PROGRAMME
On the occasion of the 68th FIAF Congress in Beijing, the Norwegian Film Institute and the National Library of Norway are pleased to offer the delegates a copy of the restored Norwegian 1926 silent Brudeferden i Hardanger / The Bridal Party in Hardanger, with subtitles in Chinese and English
Veteran Norwegian film director, scriptwriter and producer Rasmus Breistein was inspired by Norway’s most iconic painting from the national romantic era (by Adolf Tiedemand and Hans Gude, 1848) as the title for his 1926 silent movie The Bridal Party in Hardanger, set in pre-industrial, rural Norway. Based on the novella “Marit Skjølte” by Kristofer Janson (1868), the film is an epic story of love, deceit and class differences.
Breistein’s film makes the most of the dramatic and magnificent fjord and mountain landscapes of western Norway. The film was a large and spectacular project, and as the main character Marit, actress Aase Bye made her break-through in cinema.
The present version is the result of six years of restoration work by the Norwegian Film Institute. Music curator at the Lillehammer University College Halldor Krogh restored the original score from surviving cue-sheets, based on works by – among others – Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, and it is performed by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
