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Nordisk Films Kompagni 1906-1924: The Rise and Fall of the Polar Bear is the first comprehensive study of the Danish film company, Nordisk Films Kompagni, in the silent era. Based on archival research, primarily in the company's surviving business archives, this volume of KINtop describes and analyzes how Nordisk Film became one of the leading players in the world market and why the company failed to maintain this position. Written from perspective of Nordisk Film as a business and organization, from its establishment in 1906 until 1924 when founder Ole Olsen stepped back, this volume examines are the competitive advantages Nordisk Film gained in reorganizing the production to multiple-reel films around 1910; the company's highly efficient film production which anticipated the departmentalized organization of Hollywood; Nordisk Film's aggressive expansion strategy in Germany, Central-Europe and Russia during the First World War; and the grand plans for taking control of UFA in association with the American Famous Players in the post-war years.
List of contents
Introduction
The Research Tradition
The Film Historical Tradition Approach The Structure of This Book
1906-1909
Ole Olsen Biograf-Theatret
Olsen's First Films
The International Film Industry Open and Closed Markets
From Entrepreneur to Modern Industrial Enterprise
The Printing Laboratory
The Technical Quality of the Films Colourization of the Films Actualities
The First Fiction Films
The Studio in Valby
The Artistic Quality
The Polar Bear on the Globe Nordisk's Protection of its Films Pathé Frères and Gaumont Nordisk's Distribution Network Agents and Distributors
A Tiny Little Mosquito against a Big, Big Elephant
The Congress of Fools
1910-1914
Reorganization of the Company Den hvide Slavehandel
The Dangerous Age
The Founding of the Limited Company The Bank Syndicate
"Long and Artistic Films are our Future Motto"
Opposition to the Long Films
Exclusive System, Monopolfilm and Distribution
The Script Department Censorship and Self-Regulation Guidelines for Scriptwriters The Censorship Memoranda Russian Endings
Nordisk's Positioning of its Films Actors and Stars
Autorenfilm
The Organization of the Film Factory Bureaucratization
Hollywood in Copenhagen Capital Gains
Olsen's Sale and Stockjobbing Expansion in the USA
1914-1917
The Outbreak of World War I
Russische Schreckensregimente an der Ostgrenze
"Nordisk Films Kompagni Will Now Become the Biggest in the World" Fotorama Filmsbureau A/S and Swedish companies
Nordisk's Expansion Policy in Germany Expansion in Russia
"They Thought We Were German" Ban on Luxury Goods in Germany
The Second Expansion of the Share Capital Aubert and the Black List
The European Shareholding Company The Black Lists
The July Letter
1918-1924
After the War Artistic Decline?
New Trade Conditions The Estate after the War
The European and the American Film Industry
The New Production Method Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft Colosseum in Flensborg
DAFCO
Famous Players
A New, Big Combination
The Liquidation of DAFCO and the UFA
Capital
Metropolteatret and Fotorama
The Depreciation of the Share Capital
The Shareholders' Group
Recapitulation
Sources and Bibliography
About the author
Isak Thorsen is Research Assistant in the Section of Film and Media Studies at the University of Copenhagen and holds a PhD in Film Studies. He contributed to the anthology "100 Years of Nordisk Film" (DFI 2006) and has written for the journals
Film History, Kosmorama, 16:9, Mifune and
Sentura. He is editor and author of the Danish entries in the
Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Cinema (Scarecrow 2012).
