Cinema
Jenny and the Soldier
Soldaten og Jenny
Johan Jacobsen · 1947
Synopsis
Robert, a soldier, drinks alone in a Copenhagen bar and complains about the chance that governs lives. Gustav, a self-assured driver, comes in, then Jenny, a quiet shop assistant, whom Gustav tries to get drunk; Robert steps in, and the brawl brings them together. Jenny carries a secret: seduced by a merchant, she turned to a backstreet abortionist, and the investigation opened against him now threatens her in turn. Dismissed from her department store, she awaits a trial, caught between the soldier's budding love and an eccentric lawyer who busies himself on her behalf.
Context
The film adapts Soya's play, which premiered at the Folketeatret in Copenhagen in 1940; Jacobsen wrote the screenplay and produced it himself with Saga Studio. It was released on 30 October 1947. Its subject, clandestine abortion, then carried a prison sentence, and the film openly questions the soundness of that law. Critics noted the accuracy of the acting of Poul Reichhardt and Bodil Kjer; the film was released in the United States as early as 1948.
Who it is for
About an hour and a half, in Danish. Know before watching that the heart of the drama is an illegal abortion, alluded to in veiled terms as was done at the time.
Prizes and reception
Three Bodil awards at the first ceremony, in 1948, including best Danish film; retained in the Danish cultural canon.
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