Almost 40 years before Roberto Rossellini, Arthur von Gerlach made a film of the novella ‘Vanina Vanini’ by French author Stendhal. He engaged the Danish actress Asta Nielsen for the leading role, who was so famous at the time that she was simply known as ‘Asta’. The film stands out through ‘the use of parallel montages, when images of the ball alternate with those of street fights and the erection of the gallows. Such contrasts are deliberately used again and again in Vanina: the elegant dress of the ball party against the rags of the henchmen, Vanina's wedding dress in the dark dungeon, the formality of the dance against the wild shooting in the streets. The greatest contrast, of course, is the ‘gallows wedding’ of the title.’ (Arndt Pawelczik)