Nature and Landscape in Norwegian Cinema 2005 / Laila / Norway 1929
A silent film by George Schnéevoigt, a long-time collaborator and cameraman of Carl Theodor Dreyer, presenting the story of a forbidden love which unfolds in the dramatic natural landscape of Lapland.
The film is based on the prose of J. A. Friis, Norwegian writer and university professor of Lappish. After the death of her Norwegian parents, Laila is taken in by Aslag Laagje, a wealthy Lapp (Sami) shepherd and owner of a huge herd of reindeer. Laila is raised with another of Aslag’s wards, Mellet, who falls in love with Laila. Aslag arranges for them to be married, but in the meantime Laila meets Anders Lind, her cousin, and they fall passionately in love. They plan a secret meeting, but Anders doesn’t show up; that same night he spends at the side of his dying father’s bed. Laila thinks he has abandoned her, and she agrees to marry Mellet. Anders, however, arrives at the ceremony in the nick of time; the truth of Laila’s origins comes out and the lovers rush into each others arms. Viewers will enjoy the film’s period elements: the wild northern landscape and Sami traditional dress, customs and music, the latter of which, in combination with the traditional piano accompaniment for silent films, intensifies the melodrama’s atmosphere.
120 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director George Schnéevoigt
/ Screenplay George Schnéevoigt
/ Dir. of Photography Valdemar Christensen, Allan Lynge
/ Editor George Schnéevoigt
/ Producer Helge Lunde
/ Production Lunde-Film
/ Cast Mona Mårtenson, Trygve Larssen, Harald Schwenzen, Peter Malberg, Cally Monrad, Henry Gleditsch, Finn Bernhoft, Lilly Larson-Lund
/ Contact Norwegian Film Institute
www: www.nfi.no
George Schnéevoigt (1893, Copenhagen-1961, Copenhagen), director and cameraman, shot more than forty films, the most highly valued of which are his dramas. In 1913 in Copenhagen he founded the Kaulbachs Kunstfilm production company. In the 1920s he primarily stood behind the lens on the films of Carl Theodor Dreyer and other directors. Laila (1929) was his last silent film, and Eskimo (1930) was his first talkie. His last directorial work came with Everybody on Board (Alle mand på dæk, 1942); after the war Schnéevoigt left filmmaking.
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