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A National Epic

One of Norway's most famous paintings was transformed in 1926 into a grand-scale silent film drama from rural Norway. The film has finally been restored and made available.

One of Norway's silent film successes, The Bridal Procession in Hardanger from 1926, has been restored by the Norwegian Film Institute. Starring Åse Bye as the spurned Marit, the film tells a dramatic tale of deceit and forgiveness in a National Romantic setting. Naturally with a bridal voyage down the Hardanger fjord.

The film was made at a time when Norway had just become an independent nation, and national symbols like Norwegian national costume, folk music and magnificent Norwegian nature were important to people.

Director Rasmus Breistein's films are usually set in a Norwegian, majestic nature setting, telling a national tale. The actors in The Bridal Procession in Hardanger wear national costume for a large part of the film.

"We need to keep our feet solidly planted in our own soil and portray situations we know and which foreigners cannot portray. In brief, we have to draw inspiration from our own Norwegian culture," said Rasmus Breistein.

BRIDE IN NATIONAL COSTUME
The Bridal Procession in Hardanger film is based on the book Marit Skjølte by Kristofer Janson from 1865 which, in turn, is based on a painting, and tells the tale of young Marit, waiting for her love, Anders. Anders travels to America, as did many poor Norwegians between 1850 and 1900, and is supposed to return after two years. Four years later, Marit still has not heard from him. A big wedding is held at Bjørve, a big farm, and Marit goes there, without realizing that it is her beloved Anders who is marrying farm heiress Kari. She is the bride who is rowed across the fjord when Breistein brings to life one of Norway's most famous pieces of National Romantic art, The Bridal Voyage in the Hardanger Fjord from 1848.

The painting shows how the bridal couple in their fine national costume are raced across the water, as it was bad luck for the bridal couple not to go ashore first.

NEW MUSIC
Contemporary film composer Halldor Krogh has put together the original film score and also composed new music. The music is played by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, accompanied by the tones of the traditional Harding fiddle. Some sections of the score come from the music of Edvard Grieg. A separate soundtrack has been created for the film with the piano and the Harding fiddle, not unlike the accompaniment when the film was screened in the USA in the late 1920s, and director Rasmus Breistein himself played the Harding fiddle to the film. The newly-restored film has already awoken a great deal of interest in China and in the Norwegian-American part of the USA. There have been several silent film concerts in Norway with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

Knappen wrote:Don't hesitate to pm me in case of language difficulties (very strange that the NFI should not be providing an ordering service in english!).

Knappen wrote:More news: Arte's silent of the month should make everybody salivate, at least those interested in russian silent cinema.