Cinema-Concert: The Stranger Bird

Description

Before the film, Friederike Grimm presents her new book «The Beginnings of the Star System: Asta Nielsen in Germany and Austria-Hungary 1911 – 1914», and Simone Winkler explores the natural aesthetics and environmental perception of the film. Live music: Mathias Weibel (E-Violin, Mandolin and other instruments), Emanuele Forni (E-Guitar and other plucked instruments), Simon Lilly (Trumpet, Flugelhorn) «In this early silent film by Urban Gad, Asta Nielsen plays the glamorous young Englishwoman May, who travels through the Spree Forest with her father and a chaperone and enjoys the picturesque landscape. There she meets the local boatman Max, who immediately falls for the exotic stranger...» (Filmportal) The "simple plot is (...) excellently psychologically developed, so that one hardly misses the spoken word. However, the naturalistic staging of the film takes precedence over the theater, with the rustling trees of the Spree Forest, the wonderful light reflections – especially beautiful are the magical glow of moonlight, the splashing of water, the discovery of the corpse among the water lilies, and the idyllic farmhouses. All this can only be shown in cinema in such perfection, not in theater." (Der Kinematograph, 8.11.1911) We are showing the new color restoration by the German Film Archive Participants and additional information: Director: Urban Gad Screenplay: Urban Gad Cinematography: Guido Seeber Cast: Asta Nielsen (Miss May), Hans Mierendorff (Sir Arthur Wolton, her father), Eugenie Werner (Miss Hobbs, social secretary), Carl Clewing (Max), Frau Carsten (Grete, Max’s fiancée), Louis Ralph (Herbert Bruce)