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Books by Claire Thomson

For three decades, state-sponsored short filmmaking educated Danish citizens, promoted Denmark to... more For three decades, state-sponsored short filmmaking educated Danish citizens, promoted Denmark to the world, and shaped the careers of renowned directors like Carl Th. Dreyer. The first book-length study in English of a national corpus of state-sponsored informational film, this book traces how Danish shorts on topics including social welfare, industry, art and architecture were commissioned, funded, produced and reviewed from the inter-war period to the 1960s. Examining the life cycle of a representative selection of films, and discussing their preservation and mediation in the digital age, this book presents a detailed case study of how informational cinema is shaped by, and indeed shapes, its cultural, political and technological contexts.

Edited books by Claire Thomson

This collection of essays celebrates Professor Janet Garton's outstanding contribution over four ... more This collection of essays celebrates Professor Janet Garton's outstanding contribution over four decades to research, teaching and leadership in the field of Scandinavian Studies. Contributions from some two dozen established and emerging scholars discuss Scandinavian literature, drama, letters and visual culture with a focus on themes germane to Janet's long-running course at UEA, From Free Love to Decadence: love, modernity, travel, faith, gender, sexuality, textuality, community, and the body.

Articles by Claire Thomson

Arts (MDPI), 2019

“We have to believe that new images are still possible”. This remark by Norwegian filmmaker Joach... more “We have to believe that new images are still possible”. This remark by Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier during a recent event in Oslo entitled ‘The Sublime Image’ speaks to the centrality in his work of images, often of trauma, that aspire to the condition of photographic stills or paintings. A hand against a window, cheerleaders tumbling against an azure sky, an infant trapped under a lake’s icy surface: these can certainly be read as sublime images insofar as we might read the sublime as an affect—a sense of the ineffable or the shock of the new. However, for Trier, cinema is an art of memory and here too, this article argues, his films stage an encounter with the temporal sublime and the undecidability of memory. Offering readings of Trier’s four feature films to date which center on their refraction of memory through crystal-images, the article emphasizes the affective encounter with the films as having its own temporality.

Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, 2019

The use of film in anti-tuberculosis campaigns dates back to at least the 1910s in Scandinavia an... more The use of film in anti-tuberculosis campaigns dates back to at least the 1910s in Scandinavia and elsewhere. However, in the immediate wake of World War II, developments in mass public health screening necessitated a new wave of informational films that explained x-rays, Mantoux tests and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination to the public. This article examines three such cases: first, Alle i fare! (All Endangered!) (Falk, Norway, 1948); second, a suite of films made in 1948 by Danish filmmaker Hagen Hasselbach for UNICEF for educational and fundraising purposes; and third, Medan det ännu är tid (‘While there’s still time’) (Martin Söderhjelm, Sweden, 1952). The films are contextualized within the broader history of anti-tuberculosis films and campaigns, as well as the circumstances of their commissioning and distribution. The article identifies a range of narrative and visual strategies that construct a new kind of national and global citizen whose body is made available and visible to public authorities for the collective good. In particular, it is argued that the (re)mediation of new mass screening technologies such as x-rays, skin tests and health data often make use of the properties of the projection screen, demonstrating the entanglement of medical and media technologies.

Kosmorama, 2018

In the wake of an Oscar nomination for his 1960 short 'A City Called Copenhagen', Danish document... more In the wake of an Oscar nomination for his 1960 short 'A City Called Copenhagen', Danish documentarist Jørgen Roos accepted invitations to make similar films from the city authorities of Hamburg and Oslo. Though the commissioning processes were different, the resulting films can be seen as a kind of trilogy: all three use forms of art as an organising principle, all three focus on the everyday lives of the people of the city, and all three put emphasis on walking in the city. On the basis of archival research in Copenhagen, Hamburg and Oslo, and drawing on Michel de Certeau’s essay ‘Walking in the City’, this article tries to trace how the lived city emerges in each film from the negotiations between filmmaker, commissioning authorities, and the city streets themselves.

Short Film Studies, 2018

Flimmer’s narrator ‘never wrote back’, but the film engraves her words on the affair’s detritus: ... more Flimmer’s narrator ‘never wrote back’, but the film engraves her words on the affair’s detritus: cigarettes, spilt milk, a doll, typewriter keys and the film’s surface. Flimmer thus uses nostalgia for technologies of indexical inscription, such as the typewriter to respond to emerging digital practices such as the RED camera.

Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, 2017

This article engages with Lars von Trier’s 1988 television adaptation of Carl Th. Dreyer’s screen... more This article engages with Lars von Trier’s 1988 television adaptation of Carl Th. Dreyer’s screenplay Medea to explore the concept of the unfilmed film. Beginning with von Trier’s adoption of Dreyer’s tuxedo, the article asks how the notions of auteurship and the archive itself produce the unfilmed film as ‘unrealized’, and probes the concept of the ‘unfinished’ film. Some examples of unfilmed films, and documentaries about them, are discussed as examples of archival practices in the mediation of unfinished, unrealized and unfilmed films, sometimes by directors themselves and sometimes by their successors. Dreyer’s research materials and methodologies for his screenplay Medea, preserved in the Danish Film Institute, are discussed as an intertext to the later adaptation for Danish television by Lars von Trier.

One of Dreyer’s great unrealised films was an account of the life and loves of Maria Stuart, or M... more One of Dreyer’s great unrealised films was an account of the life and loves of Maria Stuart, or Mary, Queen of Scots. Dreyer’s archive contains extensive research materials and notes towards this film, many of which were gathered or developed during trips to Scotland in 1946 and 1955. This essay samples the contents of the Maria Stuart collection, outlining Dreyer’s research trips, reading, and efforts to have the film produced, and contextualises this unrealised project in the years between his films Vredens Dag (Day of Wrath, 1943) and Ordet (The Word, 1955). The article also discusses Dreyer’s mediation in his unpublished screenplay of his extensive knowledge of the historical facts and historiographical controversies surrounding Mary Stuart, examining the resulting tension in the unmade film between the historical record and the psychological realism of Dreyer’s queen.

En af Dreyers store urealiserede spillefilm var en dronnings livshistorie: Maria Stuarts, eller h... more En af Dreyers store urealiserede spillefilm var en dronnings livshistorie: Maria Stuarts, eller historien om Mary, Queen of Scots. Dreyers arkiv omfatter store mængder af researchmateriale og noter fra dette filmprojekt, hvoraf mange blev samlet og nedskrevet under to ophold i Skotland i 1946 og 1955. Denne artikel foretager punktnedslag i Maria Stuart-samlingen for at skitsere Dreyers ophold, hans research og hans bestræbelser på at realisere filmen, og den sætter filmprojektet i sammenhæng i perioden mellem Vredens Dag (1943) og Ordet (1955). I øvrigt diskuteres Dreyers formidling af sin omfattende viden i det upublicerede filmmanuskript og de historiografiske kontroverser, der verserer om den skotske dronning. Udredningen af disse modstridende opfattelser om Mary Stuart afdækker en vis spænding i manuskriptet mellem de historiske kendsgerninger og den psykologiske realisme, der kendetegner Dreyers kongelige portræt.

The co-operative movement shaped daily life in mid-20th-century Denmark and attracted much intern... more The co-operative movement shaped daily life in mid-20th-century Denmark and attracted much international attention. Agricultural co-operation was therefore an obvious topic for a short film which would market Danish bacon and dairy produce and shape the nation's image abroad. In this article, a historian and a film scholar join forces to analyse Theodor Christensen’s short film The Pattern of Co-operation as a case study in the use of state-sponsored film in post-war cultural diplomacy.

Denne artikel analyserer Ole Roos' PH lys (1964) i forhold til den del af Henningsens kritik, der... more Denne artikel analyserer Ole Roos' PH lys (1964) i forhold til den del af Henningsens kritik, der forholder sig til filmkultur. Derudover giver artiklen en fortolkning af kortfilmen som et værk, der anvender lyseffekter til at aktivere det danske publikums viden om PH’s liv og værk. Henningsens egne skrifter om kunstens rolle bringes endvidere i dialog med nyere filmteoretisk interesse for såkaldt ‘brugbare film’. Og således præsenteres PH lys som et eksempel på, hvordan en Dansk Kulturfilm-produktion levede op til sit opdrag om at bedrive national oplysning.

For three decades, state-sponsored short filmmaking educated Danish citizens, promoted Denmark to... more For three decades, state-sponsored short filmmaking educated Danish citizens, promoted Denmark to the world, and shaped the careers of renowned directors like Carl Th. Dreyer. The first book-length study in English of a national corpus of state-sponsored informational film, this book traces how Danish shorts on topics including social welfare, industry, art and architecture were commissioned, funded, produced and reviewed from the inter-war period to the 1960s. Examining the life cycle of a representative selection of films, and discussing their preservation and mediation in the digital age, this book presents a detailed case study of how informational cinema is shaped by, and indeed shapes, its cultural, political and technological contexts.

This collection of essays celebrates Professor Janet Garton's outstanding contribution over four ... more This collection of essays celebrates Professor Janet Garton's outstanding contribution over four decades to research, teaching and leadership in the field of Scandinavian Studies. Contributions from some two dozen established and emerging scholars discuss Scandinavian literature, drama, letters and visual culture with a focus on themes germane to Janet's long-running course at UEA, From Free Love to Decadence: love, modernity, travel, faith, gender, sexuality, textuality, community, and the body.

Arts (MDPI), 2019

“We have to believe that new images are still possible”. This remark by Norwegian filmmaker Joach... more “We have to believe that new images are still possible”. This remark by Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier during a recent event in Oslo entitled ‘The Sublime Image’ speaks to the centrality in his work of images, often of trauma, that aspire to the condition of photographic stills or paintings. A hand against a window, cheerleaders tumbling against an azure sky, an infant trapped under a lake’s icy surface: these can certainly be read as sublime images insofar as we might read the sublime as an affect—a sense of the ineffable or the shock of the new. However, for Trier, cinema is an art of memory and here too, this article argues, his films stage an encounter with the temporal sublime and the undecidability of memory. Offering readings of Trier’s four feature films to date which center on their refraction of memory through crystal-images, the article emphasizes the affective encounter with the films as having its own temporality.

Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, 2019

The use of film in anti-tuberculosis campaigns dates back to at least the 1910s in Scandinavia an... more The use of film in anti-tuberculosis campaigns dates back to at least the 1910s in Scandinavia and elsewhere. However, in the immediate wake of World War II, developments in mass public health screening necessitated a new wave of informational films that explained x-rays, Mantoux tests and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination to the public. This article examines three such cases: first, Alle i fare! (All Endangered!) (Falk, Norway, 1948); second, a suite of films made in 1948 by Danish filmmaker Hagen Hasselbach for UNICEF for educational and fundraising purposes; and third, Medan det ännu är tid (‘While there’s still time’) (Martin Söderhjelm, Sweden, 1952). The films are contextualized within the broader history of anti-tuberculosis films and campaigns, as well as the circumstances of their commissioning and distribution. The article identifies a range of narrative and visual strategies that construct a new kind of national and global citizen whose body is made available and visible to public authorities for the collective good. In particular, it is argued that the (re)mediation of new mass screening technologies such as x-rays, skin tests and health data often make use of the properties of the projection screen, demonstrating the entanglement of medical and media technologies.

Kosmorama, 2018

In the wake of an Oscar nomination for his 1960 short 'A City Called Copenhagen', Danish document... more In the wake of an Oscar nomination for his 1960 short 'A City Called Copenhagen', Danish documentarist Jørgen Roos accepted invitations to make similar films from the city authorities of Hamburg and Oslo. Though the commissioning processes were different, the resulting films can be seen as a kind of trilogy: all three use forms of art as an organising principle, all three focus on the everyday lives of the people of the city, and all three put emphasis on walking in the city. On the basis of archival research in Copenhagen, Hamburg and Oslo, and drawing on Michel de Certeau’s essay ‘Walking in the City’, this article tries to trace how the lived city emerges in each film from the negotiations between filmmaker, commissioning authorities, and the city streets themselves.

Short Film Studies, 2018

Flimmer’s narrator ‘never wrote back’, but the film engraves her words on the affair’s detritus: ... more Flimmer’s narrator ‘never wrote back’, but the film engraves her words on the affair’s detritus: cigarettes, spilt milk, a doll, typewriter keys and the film’s surface. Flimmer thus uses nostalgia for technologies of indexical inscription, such as the typewriter to respond to emerging digital practices such as the RED camera.

Journal of Scandinavian Cinema, 2017

This article engages with Lars von Trier’s 1988 television adaptation of Carl Th. Dreyer’s screen... more This article engages with Lars von Trier’s 1988 television adaptation of Carl Th. Dreyer’s screenplay Medea to explore the concept of the unfilmed film. Beginning with von Trier’s adoption of Dreyer’s tuxedo, the article asks how the notions of auteurship and the archive itself produce the unfilmed film as ‘unrealized’, and probes the concept of the ‘unfinished’ film. Some examples of unfilmed films, and documentaries about them, are discussed as examples of archival practices in the mediation of unfinished, unrealized and unfilmed films, sometimes by directors themselves and sometimes by their successors. Dreyer’s research materials and methodologies for his screenplay Medea, preserved in the Danish Film Institute, are discussed as an intertext to the later adaptation for Danish television by Lars von Trier.

One of Dreyer’s great unrealised films was an account of the life and loves of Maria Stuart, or M... more One of Dreyer’s great unrealised films was an account of the life and loves of Maria Stuart, or Mary, Queen of Scots. Dreyer’s archive contains extensive research materials and notes towards this film, many of which were gathered or developed during trips to Scotland in 1946 and 1955. This essay samples the contents of the Maria Stuart collection, outlining Dreyer’s research trips, reading, and efforts to have the film produced, and contextualises this unrealised project in the years between his films Vredens Dag (Day of Wrath, 1943) and Ordet (The Word, 1955). The article also discusses Dreyer’s mediation in his unpublished screenplay of his extensive knowledge of the historical facts and historiographical controversies surrounding Mary Stuart, examining the resulting tension in the unmade film between the historical record and the psychological realism of Dreyer’s queen.

En af Dreyers store urealiserede spillefilm var en dronnings livshistorie: Maria Stuarts, eller h... more En af Dreyers store urealiserede spillefilm var en dronnings livshistorie: Maria Stuarts, eller historien om Mary, Queen of Scots. Dreyers arkiv omfatter store mængder af researchmateriale og noter fra dette filmprojekt, hvoraf mange blev samlet og nedskrevet under to ophold i Skotland i 1946 og 1955. Denne artikel foretager punktnedslag i Maria Stuart-samlingen for at skitsere Dreyers ophold, hans research og hans bestræbelser på at realisere filmen, og den sætter filmprojektet i sammenhæng i perioden mellem Vredens Dag (1943) og Ordet (1955). I øvrigt diskuteres Dreyers formidling af sin omfattende viden i det upublicerede filmmanuskript og de historiografiske kontroverser, der verserer om den skotske dronning. Udredningen af disse modstridende opfattelser om Mary Stuart afdækker en vis spænding i manuskriptet mellem de historiske kendsgerninger og den psykologiske realisme, der kendetegner Dreyers kongelige portræt.

The co-operative movement shaped daily life in mid-20th-century Denmark and attracted much intern... more The co-operative movement shaped daily life in mid-20th-century Denmark and attracted much international attention. Agricultural co-operation was therefore an obvious topic for a short film which would market Danish bacon and dairy produce and shape the nation's image abroad. In this article, a historian and a film scholar join forces to analyse Theodor Christensen’s short film The Pattern of Co-operation as a case study in the use of state-sponsored film in post-war cultural diplomacy.

Denne artikel analyserer Ole Roos' PH lys (1964) i forhold til den del af Henningsens kritik, der... more Denne artikel analyserer Ole Roos' PH lys (1964) i forhold til den del af Henningsens kritik, der forholder sig til filmkultur. Derudover giver artiklen en fortolkning af kortfilmen som et værk, der anvender lyseffekter til at aktivere det danske publikums viden om PH’s liv og værk. Henningsens egne skrifter om kunstens rolle bringes endvidere i dialog med nyere filmteoretisk interesse for såkaldt ‘brugbare film’. Og således præsenteres PH lys som et eksempel på, hvordan en Dansk Kulturfilm-produktion levede op til sit opdrag om at bedrive national oplysning.

Introduction to Nordic Cultures, ed. Annika Lindskog and Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen, 2020

Nordic Film Cultures and Cinemas of Elsewhere, ed. Anna W. Stenport and Arne Lunde, 2019

Efterkrigstidens Samhällskontakter, red. Fredrik Norén & Emil Stjernholm, 2019

Swedish Book Review, 2018

The archives of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation contain many treasures which testify to the great S... more The archives of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation contain many treasures which testify to the great Swedish auteur’s accomplishments as a writer. Amongst these are sketches, drafts, and even complete screenplays for films which were never made. C. Claire Thomson examines a selection of Bergman’s unrealised film and television projects, including The Death and Resurrection of Jesus, The Merry Widow, The Petrified Prince and Love Without Lovers.

“Slow TV” has emerged as the label for a series of long-duration programmes showcasing Norway’s l... more “Slow TV” has emerged as the label for a series of long-duration programmes showcasing Norway’s landscape and traditions, conceived in 2009 as an experiment for NRK, the national public service broadcaster. In this interview, producer Thomas Hellum explains the concept, principles and working methods behind Minutt for minutt. Ultimately, he insists, the extreme duration of many of the programmes is a function of the principles and culture of public service broadcasting in Norway. The slowness of Slow TV has little in common with the slowness of Slow Cinema. Minutt for minutt is not about art, says Hellum; it is about storytelling.

Foreword to Terminal Innocence, Paul Larkin's translation from the Danish of Klaus Rifbjerg's cla... more Foreword to Terminal Innocence, Paul Larkin's translation from the Danish of Klaus Rifbjerg's classic 1958 novel Den kroniske uskyld. London: Norvik Press, 2015, pp. 7-13.

Springer eBooks, Oct 15, 2022

Somethin' about Scandinavia (Bent H. Barfod) is the title of a short animated film made in Denmar... more Somethin' about Scandinavia (Bent H. Barfod) is the title of a short animated film made in Denmark in 1956 to explain economic and cultural cooperation in the Nordic region. Narrated from the perspective of a young boy, the film is ostensibly for children, but in its use of animation to render abstract political concepts through visual metaphor and a rich colour palette, it also functioned as a handy primer for audiences of all ages who wanted to understand how it could be that, as the voiceover concludes, "long ago, we were fighting against each other, but now, the Scandinavian countries are working together". The film opens with five cartoon Vikings sporting the iconic helmets and lur-horns; working

A History of Danish Cinema

Swedish Book Review , 2018 (2) pp. 3-8. (2018), Aug 1, 2018

The archives of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation contain many treasures which testify to the great S... more The archives of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation contain many treasures which testify to the great Swedish auteur’s accomplishments as a writer. Amongst these are sketches, drafts, and even complete screenplays for films which were never made. C. Claire Thomson examines a selection of Bergman’s unrealised film and television projects, including The Death and Resurrection of Jesus, The Merry Widow, The Petrified Prince and Love Without Lovers.

In the wake of an Oscar nomination for his 1960 short 'A City Called Copenhagen', Danish ... more In the wake of an Oscar nomination for his 1960 short 'A City Called Copenhagen', Danish documentarist Jørgen Roos accepted invitations to make similar films from the city authorities of Hamburg and Oslo. Though the commissioning processes were different, the resulting films can be seen as a kind of trilogy: all three use forms of art as an organising principle, all three focus on the everyday lives of the people of the city, and all three put emphasis on walking in the city. On the basis of archival research in Copenhagen, Hamburg and Oslo, and drawing on Michel de Certeau’s essay ‘Walking in the City’, this article tries to trace how the lived city emerges in each film from the negotiations between filmmaker, commissioning authorities, and the city streets themselves.

One of Dreyer’s great unrealised films was an account of the life and loves of Maria Stuart, or M... more One of Dreyer’s great unrealised films was an account of the life and loves of Maria Stuart, or Mary, Queen of Scots. Dreyer’s archive contains extensive research materials and notes towards this film, many of which were gathered or developed during trips to Scotland in 1946 and 1955. This essay samples the contents of the Maria Stuart collection, outlining Dreyer’s research trips, reading, and efforts to have the film produced, and contextualises this unrealised project in the years between his films Vredens Dag (Day of Wrath, 1943) and Ordet (The Word, 1955). The article also discusses Dreyer’s mediation in his unpublished screenplay of his extensive knowledge of the historical facts and historiographical controversies surrounding Mary Stuart, examining the resulting tension in the unmade film between the historical record and the psychological realism of Dreyer’s queen.

Choice Reviews Online, 2007

... with the themes and concerns of established and emerging contemporary filmmakers, including L... more ... with the themes and concerns of established and emerging contemporary filmmakers, including Lars von Trier, Aki Kaurismäki, Liv Ullmann, Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, Suzanne Taslimi and Max Kestner. Northern Constellations should appeal to the general cinema-goer as well as ...

This essay collection brings together a range of cutting-edge international scholarship on cities... more This essay collection brings together a range of cutting-edge international scholarship on cities, urbanisation and urban culture.

This article considers the Danish author Mogens Klitgaard's novel Den guddommelige hverdag (1... more This article considers the Danish author Mogens Klitgaard's novel Den guddommelige hverdag (1942) in order to argue for the incorporation of media-specific analysis into models of the intervention of literary narrative in the national imagination. While the complex functioning of the novel as a conduit for national imaginings is now a commonplace in literary and Cultural studies, analysis tends to focus on narrative and its role in the inculcation of conventions of chronology, causality and space in the public imagination. The article draws on N. Katherine Hayles' concept of the technotext (Writing Machines, 2002) to explore how the materiality of the text and the embodiment of the reader - and national subject - can be implicated in accounts of literary fiction's role in negotiating the imaginative nation-space. In the case of Den guddommelige hverdag, it is argued, the novel's material form and narrative structure, particularly its incorporation of newspaper clippings from the same summer it was written, interact to pose questions about national time and the nature of the historical event, and to construct an embodied national citizen at a time of foreign occupation.

European Journal of Scandinavian Studies

Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages

... To the members of my Advisory Committee, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Doug... more ... To the members of my Advisory Committee, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Doug Kirton and David Blatherwick, for their valuable wisdom, commitment and ... family, my parents Nick and Gloria Capobianco, my siblings Marco and his family, Laura and ...