I saw the Danish Film Institute's digitally-restored print of this film when it was screened at the Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy, in October 2006.
In 1910, the entire planet Earth went through the tail of Halley's comet. The only physical effect was that nights were brighter than usual that year (nowadays, we wouldn't notice, due to all the light pollution!). However, a societal effect was a sharp increase in apocalyptic stories, with the world ending due to a comet or some similar phenomenon. The vogue continued for some years thereafter, leading to Conan Doyle's 1913 novel 'The Poison Belt' and perhaps even Hollywood's apocalyptic drama of the 1930s, 'Deluge'. The mise-en-scene of 'Verdens undergang' makes it clear that this film is inspired not only by the recent visit of Halley's comet but also by the steadily worsening Great War elsewhere in Europe, and by the peasants' overthrow of the Czar in Russia.
Carl Lauritzen plays a mine foreman named West. His two daughters are a study in contrasts: blonde virginal Edith (Johane Fritz-Petersen) and dark adventurous Dina (Emma Thompson, I mean Ebba Thomsen). After jilting a poorer man named Flint (Thorleif Lund), Dina elopes with Frank Stoll (Olaf Fønss), an industrialist who practically has dollar signs tattooed on his forehead. Edith is content to cast her lot with that of Reymers (Alf Blütecher), a poor but honest ship's officer.
Meanwhile, there are reports that a comet is on a collision course with Earth. (Don'tcha hate it when that happens?) Stoll cleverly exploits the mounting panic to make a stock-market fortune for himself ... even while the apocalyptic rumours are becoming more obviously an accurate prediction. The movie never questions why Stoll is so obsessed with increasing his wealth when even he realises that the world is doomed.
Now get this, please. On the night when the comet is scheduled to strike Earth and kill everybody, Stoll and Dina invite all their wealthy decadent friends to an orgy in the Stolls' mansion. There's lots of frenzied orgiastics (1916 version). Meanwhile, Flint leads an attack of the enraged proletariat on the mansion. I found the behaviour of the lower-class characters in this movie even less plausible than the behaviour of the wealthy ones: fully aware that this is the last night of their lives, they waste it by trying to destroy someone else's property and killing them ... even though that property and those lives are going to be ended tonight anyway. Sure enough: Flint and the Stolls die BEFORE the world ends.
SPOILERS COMING. Meantime, fire rains from the heavens while the oceans flood the continents, in an apocalypse that looks astonishingly biblical. Rising seas, of course, are nothing for ship's mate Reymers. When all the trouble dies down, it appears that there are only two people left on Earth: Reymers and Edith. Up until now, we've been reminded of the Book of Revelations ... but now it looks like we're back to Genesis, with a Danish version of Adam and Eve. Cue the end credits.
'Verdens undergang' occasionally teeters on the edge of risibility, since most of the actors in this film appear to be playing social archetypes rather than human beings. Several times while watching this movie, I was reminded of my all-time favourite film -- 'Metropolis' -- but, in every single way that these two movies are similar, 'Metropolis' is definitely superior.
I was deeply impressed with how 'Verdens undergang' managed to stage the end of the world, and its aftermath, on a much lower budget than Fritz Lang had for 'Metropolis'. The scenes of the comet's arrival are simply and cheaply depicted, by means of showering sparks and billowing smoke: this understated effect is surprisingly convincing, and eerie as well. Later, the scenes of the rising flood provide some powerful exterior shots. I'm always intrigued when film-makers attempt to depict an apocalypse (or any real disaster) in locations where people are actually living and working, rather than on a studio set. 'Verdens undergang' is not the most plausible end-of-the-world film I've ever seen -- that would likely be 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire' -- but it's eerily compelling in its own right, and I'll rate this movie 9 out of 10.
In 1910, the entire planet Earth went through the tail of Halley's comet. The only physical effect was that nights were brighter than usual that year (nowadays, we wouldn't notice, due to all the light pollution!). However, a societal effect was a sharp increase in apocalyptic stories, with the world ending due to a comet or some similar phenomenon. The vogue continued for some years thereafter, leading to Conan Doyle's 1913 novel 'The Poison Belt' and perhaps even Hollywood's apocalyptic drama of the 1930s, 'Deluge'. The mise-en-scene of 'Verdens undergang' makes it clear that this film is inspired not only by the recent visit of Halley's comet but also by the steadily worsening Great War elsewhere in Europe, and by the peasants' overthrow of the Czar in Russia.
Carl Lauritzen plays a mine foreman named West. His two daughters are a study in contrasts: blonde virginal Edith (Johane Fritz-Petersen) and dark adventurous Dina (Emma Thompson, I mean Ebba Thomsen). After jilting a poorer man named Flint (Thorleif Lund), Dina elopes with Frank Stoll (Olaf Fønss), an industrialist who practically has dollar signs tattooed on his forehead. Edith is content to cast her lot with that of Reymers (Alf Blütecher), a poor but honest ship's officer.
Meanwhile, there are reports that a comet is on a collision course with Earth. (Don'tcha hate it when that happens?) Stoll cleverly exploits the mounting panic to make a stock-market fortune for himself ... even while the apocalyptic rumours are becoming more obviously an accurate prediction. The movie never questions why Stoll is so obsessed with increasing his wealth when even he realises that the world is doomed.
Now get this, please. On the night when the comet is scheduled to strike Earth and kill everybody, Stoll and Dina invite all their wealthy decadent friends to an orgy in the Stolls' mansion. There's lots of frenzied orgiastics (1916 version). Meanwhile, Flint leads an attack of the enraged proletariat on the mansion. I found the behaviour of the lower-class characters in this movie even less plausible than the behaviour of the wealthy ones: fully aware that this is the last night of their lives, they waste it by trying to destroy someone else's property and killing them ... even though that property and those lives are going to be ended tonight anyway. Sure enough: Flint and the Stolls die BEFORE the world ends.
SPOILERS COMING. Meantime, fire rains from the heavens while the oceans flood the continents, in an apocalypse that looks astonishingly biblical. Rising seas, of course, are nothing for ship's mate Reymers. When all the trouble dies down, it appears that there are only two people left on Earth: Reymers and Edith. Up until now, we've been reminded of the Book of Revelations ... but now it looks like we're back to Genesis, with a Danish version of Adam and Eve. Cue the end credits.
'Verdens undergang' occasionally teeters on the edge of risibility, since most of the actors in this film appear to be playing social archetypes rather than human beings. Several times while watching this movie, I was reminded of my all-time favourite film -- 'Metropolis' -- but, in every single way that these two movies are similar, 'Metropolis' is definitely superior.
I was deeply impressed with how 'Verdens undergang' managed to stage the end of the world, and its aftermath, on a much lower budget than Fritz Lang had for 'Metropolis'. The scenes of the comet's arrival are simply and cheaply depicted, by means of showering sparks and billowing smoke: this understated effect is surprisingly convincing, and eerie as well. Later, the scenes of the rising flood provide some powerful exterior shots. I'm always intrigued when film-makers attempt to depict an apocalypse (or any real disaster) in locations where people are actually living and working, rather than on a studio set. 'Verdens undergang' is not the most plausible end-of-the-world film I've ever seen -- that would likely be 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire' -- but it's eerily compelling in its own right, and I'll rate this movie 9 out of 10.