Berlin 2007: Asta Nielsen is Hamlet

Asta Nielsen in Hamlet

Sure, the 2007 Berlinale, which has kicked off this evening, will offer a number of good — hopefully, even a few great — new films. But for my money, the most interesting section this year is the Retrospective covering the roles of women in silent films of the 1910s and 1920s.
I’ve mentioned the Retrospective in a previous post, but I didn’t know at the time that a restored (two-strip) color version of Sven Gade and Heinz Schall’s Hamlet was going to be screened. Accompanied by Michael Riessler’s new score, Hamlet, starring Grand Diva Asta Nielsen as the angst-ridden, cross-dressing prince(ss) of Denmark, will have its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival at 6 p.m. [...]

Best Films – 1948

Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan in Letter from an Unknown Woman
FILM
Anna Karenina
d: Julien Duvivier; scr: Jean Anouilh, Guy Morgan, Julien Duvivier
Cry of the City
d: Robert Siodmak; scr: Richard Murphy
Johnny Belinda
d: Jean Negulesco; scr: Irmgard von Cube, Allen Vincent
Key Largo
d: John Huston; scr: Richard Brooks, John Huston
Ladri di biciclette / The Bicycle Thief
d: Vittorio De Sica; scr: Oreste Biancoli, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Vittorio De Sica, Adolfo Franci, Gherardo Gherardi, Gerardo Guerrieri, Cesare Zavattini
Letter from an Unknown Woman
d: Max Ophüls; scr: Howard Koch
Portrait of Jennie
d: William Dieterle; scr: Peter Berneis, Paul Osborn, Leonard Berrovici
State of the Union
d: Frank Capra; scr: Anthony Veiller, Myles Connolly
The Winslow Boy
d: Anthony Asquith; scr: Terence Rattigan, Anatole de Grunwald
 

Joan [...]