Privilege and pleasure is what it means to appreciate a film of the caliber of this work, one of the greatest artists of the silent era of the seventh art consolidated his great filmography, his imperishable artistic legacy continued to take shape, evolving, the great luminary that was Victor Sjöström was forging his legend. And he did it the way he always knew how to work, the formidable master acts and directs in this drama, something certainly singular for the genre, and even participates in the elaboration of the script of a successful novel by Jóhann Sigurjónsson, where intense feelings and tragic circumstances will happen. On the other side of the world, in Nordic lands, a solemn and exquisite cinema was being formed, the very school of that region, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, produced extraordinary filmmakers, fully infused with the feeling and influence of their land, and they would give birth to another cinematographic conception, which then the Yankee tycoons would decapitate infamously. In any case, this is the story of a fugitive, a persecuted thief who for years lives hidden in the mountains, until he arrives to a rural town, where he will find love in the most affluent woman of the place, however, discovered his origin, he flees with her, they hide, they have a child, seem to be happy, but the tragic misfortune will not take long to reach them again.
Mid-nineteenth century, Iceland, in a rural community, we see Björn (Nils Aréhn), councilor of the town, and Arnes (John Ekman), foreign pastor, where later Kari (Sjöström) arrives, another stranger who is looking job. He is then taken to the widow Halla (Edith Erastoff), a powerful local woman, who gives the stranger a job opportunity. Björn, brother-in-law of her, proposes to marriage, ambitions his fortune, but she soon falls in love with Karin. The councilor is uneasy with the stranger, especially when a local man tells him that he has recognized that Kari, as Berg-Ejvind, a persecuted and fugitive thief. During a party held by Halla, she names Karin as a foreman, but the jealous Björn confesses to her alone what he knows, she does not believe him, a fight breaks out, Kari is the winner. But, alone, he confesses the truth, is Berg-Ejvind, tells him how the need made him rob a parish priest, was discovered and persecuted; now, he really loves her, and she corresponds to him. They marry and escape together to the mountains, where five years pass quickly, where they engender a scion, and where they reign in the heights, until one day Arnes appears. Initially friend, his desire for Halla drives him crazy, and with him the other villagers find them. The couple flees again, but this time, a terrible storm will kill them, together.
This film is so necessary for the appreciator of classic cinema, that has not lacked who called it, who cataloged it as
the first film of art cinema, with all the strength and significance that such an affirmation had, in the years when many of the greatest movie geniuses were working. And one of the biggest reasons, if not the biggest one, for which this film differs and generates almost a new cinematographic genre, is the geographical medium employed in such an exemplary way, since the filmmaker locates everything in Iceland, and although in reality being shot the film in Sweden, it turns out to be a wise and credible change, the strength and coherence of that environment, of that region, is what makes this cinema so recognizable, not only in cinematographic treatment itself, not only in audiovisual technique, but also in feeling, in humanity, in artistic vein, it is theirs. Soon we see the field, the sheep, forming an element that will no longer disappear, nature, an element that, as the film and events progresse, we will see how it merges more and more with humans, that everlasting impress of exteriors, as if it was a naturalistic cinema, it is a prodigious hallmark of the film. And it is also of the Nordic cinema, which with this film began a glorious journey, sadly and suddenly stopped by the infamous North American industry, which, thinking more of a business than of an art, saw with suspicion and fear the rising Nordic aesthetic school as a threat to his monopoly interests in the film industry, and simply snatched its greatest geniuses, both directors and actors, including figures such as Sjöström himself, or the Swedish sphinx Garbo; but that is another matter. Thus, we will see the imposing Swedish scenery -Icelandic in the film-, the majestic snow-capped peaks, powerful mountains, high peaks, cascades, lakes, and of course, that powerful waterfall -visual crux within that great variety of natural resources-, an extraordinary natural palette to embellish of unparalleled form the silent film, and it is in the second part, of course, where all that visual wonder has a free track, and where it will be expressed with all the force that a master and pillar of a whole cinematographic current can print. Revolutionary picture certainly, because until then nobody had filmed with that self-confidence and mastery outdoors, with completely natural environments, a style, a sensibility, rarely seen, or never being fairer, film that we will see closed by a frame of that same naturalist power, since the sufferings are over.
It is in this way that we see that in Swedish many of his cinematographic guidelines are already defined, and is that in just six years of beginning his career as a filmmaker, the versatile master also proves to be very prolific. With Sjöström in the lead, accompanied by other giants of the stature of the Finn Stiller (who produced his best work in Sweden), the Swedes set up their own school, if the Germans had their expressionism, if the Italians had their epic realism, if the French had their poetic impressionism, the Swedes gave form to this unique cinema, naturalist we could call it, and with characters, stories, of sentimental and intellectual depth. Fully differentiating this other cinema, at the level of feelings expressed, but technically also, an extraordinary school entered posterity, not as well known or mediatic as the aforementioned for the less well-versed palate, but equally valid and appreciable. Of course, there is a foundation for all this, the sentiment and intellectualism mentioned in the Nordics comes par excellence from the legacy of the drama, the theatrical heritage that runs in their veins, later cinema titans would continue to witness this, with Ingmar Bergman in front, outstanding disciple and Sjöström's heir, which would be one of the spearheads in that sense. He shows his thaumaturgical style of work, the genius does not "only" acts and directs, but collaborates with Sam Ask, main scriptwriter, to elaborate the manuscript that would serve as a guide for the filming, the director is also involved in the elaboration of the script, a talent as unusual as thumping, especially for the dramatic genre, because simile circumstance was a little more common in comedy. There are really few artists who surpass a cinematographic field in such a forceful and regular way, consistently, because that versatile faculty to work is something that would repeat in his greatest cinematographic achievements, being exemplary in this the later film that, with the feature now commented, conform the considered triad,
The Phantom Carriage (1921) -the third would be
The Monastery of Sendomir (1920), in which the director does not act-. We will see then the theatrical performances of the director, which will be seen in several sequences, where the composition of the frames conveys that warm dramatic legacy of the theater; particularly remarkable in that sense the Berg-Ejvind sequences confessing the truth of their origin to Halla. The master, as so many other times, shines, shines as an actor, it is not necessary to remember that his beginnings were as a drama actor, his interpretation denotes that experience, ease and fervidity in his incarnation, a histrionic intensity that Selma Lagerlöf herself was seduced. Of course, so much that it impacted a literary personality of the stature of Lagerlöf, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, she knew how to value the genius and gave him the incredible privilege of adapting to cinema a novel of hers per year, an improbable privilege, which tells the legend the director won after playing, live, and in her home to the bluestocking, his vision of
The Phantom Carriage.
It is irrefutable to point out, not with little regret, that this article is based on a version of the picture of reduced footage, less than an hour to the original footage of the director, and in this version there is a certain narrative compression, it is another example of the cruelty of some circumstances of silent cinema, where numerous masterpieces were shot with more than one cut or final version -in some cases many even-. Circulate thus arbitrary versions so many times, and the original or true work is inaccessible, or very difficult to access, leaving the initial, true and real intention of the artist, buried. Fifty minutes of cut that make the film lose strength and cohesion in the mutilation, it is the toll to pay, and that does not mean we stop appreciating this audiovisual delicacy that Sjöström presents to us. Again, and as was normal in the films of the time, the camera is static, lacking in major movements, it is the montage that provides the dynamism that the film finally exhibits, it is a film almost completely linear in its development and narration, because the feelings, the strength of the misfortunes, the harshness of their vicissitudes, are the axes of the film, the strength of the whole film is in the overwhelmed and oppressed tormented psychologies of the protagonists. The only moment in which the linear narrative breaks is with that flashback where Berg-Ejvind can not go any further and opens his heart and spirit to Halla, narrates his past tribulations and misfortunes when the need made him steal, or that's what he ensures. Also, another ephemeral and terrible exception, the infant, their son, who appears with overlayed shots, who appears phantasmagorically on the water, the mother regrets the loss of her offspring, a terrible figure indeed; still in the initial stage his cinema, later the filmmaker would acquire the prodigious skills that we would see dazzlingly in
The Phantom Carriage, but now the master has everything, the greatest prodigies were about to materialize. In this initial stage also, at times there is a slightly excessive load of dialogues, which cut a little the fluidity of the sequences, but it is a detail that is being corrected in the feature, a ballast that in addition later would learn to palliate, replacing words, texts, with powerful audiovisual tools. In the film unhappy characters wander, miserable, tormented and troubled fugitives, who can flee from previous mistakes, their past, but not something, their fate, that cursed destination, because it seems a curse disguised as fatality that never leaves the protagonist, until finally snatch everything that interested him. It is the adventure of the unfortunate who has another chance to achieve happiness, marginal people populate these stories, it was the influence of the romantic literature of that time, likewise it will not fail to leave the filmmaker patent his deep religiosity, in this and in future works. A story in which the supposed villain is an antihero, turns out being the one with most decent moral fiber, being exemplaryly disturbing Arnes, who, blinded by ambition and carnal desire, almost cut the rope from which his friend hung, betrays, or thinks of betraying him; in this story of torments, humans are changing, but for evil, even love will negatively influence in that case, low and basic human instincts unleash the nightmare, jealousy, ambition, envy, collective alienation, everything ends up overwhelming and drowning the unfortunate who sought to redeem himself. Thus, love will be the key to the redemption of Berg-Ejvind, the thief has the great luck that a wealthy woman loves him, loves him even to leave behind his life, his society, all for him, but in this big treadmill of emotions that is the film, fatality never leaves our protagonists. They are the final victim of that collective hysteria, a collective that does not give a truce, where their son is taken away, the strong misfortune, the harshness of their tribulations, hits us too, because in this tragic wake there is no happy ending, and it is moving certainly, because they, after a whole life, years together, elderly already, have no rest. When it seems that life has hit them already enough, it is not enough, and even their love, which seemed to accompany them until the end, trembles, wobbles, that love ends up being tragic, but even in such a tessitura, they end up together, in that final picture that impacts us, the frozen lovers found a despicable end to their love, to that which was, as a text dictates, their only law, their love. Extraordinary feature, epiphanic we could say, a new way of shooting was initiated, of coupling natural media to the cinema, and we will see the master in the powerful current of water, those are powerful sequences, it is a great novelty, it was certainly another cinematographic feeling, it was a new nature to shoot films. Extraordinary, cinema art, the teacher of Ingmar Bergman, the silent Swedish cinema master, amazes us with one of his best works, unavoidable to appreciate for the enthusiast of the great classic cinema.
Privilege and pleasure is what it means to appreciate a film of the caliber of this work, one of the greatest artists of the silent era of the seventh art consolidated his great filmography, his imperishable artistic legacy continued to take shape, evolving, the great luminary that was Victor Sjöström was forging his legend. And he did it the way he always knew how to work, the formidable master acts and directs in this drama, something certainly singular for the genre, and even participates in the elaboration of the script of a successful novel by Jóhann Sigurjónsson, where intense feelings and tragic circumstances will happen. On the other side of the world, in Nordic lands, a solemn and exquisite cinema was being formed, the very school of that region, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, produced extraordinary filmmakers, fully infused with the feeling and influence of their land, and they would give birth to another cinematographic conception, which then the Yankee tycoons would decapitate infamously. In any case, this is the story of a fugitive, a persecuted thief who for years lives hidden in the mountains, until he arrives to a rural town, where he will find love in the most affluent woman of the place, however, discovered his origin, he flees with her, they hide, they have a child, seem to be happy, but the tragic misfortune will not take long to reach them again.
It is in this way that we see that in Swedish many of his cinematographic guidelines are already defined, and is that in just six years of beginning his career as a filmmaker, the versatile master also proves to be very prolific. With Sjöström in the lead, accompanied by other giants of the stature of the Finn Stiller (who produced his best work in Sweden), the Swedes set up their own school, if the Germans had their expressionism, if the Italians had their epic realism, if the French had their poetic impressionism, the Swedes gave form to this unique cinema, naturalist we could call it, and with characters, stories, of sentimental and intellectual depth. Fully differentiating this other cinema, at the level of feelings expressed, but technically also, an extraordinary school entered posterity, not as well known or mediatic as the aforementioned for the less well-versed palate, but equally valid and appreciable. Of course, there is a foundation for all this, the sentiment and intellectualism mentioned in the Nordics comes par excellence from the legacy of the drama, the theatrical heritage that runs in their veins, later cinema titans would continue to witness this, with Ingmar Bergman in front, outstanding disciple and Sjöström's heir, which would be one of the spearheads in that sense. He shows his thaumaturgical style of work, the genius does not "only" acts and directs, but collaborates with Sam Ask, main scriptwriter, to elaborate the manuscript that would serve as a guide for the filming, the director is also involved in the elaboration of the script, a talent as unusual as thumping, especially for the dramatic genre, because simile circumstance was a little more common in comedy. There are really few artists who surpass a cinematographic field in such a forceful and regular way, consistently, because that versatile faculty to work is something that would repeat in his greatest cinematographic achievements, being exemplary in this the later film that, with the feature now commented, conform the considered triad, The Phantom Carriage (1921) -the third would be The Monastery of Sendomir (1920), in which the director does not act-. We will see then the theatrical performances of the director, which will be seen in several sequences, where the composition of the frames conveys that warm dramatic legacy of the theater; particularly remarkable in that sense the Berg-Ejvind sequences confessing the truth of their origin to Halla. The master, as so many other times, shines, shines as an actor, it is not necessary to remember that his beginnings were as a drama actor, his interpretation denotes that experience, ease and fervidity in his incarnation, a histrionic intensity that Selma Lagerlöf herself was seduced. Of course, so much that it impacted a literary personality of the stature of Lagerlöf, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, she knew how to value the genius and gave him the incredible privilege of adapting to cinema a novel of hers per year, an improbable privilege, which tells the legend the director won after playing, live, and in her home to the bluestocking, his vision of The Phantom Carriage.
It is irrefutable to point out, not with little regret, that this article is based on a version of the picture of reduced footage, less than an hour to the original footage of the director, and in this version there is a certain narrative compression, it is another example of the cruelty of some circumstances of silent cinema, where numerous masterpieces were shot with more than one cut or final version -in some cases many even-. Circulate thus arbitrary versions so many times, and the original or true work is inaccessible, or very difficult to access, leaving the initial, true and real intention of the artist, buried. Fifty minutes of cut that make the film lose strength and cohesion in the mutilation, it is the toll to pay, and that does not mean we stop appreciating this audiovisual delicacy that Sjöström presents to us. Again, and as was normal in the films of the time, the camera is static, lacking in major movements, it is the montage that provides the dynamism that the film finally exhibits, it is a film almost completely linear in its development and narration, because the feelings, the strength of the misfortunes, the harshness of their vicissitudes, are the axes of the film, the strength of the whole film is in the overwhelmed and oppressed tormented psychologies of the protagonists. The only moment in which the linear narrative breaks is with that flashback where Berg-Ejvind can not go any further and opens his heart and spirit to Halla, narrates his past tribulations and misfortunes when the need made him steal, or that's what he ensures. Also, another ephemeral and terrible exception, the infant, their son, who appears with overlayed shots, who appears phantasmagorically on the water, the mother regrets the loss of her offspring, a terrible figure indeed; still in the initial stage his cinema, later the filmmaker would acquire the prodigious skills that we would see dazzlingly in The Phantom Carriage, but now the master has everything, the greatest prodigies were about to materialize. In this initial stage also, at times there is a slightly excessive load of dialogues, which cut a little the fluidity of the sequences, but it is a detail that is being corrected in the feature, a ballast that in addition later would learn to palliate, replacing words, texts, with powerful audiovisual tools. In the film unhappy characters wander, miserable, tormented and troubled fugitives, who can flee from previous mistakes, their past, but not something, their fate, that cursed destination, because it seems a curse disguised as fatality that never leaves the protagonist, until finally snatch everything that interested him. It is the adventure of the unfortunate who has another chance to achieve happiness, marginal people populate these stories, it was the influence of the romantic literature of that time, likewise it will not fail to leave the filmmaker patent his deep religiosity, in this and in future works. A story in which the supposed villain is an antihero, turns out being the one with most decent moral fiber, being exemplaryly disturbing Arnes, who, blinded by ambition and carnal desire, almost cut the rope from which his friend hung, betrays, or thinks of betraying him; in this story of torments, humans are changing, but for evil, even love will negatively influence in that case, low and basic human instincts unleash the nightmare, jealousy, ambition, envy, collective alienation, everything ends up overwhelming and drowning the unfortunate who sought to redeem himself. Thus, love will be the key to the redemption of Berg-Ejvind, the thief has the great luck that a wealthy woman loves him, loves him even to leave behind his life, his society, all for him, but in this big treadmill of emotions that is the film, fatality never leaves our protagonists. They are the final victim of that collective hysteria, a collective that does not give a truce, where their son is taken away, the strong misfortune, the harshness of their tribulations, hits us too, because in this tragic wake there is no happy ending, and it is moving certainly, because they, after a whole life, years together, elderly already, have no rest. When it seems that life has hit them already enough, it is not enough, and even their love, which seemed to accompany them until the end, trembles, wobbles, that love ends up being tragic, but even in such a tessitura, they end up together, in that final picture that impacts us, the frozen lovers found a despicable end to their love, to that which was, as a text dictates, their only law, their love. Extraordinary feature, epiphanic we could say, a new way of shooting was initiated, of coupling natural media to the cinema, and we will see the master in the powerful current of water, those are powerful sequences, it is a great novelty, it was certainly another cinematographic feeling, it was a new nature to shoot films. Extraordinary, cinema art, the teacher of Ingmar Bergman, the silent Swedish cinema master, amazes us with one of his best works, unavoidable to appreciate for the enthusiast of the great classic cinema.
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