Emma's Shadow
A love story
Reviewed by Gordon Kearns
Denmark, the early 1930's. Emma (played by Line Kruse) is the spoiled eleven year old daughter of prominent, affluent parents. That's "spoiled" in a material sense: nice clothes, good variety of playthings, general freedom to roam about - and even to be driven here and there by the family chauffeur. Emotionally, she has to be categorized as deprived. Her self-absorbed parents only endure her and her sometimes brattish attention seeking behavior, showing little interest in her personal life as they pursue more satisfying activities. The father is totally caught up in his world of business and finances, and the mother enjoys the amenities that accompany affluence (masseuse, cocktail parties, etc.). The story begins with the convergence of two events. Emma's pet kitten, which she just purchased with her own money and smuggled into the apartment, is taken away by the mother (the idea of a pet in the house doesn't sit well with her) and given to the boys who delivered the foodstuffs for the dinner party that night. Then, Emma eavesdrops on her parents and guests' conversation about the sensational Lindbergh kidnaping case that's being headlined in papers all over the world. Thus, a fateful decision is born in the bright child's creative mind. Emma fakes her own kidnaping, leaving a note made from newspaper clippings of the Lindbergh case. She sets off generally to find her kitten, while taking her time to enjoy her momentary freedom from family. She literally bumps into Malthe, a simple minded sewer worker. Emma convinces him that she is a Russian princess fleeing bolshevik pursuers. The movie rides on the love that gradually evolves between the two. Emma's quick mind leads the course of events, of course. But both benefit from the pairing. Emma brings Malthe a sense of value he never experienced; he brings her a human warmth she never experienced. The story's high point - and undoing - comes when Emma seeks to do something really nice for Malthe before she has to leave (a fact she is always aware of). With her two young friends from the restaurant she collects a ransom from her father -in a humorous sequence in which she outwits the police detective following the case. She rents an expensive suite in a swank hotel where she orders up a super dinner from room service while the boys play in the shower and bath. After the boys leave, the story leads into perhaps the most intimate love scene ever filmed. Morally, it's completely innocent, but Emma's simple declaration of love for Malthe is as absolute and uncompromising as any in the history of literature.
"Have you got lice?" she asks.
"Yes," he nods.
Then she gets up and slowly rolls the top of her head against his.
The police interrupt their idyll. Malthe assumes they are the bolsheviks of Emma's tale. Finally given the chance to prove himself and his love, he grabs the girl and runs. The police catch them, of course, and jail poor Malthe as the kidnapper.
In the end, surprising her parents, Emma gives police the evidence to prove the kidnaping was of her own making.
The final reconciliation scene, carried on without one word, is beautifully poignant, and speaks with crushing clarity to the watching parents.
This profound little-known film is a masterpiece of the art. The direction, by Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, is superb. The acting, by young Line Kruse and veteran Borje Ahlstedt, is beautiful.
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