{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{Infobox film | name = Capital Execution | native_name = Henrettelsen | image = Henrettelsen.jpg | caption = The child murderess is ushered towards her execution by a priest and a guard | director = Peter Elfelt | producer = Peter Elfelt | writer = Christian Lundsgaard<br />C. Scheel Vandel | starring = Francesca Nathansen<br />Victor Betzonich | cinematography = Peter Elfelt | editing = | distributor = | released = {{film date|1903|df=y}} | runtime = 3 minutes | country = Denmark | language = Silent film | budget = }} thumb|thumbtime=0|''Henrettelsen'' (fragment) '''''Capital Execution''''' ({{langx|da|'''Henrettelsen'''}}) is a 1903 silent film drama directed by Danish photographer Peter Elfelt.<ref name="Sundholm Thorsen Andersson Hedling 2012 p. 4">{{cite book |last=Sundholm |first=J. |last2=Thorsen |first2=I. |last3=Andersson |first3=L.G. |last4=Hedling |first4=O. |last5=Iversen |first5=G. |last6=Møller |first6=B.T. |title=Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Cinema |publisher=Scarecrow Press |series=Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-8108-7899-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QktG6a4YnQYC&pg=PA4 |access-date=11 June 2021 |page=4}}</ref> Based upon a true story, the short 15-minute film relates the execution of a French woman who is condemned to death for killing her two children. It was the first dramatic movie made by a Danish filmmaker, and is notable as an early example of a dramatic film that referenced action outside the picture frame.<ref name="Fairservice-73">{{cite book |last=Fairservice |first=Don |title=Film Editing: History, Theory and Practice : Looking at the Invisible |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2001 |pages=73 |isbn=0-7190-5777-9}}.</ref> Elfelt used a typical stationary, one-shot camera position, but directed the actors to gesture and enter and exit with reference to things happening outside of the audience's view. This allowed for the development of the story beyond what was captured by camera, and expanded the dramatic scope of film.<ref name="Fairservice-73" />
== Known footage == The only known copy of the film is incomplete, comprising only 25 meters of film, while the original length was 40 meters.<ref name="Tybjerg-18">Tybjerg, Casper, ''100 Års Dansk Film'', Rosinante, 2001, p. 18</ref> According to later descriptions, the film showed a murderess seated inside a prison cell, then being ushered to her place of execution. In the existing footage, the woman (Francesca Nathansen) is led through a door and up a sunlit gangway by a priest and a prison guard. As they come through the gangway, a man in a top hat waits for them in the foreground. When they approach, he removes his hat and joins the guard in ushering the woman out of the picture. The priest is shown watching them leave and wiping a tear from his eye. In the subsequent lost footage, the woman is led to the place of execution, where she kneels down and places her head on the guillotine.<ref name="Nathansen-1936">Nathansen, Francesca, ''Interview'', Berlingske Aftenavisen, 3 October 1936</ref>
== Reactions == According to the actress Nathansen, only a few days after filming, ''Henrettelsen'' premiered with great success at the {{ill|Panoptikonbygningen|da}} in Copenhagen.<ref name="Nathansen-1936" /> It is possible that it had another title, ''Barnemordersken'' (''Child Murderess''), but it is listed in Elfelt's protocol of negatives as ''Henrettelsen''.<ref name="Tybjerg-18" /> When Elfelt was asked in 1926 if he had ever filmed a drama, he remembered being reluctant about this film.
{{cquote|For one to think of showing this murder in living pictures – a horrible idea. I was absolutely not taken by it.|30px|30px|Peter Elfelt|''Filmen'' June 7, 1926<ref name="Tybjerg-18" />}}
== Cast == * Victor Betzonich * Francesca Nathansen ... the condemned murderess
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons category|Henrettelsen}} * {{IMDb title|0000442}} * {{DFDb title|20764}} * [https://www.stumfilm.dk/en/stumfilm/streaming/film/20764 Watch] on Stumfilm.dk
Category:1903 drama films Category:1903 films Category:Danish black-and-white films Category:Danish short films Category:Danish-language films Category:Danish silent drama films Category:20th-century Danish films