Arthur Jensen

Copenhagen, Denmark

Biography

Arthur Jensen was originally trained as a tailor and later educated at the Royal Theatre's student school 1920-23 and had an extensive theatre career. He experienced his heyday on television after passing the age of 70. He never achieved the same heights in film as he did in television, with roles such as caretaker Meyer in Huset på Christianshavn (1970-77) and clerk Schwan from Damernes Magasin in Matador (1978-81). With the exception of when he reprised the character of caretaker Meyer in Erik Balling's film version of the TV series, Ballade på Christianshavn (1971). It was his best film performance. He portrayed the two TV series characters shamelessly on his distinctive type: the comically aunty as caretaker Meyer and the sly and vain as clerk Schwan. What could have ended up as a gay caricature becomes human portraits in the garb of folk comedy, not least thanks to Arthur Jensen's humor, which at once shows solidarity and irony with the characters. It took a long time for Arthur Jensen to discovery who he was as an actor. After four silent film supporting roles at Fy&Bi, he formed a comedic duo with Ib Schønberg in several of Alice O'Fredericks' and Lau Lauritzen's energetic prank farces in the 1930s, but the fun is sporadic, and the inventions are often self-satisfied and infantile. His recurring role as a whiny spanking boy for the healthy guys in these films, including director Lauritzen himself, are particularly unfunny and almost unpleasant.

Movies

Matador is a Danish TV series produced and shown between 1978 and 1982. It is set in the fictional Danish town of Korsbæk between 1929 and 1947. It follows the lives of a range of characters from across the social spectrum, focusing specifically on the rivalry between the families of two businessmen: The banker Hans Christian Varnæs, an established local worthy, and social climber Mads Skjern, who arrives in town as the series opens. The name Matador was taken from the localised edition of the boardgame Monopoly, also the series' tentative English title. In addition, in contemporary Danish a "matador" is often used to describe a business tycoon, in the series referring to the character of Mads Skjern and his craftiness as a self-made entrepreneur. Directed by famed Danish film maker Erik Balling, Matador was the idea of author Lise Nørgaard who wrote the bulk of the episodes alongside Karen Smith, Jens Louis Petersen and Paul Hammerich. The series is one of the most well-known and popular examples of Danish television and represents the peak of longtime development of Danish TV drama by the public service channel Danmarks Radio. The series has become part of the modern self-understanding of Danes, partly because of its successful mix of melodrama and a distinct warm Danish humour in the depiction of characters, which were portrayed by a wide range of the most popular Danish actors at the time; but also not least because of its accurate portrayal of a turbulent Denmark from around the start of the Great Depression and through Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark in World War II.

More info
Matador
1978