I saw the short Danish film 'Rivalinder' ('Rivals') in October 2006 -- a century after its original release -- at the Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy ... but the print which was screened was an acetate dupe restored in 1999 from a print in a German film archive, with German intertitles. Consequently, I can only address the film's action as described in this German version, not the Danish original. One of the hazards of viewing (or reviewing) silent films is that the print at hand may vary considerably from the original release, due to rewritten (or translated) screen titles and/or re-ordering of the footage.
There are no credits in this print, which may be down to its being a foreign print (a Danish film exhibited in German cinemas) or because at this time (1906) credits were not an established custom. The film's director/scenarist is believed to be Viggo Larsen, but this is purely an assumption based on the fact that he was the most prolific Danish filmmaker at the time. The actors seen here have not been identified from roles in other films.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Here's the plot, such as it is. A curtain-twitcher sees a married man trysting with his mistress; the busybody rushes to the wife and grasses him. With the busybody as her second, the wife challenges the mistress to a duel! The husband receives a letter from his wife -- footage inserted here of handwriting in German, replacing the Danish original -- informing him that the duel is about to take place. Pistols at ten paces! The frantic husband arrives at the duelling ground, just too late: his mistress has just killed his wife. As he's now a widower, this leaves him free to marry his mistress, ja? Nein! He spurns her, so she shoots him dead and then kills herself. How many bullets are in that pistol?
This plot is well and truly implausible. I can just barely believe that two European women of this time might fight a duel over a man, but would they really do so with pistols? The film's brevity leaves various points unclear; the actors' costumes don't look quite right for contemporary clothing, and it's possible that this story actually takes place in the mid-19th century. (I wish that the print I'd viewed had contained the original Danish titles.) Also, I got the impression that the wife -- the challenger in this duel -- is the one who chose pistols as the weapons to be used; if so, this violates the code duello.
It's quite possible that the filmmakers weren't striving for plausibility, and simply wanted to give their audiences a fast-moving story with action and violence. On that point, they certainly succeeded. Normally, I don't rate a movie if it's incomplete or if some factor prevents me from attaining full comprehension of the filmmakers' intentions; in this case, because the film is so short and I want it to become better known, I'll rate 'Rivalinder' 7 out of 10.
There are no credits in this print, which may be down to its being a foreign print (a Danish film exhibited in German cinemas) or because at this time (1906) credits were not an established custom. The film's director/scenarist is believed to be Viggo Larsen, but this is purely an assumption based on the fact that he was the most prolific Danish filmmaker at the time. The actors seen here have not been identified from roles in other films.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Here's the plot, such as it is. A curtain-twitcher sees a married man trysting with his mistress; the busybody rushes to the wife and grasses him. With the busybody as her second, the wife challenges the mistress to a duel! The husband receives a letter from his wife -- footage inserted here of handwriting in German, replacing the Danish original -- informing him that the duel is about to take place. Pistols at ten paces! The frantic husband arrives at the duelling ground, just too late: his mistress has just killed his wife. As he's now a widower, this leaves him free to marry his mistress, ja? Nein! He spurns her, so she shoots him dead and then kills herself. How many bullets are in that pistol?
This plot is well and truly implausible. I can just barely believe that two European women of this time might fight a duel over a man, but would they really do so with pistols? The film's brevity leaves various points unclear; the actors' costumes don't look quite right for contemporary clothing, and it's possible that this story actually takes place in the mid-19th century. (I wish that the print I'd viewed had contained the original Danish titles.) Also, I got the impression that the wife -- the challenger in this duel -- is the one who chose pistols as the weapons to be used; if so, this violates the code duello.
It's quite possible that the filmmakers weren't striving for plausibility, and simply wanted to give their audiences a fast-moving story with action and violence. On that point, they certainly succeeded. Normally, I don't rate a movie if it's incomplete or if some factor prevents me from attaining full comprehension of the filmmakers' intentions; in this case, because the film is so short and I want it to become better known, I'll rate 'Rivalinder' 7 out of 10.
