wessel's first as well. Wessel plays Esther.
Themes
Making
Brunius cast his wife Pauline in the title role and built the picture so that almost every scene is seen from Thora's side, with a few from Esther's. Exteriors used Christinehof Castle and the harbor at Copenhagen, plus the steamer Hellig Olav. Interiors were the Skandia studio at Långängen in Stocksund.
Look
Hugo Edlund and Arthur Thorell shot it. The estate exteriors are Christinehof Castle at Tomelilla. The harbor scenes are Copenhagen.
Music
Silent. The Swedish Film Institute's 2017 restoration reconstructed the original tinting.
Preservation
The Swedish Film Institute digitally restored the film in 2017 and rebuilt the tinting. That version premiered at the Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone the same year, then played in Copenhagen and New York.
Notes
- It opened the same day, 15 March 1920, at the Sture in Stockholm, the Skandia in Norrköping, and the Victoria in Gothenburg.
- The censor cleared it from age 15.
- Hugo Björne plays Niels Engelstoft. Gösta Ekman plays Pastor Bjerring. Gösta Cederlund plays the district bailiff Lars Sidenius.
- Pontoppidan had received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1917.
- Giornate del Cinema Muto listed the English title A Mother's Fight for its 2017 screening.
- Pauline Brunius later became the first woman to run the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. This was her first film part.
Scenes
- Thora, at the deathbed, learns the will founds a nursing home instead of providing for Esther.
- She takes the will and tells the household it was burned with Niels's consent.
- Esther chooses Pastor Bjerring while her mother is still holding the estate.
Influenced by
- Henrik Pontoppidan's novel Lille Rødhætte (1900)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Thora van Deken (1920).webm)
