ABSTRACT

The circulation of early films was highly ephemeral, since films were regarded as consumable, interchangeable objects. Their rapid passage through cinemas, staying for just a few days or weeks, left few traces that can be used to document their movement a century later. Even in the case of films featuring a phenomenally successful star like the Danish actress Asta Nielsen in the burgeoning early cinema market of Australia and New Zealand (known collectively as Australasia or the Antipodes), few records of silent-era distribution or exhibition companies have survived to reveal which Asta Nielsen films they may have imported and screened, let alone what audiences thought of the films they were able to view. Fortunately, the open-access digitization of extensive archival newspaper holdings in New Zealand (paperspast.natlib.govt.nz) and Australia (trove.nla.gov.au) has made it possible to recreate much of the circulation history of many early films, thereby indicating their popularity and relative profitability. Such archival material confirms that Asta Nielsen was a well-known, highly valued star in the Australasian cinema firmament, with nearly two dozen films in circulation over a four-year period preceding the First World War. This article demonstrates how Trove and Papers Past can be used to follow the movement of the Asta Nielsen film When the Mask Falls/Wenn die Maske fällt (1912) through Australasia, contextualize it as part of a much larger phenomenon of Asta Nielsen films in the Antipodes, and situate it within the larger context of Australasian cinema exhibition and distribution in the pre-First World War era.

摘要

早期电影的流通非常短暂，因为电影被认为是可消费的、可互换的物品。他们快速穿过电影院，只停留几天或几周，几乎没有留下可以用来记录一个世纪后他们的运动的痕迹。即使是在澳大利亚和新西兰（统称为澳大拉西亚或 Antipodes）蓬勃发展的早期电影市场中以丹麦女演员阿斯塔尼尔森（Asta Nielsen）等非常成功的明星为主角的电影，也很少有无声时代发行或放映公司的记录幸存下来揭示他们可能进口和放映了哪些阿斯塔尼尔森电影，更不用说观众对他们能够观看的电影的看法了。幸运的是，新西兰大量档案报纸的开放获取数字化 (paperspast.natlib.govt. nz) 和澳大利亚 (trove.nla.gov.au) 使得重现许多早期电影的大部分发行历史成为可能，从而表明它们的受欢迎程度和相对盈利能力。此类档案材料证实，阿斯塔尼尔森是澳大利亚电影界的一位知名且备受推崇的明星，在第一次世界大战前的四年时间里，有近两打电影在流通。本文演示了如何使用 Trove 和 Papers Past 来跟踪 Asta Nielsen 电影的运动 在第一次世界大战前的四年时间里，有近两打电影在流通。本文演示了如何使用 Trove 和 Papers Past 来跟踪 Asta Nielsen 电影的运动 在第一次世界大战前的四年时间里，有近两打电影在流通。本文演示了如何使用 Trove 和 Papers Past 来跟踪 Asta Nielsen 电影的运动当 Mask Falls / Wenn die Maske fällt (1912) 穿越大洋洲时，将其作为阿斯塔尼尔森电影在 Antipodes 中更大现象的一部分，并将其置于大洋洲电影展览和发行的更大背景中。世界大战时期。