The Light and the Darkness - On Carl Nielsen's Life and Music

The composer and writer Karl Aage Rasmussen recounts the story of Carl Nielsen the man and composer - a story that includes the world famous artist's self-confidence as well as his doubts, his sensitivity and intellectualism, his ambitions and his love life. The film focuses on the very special personal and artistic talent that gave Nielsen a unique status as an extremely popular national songwriter on the one hand and an experimental modern composer on the other, as illustrated by archive footage, photographs and musical excerpts. The light and the darkness also includes a portrait of Carl Nielsen's wife, the sculptress Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen, and views her and her art as both motivating and inhibiting factors in the composer's artistic life.