A History of Danish Cinema

Abstract

The contribution of Denmark to world cinema has been substantial: not just relative to the size of the population, but by any measure. In the silent period, the pioneering work of the company Nordisk Films Kompagni, and the emergence of early film stars such as Asta Nielsen, secured Denmark a place as a leading film nation. The auteur Carl Theodor Dreyer won global renown during his five-decade career. Documentary and educational filmmaking flourished after the Second World War; the late 1980s brought successive Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film; and Dogme 95 aimed to reinvigorate cinema by stripping filmmaking back to basics. The notoriety of arthouse auteur Lars von Trier has been complemented by the emergence of a generation of Danish filmmakers whose work is characterised by compelling stories, high production values and a strong sense of realism. This book covers all these aspects of Danish cinema history, and also encompasses a range of genres, figures and institutions that have received little coverage in English to date, such as children’s films, popular comedies, immigrant filmmakers, women documentarists, and Greenlandic cinema. The contributors situate filmmakers, genres and trends in their cultural and historical context, taking account of the influence of national film institutions and policies. The volume is organised into four parts: i) From the first ‘Golden Age’ to the Occupation; ii) National Genres; iii) Auteurs and Institutions of the New Golden Age; and iv) Decentring and Diversifying Danish Cinema.