Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Synd (Gustaf Molander, 1928)

Swedish Silent Film director Gustaf Molander had in fact been at the Intima Theatern from 1911 to 1913.
In his volume Scandinavian Film, Forsyth Hardy, while outlining that there had been a turn to a more theatrical style in cinema just prior to the advent of the sound film and, for economic reasons, an attempt to make films that could be exported, mentions that there had been a departure from the tradition of the Golden Age of Swedish silent film that conversely gained little recognition outside of Sweden. Paul Merzbach had become head of the script writing department and produced films directed by Gustaf Molander that were, according to Hardy, “superficial rootless products”. Hardy wrote, "The Merzbach influence had scaled helped to scale down the Strindberg drama into a thriller."

The periodical Close Up reviewed the film with, "A Swedish picture, Sin develops from darkness. Photography is uncannily natural. One cannot see the faces of the actors, only the shimmer of a tinsel, evening sea. This is modern in the best sense of the new school of photography."

Starring in the film “Synd” (Sin, 1928) were Lars Hansonand Elissa Landi. The cinematographer of the film was Julius Jaenzon with Ake Dahlquist as assistant camerman.


Gustaf Molander

Gustaf Molander

Scandinavian Silent Film

Lars Hanson

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Triumph of the Heart (Hjärtats triumf, Gustaf Molander, 1929)

Fan magazines from the United States have occaisionally reported that Rasunda Studios in Stockholm had recieved a vistor during 1929. There is an account that Greta Garbo, by then a star of the American silver screen purportedly with the power to avoid her own set while negotiating her salary, had visited actor Carl Brisson, an old romantic acquaintance, on the set of his film, "The Triumph of the Heart". As late as 1934, while announcing that Brisson was in Hollywood filming "Murder at the Vanities", Hollywood magazine introduced Brisson as "Garbo's first love". It having been 1934, Paramount International News was there observing publicity as Greta Garbo attended the premiere of the film, "Equipped with dark glasses and a knowledge of side entrances, she was able to elude her photographers on the way out, but reporters spotted her in the audience just after the picture started." That year, Movie Classic magazine published an article written by Carl Brisson himself entitled "There's No Romance Between Garbo and Me". The modern American reader might be unsure of Brisson's intentions when reading the Photoplay magazine of 1930 which writes, "He held out both his hands to her." in that Brisson may have been romanticlly evasive when sentimentally having said that he only knew her as the Greta that had been at the Dramatic School and that he may have only feigned surprise when being told that he had met Greta Garbo. The actress, who also had been to the set of the film to see Axel Nilsson, an old friend, had in fact known director Gustaf Molander in 1923 when she was still Greta Gustafsson of the Royal Dramatic Theater, whether or not there is conjecture as to Brisson having used innuendo refering to Garbo not having married actor Lars Hanson.

Author Forsyth Hardy inludes "Triumph of the Heart" (Hjartes Triumf, 1929) among the films made under the influence of Paul Merzbach which made little impression on the film-going world outside Sweden and they contributed nothing to the tradition built up during the Sjostrom-Stiller period." (Hardy)

Directed by Gustaf Molander, the film “Hjartats Triumf” was written by Paul Merzbach and is listed as having been photographed by J. Julius, a pseudonym used by Julius Jaenzon along with cameraman Axel Lindblom and assistant cameraman Ake Dahlqvist. Starring in the film were Edvin Adolphson and actresses Lissy Arna and Anna Lindhal. Although this was the second on screen appearance for Lindhal, she had only had a brief appearance in the film “Ingmarsarvet” during 1925 under the direction of Gustaf Molander.

Scandinavian Silent Film

Gustaf Molander Gustaf Molander

Greta Garbo drawn by Paul Rotha, Film Critic

This appeared in Close Up magazine during 1930. it is a modern rendering of Greta Garbo drawn by the esteemed author Paul Rotha.

After the death of Mauritz Stiller and Einar Hanson, in the 1931 volume Film Till Now, Paul Rotha groups Greta Garbo with the other Europen actors and directors, including Greta Nissen, Lars Hanson and Victor Sjostrom who had "deserted the sinking ship and settled down in California", "bought by dollars" and sent to the "Hollywood groove of living". He attributes a lyricism to the films of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film, the period during which Greta Garbo had made her film debut under the direction of Mauritz Stiller, one with a "feeling for depth and width".

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo