The original play by Holger Drachmann had already been adapted for the screen in 1907 and is a kind of variation of The Taming of the Shrew. In a land called Illyria, a princess repeatedly rejects all her suitors, including the Prince of Denmark, who is clearly in love with her. In order to attract the princess’ attention, he assumes a different identity, helped by his assistant, to win her heart. One of Dreyer’s earliest works, a costume story with an all too obvious moral and a construction of the events concealed in the form of a fairy tale, with the spoilt princess, who has all the powers, including those of life and death over her subjects and who, by ignoring others, ends up disowning even herself…
subject: Holger Drachmann - (play)
script: Carl Theodor Dreyer, Palle Rosenkrantz
photography: George Schneevoigt
mounting: Carl Theodor Dreyer, Edla Hansen
scenography: Jens G. Lind
color: Bianco & Nero
taken from: testo teatrale di Holger Drachmann
production company: SOPHUS MADSEN FILM
other titles: C'era una volta, Il était une fois
Su gentile concessione dell'Ente dello Spettacolo
