Scott Lord Silent Film: Gustaf Wasa (Brunius, 1928)

Silent Film

John Brunius

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Gyurkoricsarna (John Brunius, 1920)

Silent Film

Scandinavian Silent Film

John Brunius

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: The Wild Bird (En Vindfagel, Brunius, 1...

Swedish silent film director John W. Brunius during 1921 directed acresses Pauline Brunius, Renee Bjorling and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson in the film "The Wild Bird" ("En Vindfagel"). Photographed by Hugo Edlund, the film was co-scripted by Brunius with screenwriter Sam Ask. The film was shown in the United States as "Give Me My Son". During its first run the periodical Moving Picture World subtitled its review with "Feature That Will Please Whenever Naturalness Is Appreciated". It provided the "exploitation angle" of "Get interest in it chiefly because it is foreign." The periodical The Film Daily wrote, "Its gets away from the conventional happy ending. It is not tragic, but unexpected, and not what you think it will be. The denoument is particularly well handled." Under the "story" section, it wrote, "Involved, but maintains the quality of coherence and stands out as unusual" and under the "direction" section it wrote, "handles more dramatic moments effectively but otherwise is average." Scandinavian Silent Film Silent Film

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Gyurkoricsarna (John Brunius, 1920)

Suprisingly, the screenplay of "Lieutenant Tophat" (Gyurkoriscarna) is credited to Pauline Brunius and Gosta Ekman, who star in the film with Gucken Cederberg and Jessie Wessel. Directed byJohn Brunius in 1920, the film was photographed by Hugo Edlund. Swedish Silent Film Silent Film

Scott Lord Scandinavian Silent Film: Dodsritten under Circuskupolen (Geo...

"The Last Performance" (The Death Knell under the Circus Dome", directed by George af Klercker in 1912 was thought to be a lost film, with no surviving copies untill researcher Gosta Werner discovered a copy in the archive at Rochester, New York. The film was scripted by Svenska Bio production head Charles Magnusson. Like the first film directed by Victor Sjostrom, "The Gardner", the first film directed by George af Klercker, "Two Brothers" (Tva Broder) starring Tollie Zellman and Ingeborg Nilsson, was banned for public exhibition by the Swedish Censorship Board. "The Last Scream" (Sista Skriket, 1995) depicts a fictional assignation between silent film director George af Klercker and Charles Magnusson, who appointed Klercker studio manager- Klercker during 1915 had left for the Hasselblad studio in Gotenburg only to face Magnusson again after several company mergers. Directed by Ingmar Bergman from his own play, the film stars Ingvar Kjellison, Bjorn Granath and Anna von Rosen, the cinematographer to the film Per Noren. The play was published by New Press in the volume The Fifth Act. Actor Bjorn Granath portrays George af Klercker in the film "Jag ar nyfiken, film" (Stig Bjorkman, 1995), narrated by, of course, Lena Nyman, who appears in the film with Stefan Jarl, Erland Jospehsen, Sven Nykvist, Eva Isaksen and Liv Ullmann. George af Klercker also appears as an actor in the film "The Last Performance" with his wife, Selma Wiklund by Klercker. It was filmed in Lindingo, where George af Klercker had costarred with Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller under the direction of Paul Garbagni in the film "In the Spring of Life". George af Klercker that year also directed the films "Musiken makt" (The Power of Music), in which Klercker appeared on screen with Lilly Jacobsson, "Jupiter pa Jorden", which he also wrote, and "Tva Broder" with Birger Lundstedt and Eugen Nilsson. The following year, in 1913, George af Klercker directed "The Scandal" (Skandalen) for Svenska Biographtearterns, in which the director also appeared with his wife, Selma Wickland by Klercker. Silent Film Silent Film Silent Circus Movie

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: In the Fetters of Darkness (Morket I Boj...

Directed by George af Klercker for Hasselblad during 1917, "I Morkets Borje" was phtotgraphed by Swedish cinematographer Carl Gustav Florin and starred Sybil Smolawa. That year George af Klercker also directed the film "The Suburban Vicar". Silent Film Swedish Silent Film

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Forstadprasten (Suburban Priest, George ...

During 1917, Swedish Silent Film director George af Klerker directed actress Mary Johnson in the film "The Suburban Vicar" ("Forstudprasten"), in which she starred with Corcordia Selander and Lilly Graber. Photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin, the film was scripted by Harriet Bloch. Victor Sjostrom Victor Sjostrom Silent Film

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Synnöve Solbakken (Brunius, 1919)

The first adaptation based on the novel by Bjornstjerne Bjornsons, the film was co-scripted by John Brunius and Sam Ask, John W. Brunius having directed the film. It starred Karin Molander and Lars Hanson, who eventually married in 1922. Author Peter Cowie describes Karin Molander as being "evanescent" in the film. During 1919, John Brunius and Sam Ask also collaborated on the script to the film “Ah i, Morron Kvall”, which Brunius directed.

Silent Film

Scandinavian Silent Film

Scott Lord Scandinavian Film: Lars Hanson in A Dangerous Proposal (Ett Farlit Frieri, Rune Carlsten, 1919)

The first film directed by Rune Carlsten, an adaptation of a story by Bjornestejerne Bjornson which Carlsten coscripted with Sam Ask, was for Filmindustri Skandia, a short lived merger which shortly thereafter merged again, other directors for the company having been Elis Ellis and John Brunius. "A Dangerous Wooing/A Dangerous Courtshipt" (Ett Farlit Frieri) was the first of five films directed by Rune Carlsten to be photographed by Raol Reynolds. The film stars actress Gun Cronvall in her only on screen performance. Actor Lars Hanson also during 1919 starred underthe direction of Mauritz Stiller with actress Greta Almroth in the film "The Song of the Scarlet Flower" as well as under the direction of Swedish Silent Film director John Brunius in the 1919 film "Synnove Solbakken", with actress Karen Molander, who, then married to director Gustaf Molander, was later to become Lars Hanson's wife. Silent Film Lars Hanson Victor Sjostrom

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. 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

Scott Lord Silent Film: (The Hell Ship 1923, Victor Sjostrom)

"The Hellship" (Eld Omboard), directed by Victor Sjostrom and co-scripted by Victor Sjostrom and Hjalmer Bergman, starred actresses Jenny Hasselqvist, Julia Cederblad and Wanda Rothgardt.
Victor Seastrom

Victor Sjostrom

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Hans nåds testamente (Victor Sjostrom, ...

During 1919, Victor Sjostrom directed the film “His Lord’s Will” (“His Grace’s Will” “Hans nads testamente”) from the writings of Hjalmer Bergman. Photographed by Henrik Jaenzon, it starred actresses Greta Almroth and Tyra Dorum. In bookstores during 1919, God’s Orchid, written by Hjalmer Bergman appeared published in its first edition, followed in 1921 by the novel Thy Rod, Thy Staff and in 1930 by Jac the Clown. The film was remade in 1940 by Per Lindgren, scripted by Stina Bergman and starring Barbra Kollberg and Alk Kjellin.

Scott Lord Scott Lord Victor Sjostrom

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: The Phantom Carriage (Korkarlen,Victor Sjostrom, 1920)

With the subtitles Sweden Strikes a Lyrical Note, Garbo is Lost and Found, and Sweden Studio is Re-Born, in 1947 author Leslie Wood, in her book Miracle of the Movies, note the contribution of Victor Sjostrom and his Film “The Phantom Carriage” to the aesthetic of silent filmmaking at a time when both he and Mauritz Stiller saw film mostly as an artistic expression rather than a money-making machine consisting of “angles” and formulas. “Made In 1920, the film was instrumental ink making countries outside of Sweden aware of the artistic scope of the Svenska Biograph organization. Their screen work was particularly brilliant. Natural light, even on interior settings was far ahead of the work achieved on open air stages elsewhere. Their technicians had the happy thought of building the sets on locations which would provide fine vistas of natural scenery when glimpses through open doors and windows and the shafts of sunlight falling into a room would be the real thing. With motes and breathtakingly beautiful because of its naturalness. Seastrom’s direction sometimes strained a little too much to include the beautifully simple and the simply beautiful- slow sheep toddling away at the approach of lovers, or the graceful movements making a servant in performing the everyday, ordinary rites of preparing breakfast in a sunlit kitchen.” Wood provides a thematic synopsis of the film with, "with an eerie forcefulness and an abscence of the macabre, an unconscious man sees the misery he has wrought".
The Victor Sjostrom film “The Phantom Carriage” was the first movie made at the Filmstaden studios at Rasunda, Sweden and it is evident that the Studio was designed for filming; the Little Studio, newly renovated and open to the public for tours, was comprised of rehearsal rooms and filmstudios, one on the top floor having a roof and walls made of glass to use daylight when filming, as well as a rotatating stage. A small cinema on the bottom floor has been named after Ingmar Bergman and has been kept as a screening room. Leslie Wood notes, "The Svensk studio, beside a lake at Rasunda and twenty minutes by train from Stockholm, was a large but simply arranged wooden building set amongst pine trees,,,its cloistered atmosphere."
Filmstaden was used by director Ingmar Bergman to make the images of silent film, and their extratextual context, come to life while filming “The Imagemakers” (“Bildmarkarna”) for Swedish Television during 2000. Also included within the play is a screening of “The Phantom Carriage”, it being an adaption of the writing of Per Olaf Enquist that transpires as interaction between Victor Sjostrom, novelist Selma Lagerlof, cameraman Julius Jaenzon and actress Tora Teje during the making of the film. One theme of the film is artistic authenticity, a theme well articulated by Ingmar Bergman during his films of the 1950’s. Actress Anita Bjork starred as Selma Lagerlof and actress Elin Klinga starred as Swedish Silent Film actress Tora Teje.
Anthony Battalgia recently for Film Comment explained the spatio-temporal structure of the film directed by Victor Sjostrom ,”It is hard to overstate the storytelling sophistication at work here: flashbacks fork off from stories in the act of being told, mixing tenses untill all Time seems in The here and now.”, which is fitting for the re-enactment of what he labels to be “nominally, a ghost story”.
Author Forsyth Hardy compliments director Victor Sjostrom own onscreen acting, its having been less historionic than in other films. “The exaggerated guestures of some of the early films had gone, but the intensity of feeling was still there.” Hardy characterizes the film as being "memorable".
The film stars actresses Hilda Borgstrom, whom had appeared in the films “Ingeborg Holm” (1913) and ”Domen Icke” (1914), both directed by Victor Sjostrom, Concordia Selander, who appeared in the film “Torsen Fran Stormyrtorpet” (1917), directed by Victor Sjostrom, Lisa Lundholm and actress Astrid Holm. Charles Magnusson produced the film. The multiple or layered double exposures were developed by cameraman Julius Jaenzon. Author Lars Gronkvist notes that after taking eight days to finish the script, Director Victor Sjostrom delivered, read and performed the script for two hours in front of novelist Selma Lagerlof before the two of them had dinner.


The film having being remade twice, first by Julien Duvivier in 1939, and by Swedish Film director Arne Mattson in 1958, author Aleksander Kwiatkoski, in his volume Swedish Film Classics, compares the subsequent versions to Victor Sjostrom's original adaptation of "Korkarlen", "None of the subsequent screen versions of Selma Lagerlof's novel has reached the power of expression of this one. Sjostrom's film is not as inventive in its psychological stratum but his social and moral interests are curiously interwoven with his personal experiences."

Greta Garbo and Victor Seastrom


Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller

Victor Sjostrom Playlist

Scandinavian Silent Film playlist

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Revelj (George af Klercker, 1917)

Directed by George af Klerker in 1917, the film "Revelj" starred actresses Mary Johnson, Lily Croswin and both Gertie Lowestrom and Gerda Bjorne in the first film in which either were to appear onscreen. The film was photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin and the screenplay was written by Carl Svensson-Graner. That year Swedish silent film director George af Klerker also directed actress Mary Johnson in the film "The Suburban Vicar" (Forstadprasten), in which she starred with Concordia Selander and Lilly Graber. During 1917 George af Klercker also directed the film "I Morkets Bojor" one of the only two films in which actress Sybil Smolova had appeared. "Vagen Utter", in which George af Klercker had a year earlier during 1916 had directed Sybil Smolova, is presumed to be lost, therebeing no surviving copies of the film. Scandinavian Silent Film Silent Film Silent Film

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Vem Dömer (Who Should Judge?, Victor Sjostrom, 1922)

In Sweden, during 1922, Victor Sjostrom directed Jenny Hasselqvist in “Love’s Crucible”, co-scripted by Hjalmer Bergman and photographed by Julius Jaenzon. Nils Asther and Gosta Emmanuel appear on screen in the film. Author Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scandinavian Film notes that the film was "an elaborate and spectacular historical film". Forsyth Hardy implies that "Vem Dormer" was not only an example of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film but an overwhelming attempt to save it, it having been an expensivefilm to make in hooe of regaining an overseas audience that had begun to lose interest in serious Swedish Films. "All the resources of the newly completed Rasunda Studios were mobilized to make the spectacular Vem Dormer."

During the following year, 1923, Jenny Hassellquist starred in another collaboration between Victor Sjostrom and Hjalmer Bergman, the Film “Eld Ombord” (“The Hellship”)in which she appeared on screen with Victor Sjostrom, while under his direction. Actor Matheson Lang and actress Julia Cederblad appear with her in the film, which was photographed by Julius Jaenzon.



Victor Sjostrom

Victor Sjostrom Playlist

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Thomas Graal's Best Film (Mauritz Stille...

Bengt Forslund, in his article "Through a Glass Darkly, the silent era of Swedish Film", reminds us that Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller "made farces, comedies and melodramas, as well as medieval legends and romantic sagas, social films and realistic dramas." Interestingly enough Forslund tries to relate their affinity as having arisen not from a singleness of desire, or from a solidarity, but it having come rather from their disparity, from their having "little in common as individuals". This led to each learning the others technique of filmmaking. Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, sees the film as self-reflexive, writing "'Thomas Graal's Best Film' works primarily as a comedy of manners, but it also functions effectively as a satire on filmmaking, evene at this early stage of the industry's development. The implication is that cinema stands beyond reality, and as a medium attracts only the 'hammy' situation and the exagerrated personality." Peter Cowie notes that onscreen Victor Sjostrom and Karen Molander are the "ideal screen couple" and that Gustaf Molander, although only inevitably married to Karen Molander for eight years, wrote "scintillating" dialougue intertiles for her. Cowie points out that the film distinguishes Mauritz Stiller as one of the first directors to use a "film-within-a-film-format". Mauritz Stiller is particularly noted for having has directed Victor Sjostrom in two comedies for A.B Svenska, “Wanted A Film Actress” (“Thomas Graal’s Basta Film”, 1917) with actress Karin Molander and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson and “Marriage ala mode” [“Thomas Graal’s First Child/ Thomas Graal’s Basta Barn”, 1918) also starring Karin Molander and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson. The running time to the former, a film noted by Forsyth Hardy as one of the first comedies about filmmaking, was ninety minutes, the latter eighty nine minutes. Rune Carlsten and Henrik Jaenzon both appeared on screen in the film Thomas Graal’s Best Film, which was written under a pseudonym by Gustaf Molander. Molander continued as writer and director of “Thomas Graal’s Ward/ Thomas Graal’s mindling”, photographed by Adrian Bjurnman.


Silent Film

Victor Sjostrom

Victor Sjostrom

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Sangen om den eldroda blomman (Mauritz S...

"The Song of the Scarlet Flower" (Sangen och elroda blomman, 1919) was to star Lars Hanson, Greta Almroth, Lilebel Ibsen and Edith Erastoff. The film was directed by Mauritz Stiller with a photoplay written by Gustaf Molander. "Man's Way With Women" (Sangen och elroda Blommen, 1934) was to star Edvin Adolphson, Inga Tiblad, Aino Taube, Birgit Tengroth and Gull Maj-Nori . The film was directed by Per Axel Banner with the legendary photographer Julius Jaenzon with a script by the legendary photoplay dramatist Ragnar Hylten-Cavallius. "The Song of the Scarlet Flower" was with Gunnel Lindblom and Anita Bjork was directed by Gustaf Molander

The tinting of the first film provides contrast netween its individual scenes, moods and uses of nature as a background, its narrative creating a structure of seperate chapters.

Scholar Jaakko Seppalia attributes the rapid shooting of director Mauritz Stiller in "Song of the Scarlett Flower" as a direct influence on the film "The Logroller's Bride" (Koskenlaskijan marsian") directed by Finnish director Ekki Karu, particularly the use of several cameras and longshots during a rapid shooting sequence, both directors realizing that "heroic moments of action could be depicted in detail on film". Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, points out the "lyrical imagery of documentary realism" of the film while delineating the gap between the work of Mauritz Stiller and Victor Sjostrom as further narrowing into less of a contrast.

Mauritz Stiller

Scandinavian Silent Film

Scott Lord Scandinavian Silent Film: The Gardner (Tradgardsmastanen, Vic...

Banned in Sweden during 1912, "The Gardner", written by Mauritz Stiller and directed by Victor Sjostrom was thought to be lost untill a surviving copy was found sixty eight years later in the Library of Congress. The film stars Victor Sjostrom with Lilli Bech, Muaritz Stiller, Gosta Ekman and John Ekman. It was the directorial debut of Victor Sjostrom, unscreened during his lifetime. Actress Karin Alexandersson who appears in the film that year also appeared in the film "Froken Julie", directed by Anna Hofman Uddgren. Was the film Scandinavian sensationalism made in response to Asta Neilsen starring in the film "The Abyss"? The film did successfully premiere in Denmark and Norway, during 1912 and 1913 respectively. (To modern auiences the film's theme of incest/seduction is depicted before both the Suffragete movement for women's voting rights and before much of Frued's writing on the Electra Complex- there remains an ostensible theme of Seduction, or perhaps an element of exploitation in the film.)
Also that year Victor Sjostrom directed the film "A Ruined Life" (Ett hemligt giftermal) co-scipted with Charles Magnusson and starring Hilda Bjorgstrom, Einar Froberg, Anna Norrie, and Greta Almroth in the first film in which she was to appear.

Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Swedish Cinema, Ingeborg Holm to Fanny Alexander notes the numerous location shots employed to showcase Victor Sjostrom's future wife, Lilli Beck during the film. Peter Cowie quickly references that Lilli Bech and Victor Sjostrom were formerly married 1914-196. The actress starred with Victor Sjostrom onscreen under the direction of Mauritz Stiller the following year, during 1913 with a script written by Stiller and photographed by Julius Jaenzon with "Vampyren", a film presently presumed to be lost, with no existing surviving cooies. That year Victor Sjostrom and Lilli Bech were also paired onscreen by Mauritz Stiller in the film "Barnet", with Einar Froberg and Anna Norrie, photographed again by Julius Jaenzon. The film is also presumed lost with no existing surviving copies.



Actor John Eckman, who appeared on screen in a score of films between 1912 and 1950 before his appearing with Victor Sjostrom in the Ingmar Bergman film "Till Joy" (Till gladje,1950), directed only one film, it also being the first film in which he was to appear. Before having appeared during 1912 in the film "Tradgardsmasteren", under the direction of Victor Sjostrom and during 1912 in the film "De Svarta Maskerna" under the direction of Mauritz Stiller, Ekman directed the film "The Shepherd Girl" (Saterjantan,1912), starring actress Greta Almroth, Carlo Weith and Stina Berg in her first onscreen appearance, the film having had been photographed by Hugo Edlund for Svenska Biographteatern. Victor Sjostrom would direct John Ekman, Lilli Bech and himself from his own script during 1914, adding the actress Greta Almroth in the film "Daughter of the High Mountain" (Hogfallets dotter), photographed by Julius Jaenzon. The film is presumed to be lost, presently there being no surviving existing copies.
Silent Film Victor Sjostrom Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Karin Ingmarsdotter (Victor Sjöström, ...

While writing about the film "Wild Strawberries", Jorn Donner notes that Ingmar Bergman's film is in part a tribute to Victor Sjostrom the director. "Many scenes have a tie-in with Victor Sjostrom's work. A smashed watch plays a part in 'Karin Ingmarsdotter'." Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, points out the danger involved in the hazardous stunts, notably plunging into an icy river, that Victor Sjostrom employed while shooting the film.

Author Forsyth Hardy again defines the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film by describing the several adaptations of the novel "Jerusalem", written by Selma Lagerlof, "These stories of peasant life had the qualities which had come to be expected in the Swedish films: a stern and exacting moral code, an expressive use of landscape, and a consciousness of the power of the elements...Her novels had their roots deep in the counntry's culture and in this, and in the breadth and sweep of their treatment they gave the directors what they needed."

With a photoplay scripted by director Victor Sjostrom, the six reel film was photographed by Julius Jaenzon.

Actress Tora Teje costars in the film as the title character with director Victor Sjostrom. Harriet Bosse, who was married to playwright August Strindberg between 1901-1904 and then actor Gunnar Wingard between 1908-1911, appears in a breif appearance during the film. She had previously appeared in the film "Ingmarssonerna", written and directed by Victor Sjostrom and photographed by Julius Jaenzon during 1919.
Victor Sjostrom Silent Film

Scott Lord Scandinavian Silent Film: Bjrnetaemmern (Bear Tamer of the Fl...

During 1912, Lilli Beck appeared in the sequel to the film "The Flying Circus" (Lind, 1912), again appearing on the screen as a snake charmer under the direction of Alfred Lind in "The Bear Tamer of the Flying Circus".

Alfred Lind is notable for having directed the seven reel film "The Masque of Life/The Jockey of Death" during 1916 if only for its having been an example of an early attempt to create a new genre of "Thrill" movies in it continuance of circus themes and motifs, the publicity for the film similar to that of serials, or "cliffhangers", a later short film directed by Lind survives from 1923 entitiked "Filmens vovehals" (Daredevil of the Movies", starring Emilie Sannom.

During 1913, Motography Magazine in the United States introduced The Great Northern Film Company to its readers by defining the "circus thrill" film as an emerging genre, "The natural scenery in the suburbs of Copenhagen and in the country surrounding this old city afford all that could be desired for the taking of motion pictures and the atmospheric conditions have been pronounced as ideal by experts in the art of motography. The companyy boasts of a perfectly equipped circus arena in which many of its talked of feature productions are made." Lilli Beck Silent Film

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Thomas Graal’s Basta Barn (Mauritz Still..

Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, writes, "The domestic relationships and erotic byplay in Stiller's comedies posses an application and validity beyond their immediate setting- and generation." In his volume Eighty Years of Cinema, Peter Cowie opines, "There is a spirited mischievousness about the performances of Victor Sjostrom and KArin Molander in 'Thomas Graal's First Child' that makes other acting of the period seem academic and ponderous. Directed by Mauritz Stiller during 1918, the photoplay was written by Gustaf Molander and the cinematographer to the film was Henrik Jaenzon. Starring with Victor Sjostrom and Karin Molander was actress Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson. Gustaf and Karin Molander were married from 1909 to 1919.
Victor Sjostrom playlist Mauritz Stiller

Scott Lord Silent Film: (Hårda viljor (Brunius, 1923)

Swedish Silent Film director John W. Brunius during 1922 directed actress Lilla Bye and Linnea Hillberg in the film "Harda Viljer", cowritten by Brunius and Sam Ask, the film was photographed by cinematographer Hugo Edlund. Silent Film John Brunius

Early Scandinavian SIlent Film,: FIlmed Theater and the Cinema of Attractions

William Rothman writes that only one sixth of the silent film shot before 1907 had storyline. This can apparently refer to Sweden as well. Scholar Sandra Walker, University of Zurich writes, "At the time of Svenska Bio's first operations approximately 75% of the film produced in Sweden were nature films and journalistic reportage films. The journalistic films, such as the funeraof King Oscar II, in 1907, have been mentioned inconnection with the development of narrative techniques." It would be interesting to as if from the choice of these subjects we could infer a need or desire to view narrative on the screen or if the subjects were suggestive of real life stories that might be expanded into fictional fantasy, a deigesis that might be exotic or with which we were ordinarily familiar, causing us to wonder what would happen later, identifying with the subject for that reason. Silent Film Swedish Silent Film

Swedish Silent Film, director George af Klercker

Anne-Kristin Wallengren, for Nordic Academic Press, only indirectly refers to the work of Gosta Werner and the restoration of lost silent film in the article, Welecome Home Mr. Swanson-Swedish Emigrants and Swedishness on Film. "There is the still extant film Storstadfaror (Perils of the Big City, Manne Gothson, 1918), in which a young man goes to America and at the end of the film, returns to Sweden, rich; however, while this was one of the very few films made in the 1910's to show America in a positive light, it is also significant that his was only a supporting role." The film Perils of the Big City was written by Gabrielle Ringertz and photographed by Gustav A. Gustavson. Appearing in the film were Mary Johnson, who, having made several films with George af Klerker, would later film under the direction of Mauritz Stiller. Appearing in the film with Johnson were actresses Agda Helin, Tekl Sjoblom and Lilly Cronin.
Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, elaborates,"Several of the 27 geatures completed by Klercker at Hasselblad were enhanced by the etheral beauty of Mary Johnson,an actress in the mould of Lillian Gish; she would reachher apogee as ELsalilli in 'Sir Arne's Treasure'" The film apparently was the only film produced at Hasselblad Fotografiska, from its first film in 1915, untill it merged early in 1918 to become Filmindustri Skandia, not to have been directed by George af Klercker, Manne Gothson had previously been Klercker's assistant director. This having been said, scholar Astrid Soderberg Widding points out that Gosta Werner neglects or omits the films made by Af Klercker before he began with Hasselblad, almost to confer with other authors that place Sjostrom and Stiller at the forefront of Swedish Silent Film's Golden Age; Leif Furhammer has advanced that Af Klercker had been an Auteur  only to heighten the comparison that can be made between George Af Klercker and Carl Th. Dreyer, despite Dreyer's having entered directing later and his only having scripted melodramas while searching for adaptations.
     The fourty one minute film 'Mysteriet natter till den 25ie' proves to be more enigmatic than its director. it stars Swedish actress Mary Johnson with Carl Barklind and was photographed by Sven PeUtersson- one of the first films to demonstrate the need for silent film preservation, it was not shown to audiences until, 1975. Recently a genealogical study on the af Klercker family, which not only includes George af Klercker, but also Birgitta af Klercker and Fredrick af Klercker mentioned the film, but not as a film that had been lost, as many silent films have, or lost and then later found, but as a film that was originally banned by Swedish film censorship. The Swedish Film Institute confirms the film having been originally banned as a "Nick Carter" detective film, but that when the film became no longer lost, in 1975, the elements in the film that were objectionable were no longer able to be censored and the restored version was given a "for all" rating after having been missing for nearly sixty years. Describing the film as a "three act sensational drama", Peter Cowie writes, "Klercker's ingenuity yeilds constant suprises.", there being a sensibility in keeping with the director's eye evident in that "this fascination with mirrors and decor colours all Klercker's cinema".
Clearly George af Klercker was eclipsed by Mauritz Stiller and Victor Sjostrom in that af Klercker left had Svenska Bio before  Stiller and Sjostrom had gained renown internationally for films of longer running length. The director Geroge af Klerker is portrayed by actor Bjorn Granath in the film "The Last Scream" ("The Last Gasp", Stig Bjornman, 1995), a two character play in one act lasting almost an hour which depicts a fictional, ie. Imaginary, meeting between the director Klercker and Charles Magnussion, founder of Svensk Filmindustri and which was written by Ingmar Bergman. Actress Anna Von Rossen stars as Miss Holm. The play was published by New Press in the volume, The Fifth Act, in which also appeared Monologue, After the Rehearsal and Presence of a Clown. Stig Bjorkman, noted for his interviews of Ingmar Bergman is also the director of I Am Curious Film, and But Film is My Mistress. It should be noted that Bjorn Granath portrays George af Klercker in the film "Jag ar nyfiken, film" (1999) in which he appears with, of course, Lena Nyman, who interviews Sven Nykvist, Eva Isaksen, Stefan Jarl and Liv Ullman, but it should also be noted that Victor Sjostrom and Ingmar Bergman are listed in the cast of players in the film "Images from the Playground" (Bilder fran Lekstugan,2009), written and directed by Stig Bjorkman, which appeared in the 2022 Cannes film festival- while many noted scholars have chosen to appraise Swedish film through the form of the essay, Stig Bjorkman has brought the interview into the onscreen literature of the documentary.

It is clear that Astrid Soderberg Widding outlines the ostensible difference between the director George af Klercker and his contemporaries Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller by accurately placing him as a director of "melodrama and sensational adventures" made in Denmark, those which had established the director Viggo Larsen ; he is also apart from the type of film made in Kristianstad before he had began with Svenska Bio at Lindingo. As academic writing among film historians can be cumulative, each seminal text nodding to what is salient in each of its predecessors, it is certain that Soderberg Widding will not only contribute to film history research, but will springboard later film theory. She describes the directing of Af Klercker with, "A purely film-theoretical aspect that becomes evident when looking at Af Klercker's production deserves to be highlighted. it has to do with the relationship between the visual and narrative elements: phenomena which in film-theoretical historiography are not infrequently regarded as counterpoints......Af Klercker's films are in their narratives quite conventional and typical of their time. They provide thrilling stories while expressing a supreme control over film as a medium." In describing this, Astrid Soderberg Widding articulates the interrelationship between content and form while praising the films of Af Klercker for their "stylistic stability and visual extravagance, if only to reiterate that characters are developed within the miss en scene context of their created environment in the narrative plots of both Danish and Swedish silent film "Here one encounters a driven visual narrator   who demands a high degree of focus. many of the different narrative devices and stylistic features are noteworthy: his utilization of a qualified depth-of-focus cinematography aw well as the effect of advanced lighting." The author notes that one instance of this was Klerker's use of door frames within the image. In no academic papers already copyrighted, Soderberg Widding looks intricately at technique including the element of editing, so as not to neglect shot structure being in tandem with composition, by distinguishing a signature of Af Klercker's composition, "to use an undivided screen space where dissectons and doubling so takes place within a general frame rather than the introduction of several frames."

Swedish Silent Film director George af Klercker had been the head of the studios of Svenska Bio, Stockhom, his wife, Selma af Klercker often appearing on screen in his films. He was joined there by actorMauritz Stiler and Victor Sjostrom, who was then also leaving the theater. It has been noted that there were aprroximately 325 movie theaters open in Sweden during 1912.

Dodsritten under cirkuskupolen (1912) had been written by Charles Magnusson and photographed by Henrik Jaenzon. George Af Klercker had written his own screenplay to the 1912 film Jupiter pa Jorden, also filmed by Henrik Jaenzon. Although Af Klerker directed a short film photographed by Sven Petterson and starring actress Tyra Leijman Uppstrom during 1913, he that year also directed The Scandal (Skandalen) for Svenska Biographteatern, his photographer again Henrik Jaenzon, as was the case with the film Med Vapen I Hand that year,actress Selma Wiklund Af Klerker also returning for both films. As director, Klercker appeared on screen on camera in front of the lens of cameraman Henrik Jaenzon during "Med Vapen hand", which he did again while directing "For faderneslandent" with Jaenzon as camera man. Ragnar Ring codirected the film and wrote it's screenplay and actress Lilly Jacobsen starred in the film.

It has been noted that George af Klercker had spent time in Copenhagen and Paris after leaving Svenska Bio.

In Goteborg, Sweden, the two films produced by Hasselblads Fotofraphiska during 1915 were both filmed by George af Klerker and Sve Petterson. That year George af Klercker contributed the film "The Rose of Thistle Island" ("Rosen pa Tistelon), the first film in which actress Elsa Carlsson and Anna Lofstrom were to appear. The novel had been filmed previously by director Mauritz Stiller as "Pa livets Odesvager".

Among the films directed by George Af Klercker during 1916 was The Gift of Health (Aktie bolaget Halsams gave), the first film photographed by cinematographer Gustav Gustafson and the first film in which actress Tekla Sjoblom was to appear. Carl Gustaf Florin also is credited as having photographed with Gustafson. One of only two photoplays to be scripted by Gustaf Berg, the film is presumed to be lost with no suviving copies. Also starring in the film were Mary Johnson and Anna Lofstrom.

That year Swedish film director Af Klercker also appeared on screen in the film Under the Spell of Memories (I minnenasband), in which he directed Elsa Carlsson, Tora Carlsson and Elsa Berglund. The film was written and photographed by Sven Pettersson. The 1916 film Hogsta Vinsten, in which director George Af Klercker appeared on screen with actress Gerda Thome Mattsson lasted a brief running time of only sixteen minutes at a time when the average running time had been increased from four reels to six. The film was photographed by Sven Pettersson. Also among the film's directed by George af Klercker in 1916 were "Triumph of Love" ("Karleken segrar") photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin and starring Mary Johnson, Teklas Sjoblom, Selma Wikland Klercker and Lily Cronwin in the first film in which she was to appear and the film "Mother in Law Goes for a Stroll" ("Svar pa rift") photographed by Gustav A. Gustafson and starring Greta Johansson, Maja Cassell and Zara Backman. Peter Cowie contrasts the directing of George af Klercker with that of Mauritz Stiller, "Mood and composition, however, distinguish Klercker's work more than performances."
Af Klercker had gained renown not only for his blending artificial and natural light, but while at Hasselblad he innovated the techniques involved with a lens system that was suited for filming objects at a distance, ranging from a focal length of a few feet to that of a mile.
The Swedish Film Institute credits George af Klercker for having made two films in which actress Olga Hallgren starred whereas databases in the United States credit her with three films, all produced in Sweden during 1917 by Hasselblad studios. Klercker directed the 1917 "Ett Konstnarsode" photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin, in which Hallgren starred with actress Greta Pfeil and Klercker directed the 1917 film "Brottmalsdomanen" ("The Judge"), photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin, also starring Olga Hallgren. Sources from the United States credit Klercker with the film "Det Finns Inga Gudar pa Jordan" ("There are no Gods on Earth") from 1917 in which Olga Hallgren again starred with Greta Pfeil.

It wasn't untill 2017 that there was an unearthed copy of the 1926 film "Flickorna pa Solvik", the last film to be directed by George af Klercker, when it was rediscovered in a private collection. One of only two photoplays scripted by John Larson, the film starred actress Wanda Rothgardt.

During 1918, George af Klercker directed the films "The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter" (Fryvaktarens Dottar), photographed by Gosta Staring and starring Mary Johnson and Agnes Obergsson, "Night Music" (Nattliga Toner), photographed by Gustaf A. Gustafson and starring Agda Helin, Helge Kihlberg and Tekla Sjoblom, and "Nobelpristagaren".

Danish Silent Film

Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller

Swedish Silent Film

Swedish Sound Film

Greta Garbo Silent Film

Scott Lord: The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjostrom, 1918)

After having appeared in “The Outlaw and His Wife”, actress Edith Erastoff starred with Lars Hanson and Greta Almroth In “The Flame of Life” (1919), directed by Mauritz Stiller And “Let No Man Put Asunder” (“Hogre Andamal”, 1921) directed by Rune Carlsten.
In Sweden, Victor Sjostrom continued directing in 1922 with the film “Vem domer”, starring Jenny Hasselqvist, which he co-scripted with Hjalmer Bergman.

Victor Sjostrom had written four hundred letters to Edith Erastoff, his co-star from the film “The Outlaw and His Wife”, their eventually having married during 1922.

The historiography of the film criticism that delineates the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film was perhaps easily formulated while the films were still being screened internationally in theaters if we heed the review placed in the periodical Picture Show magazine during 1919 that astutely notes "On stage it is easy to calculate the effect of limelights....a glance at the top photographs of Seastrom (left) in 'Love the Only Law' and (right) 'A Man There Was' well illustrates how the one appealing figure dominates the immense landscape around him". The magazine quotes Victor Sjostrom explaing his liking screen adaptation over stage adaptation almost propheticly in regard to the film criticism, if not film theory, that would later follow. "One has to deal with more people', he says, 'and also with grande, terrible landscapes, with shifting effects of shade and shadow'".

Author Forsyth Hardy, in the volume Scandinavian Film written in 1952, explains the film of Victor Sjostrom as having established Sjostrom as an auteur of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film by his work having created a poetic cinema. Hardy writes, “There was a greater freedom of movement, an assured sense of rhythm and a fine feeling for composition. In ‘The Outlaw and His Wife’ Sjostrom used landscape with a skill which was to become part of the Swedish Film tradition. He found a way of filming the tree-lined valleys and wide arched skies of his country so that they became not merely backgrounds but organic elements in the theme in the theme. There was still, however, a lingering tendency to melodrama in the acting....the end of the film especially was marred by melodramatic excess, but despite this fault, Berg-EJvid was memorable because of its theme, and its demonstration in the earlier sequences of the film medium's affinities with poetry." During 1960, Charles L. Fuller, writing for Films in Review, succinctly described the films motifs, "Its theme was that no man escapes his fate 'though he rides faster than the wind' ".

Peter Cowie, in his volume Eighty Years of Cinema, explains, "But apart from his assured use of flashbacks, Sjostrom was the first Swedish director to realize the importance of landscape in the cinema. The solicitude and predicament Berg-EJvind and his wife speak through images with the clouds and mountains expressing a life of vigor and simplicity."

About the film, Einar Lauritzen wrote, “But Sjostrom never let the drama of human relations get lost in the grandeur of the scenery.” To this can be added that Jean Mitry, in his work The Aesthetics and Psychology of Cinema, writes of the mountain in "The Outlaw and His Wife", up to the tragic ending, is a symbol of granduer and isolation, as well as a symbol for the effort of the man and woman to reverse their fate. The snow, in Mitry's interpretation symbolizes not only purity but alao redemption.

Peter Cowie writes, "Prominent too in this masterpiece is the Scandinavian approach to the seasons. Summer is recalled in short, wrenching spasms, as the outlaw sits starving in his mountain hut toward the end; but winter, equated inthe Swedish arts with death, destroys the spirit and whips the snow over the couple's bodies with inexorable force."

"The Outlaw and His Wife" was reviewed in the United States during 1921 under the title "You and I". Motion Picture News concluded, "The picture is marred by an utterly irrelevant prolougue and epilougue which should be dispensed with immediately. It has no place in advancing the drama and really spoils the good impressions of the picture."

When Bluebook of the Screen in 1923 introduced Victor Sjostrom as then currently filming his first feature made in the United States, "Master of Men" as Victor Seastrom it related, without quoting him directly, that Sjostrom felt that his "tragedy of Iceland", "The Outlaw and His Wife", was his est work and that to him it "would not be understood or appreciated in England or America".

Greta Garbo

Victor Sjostrom

Victor Sjostrom playlist

As The Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film Begins to Wane

Swedish Silent Film scholar Bo Florin makes note of the province held by Nils Bouveng at the newly structured Svenska Filmindustri after the merger had taken place of the smaller companies into one and that Bouveng had published an article entitled Swedish Film Advertising: How the Industry Plans to Conquer the World in the 1919 periodical Filmjournalen. Nils Bouveng of Swedish Biograph was very much responsible for the distribution of Swedish silent film in the United States. The publication Exhibitor's Herald during 1921 noted that although Bouveng was deemed to have thought the film market overcrowded, he would still export film "of merit" to the United States. It wrote,"Swedish Biograph has control of all product of Scandinavian studios and will offer only the cream of these pictures to American theaters...While Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness is regarded as its finest offering, company executives believe that Judge Not, Sir Arne's Treasure, Youth Meets Youth, Dawn of Love and Secret of the Monastery will compare favorably with any American made production." Actors that were anticipated to greet audiences in the United States included Mary Johnson, Gosta Ekman Renee Bjorling, Tora Teje, Edith Erastoff Lars Hanson, Karin Molander and Victor Sjostrom.
Scandinavian films were often peered at by American and British film magazines and for thos looking for film rveiews, extatextural discourse on European films can often be located within them. Picture Play Magazine during 1921 looked at the theater screens of Sweden. "Lars Hanson, a star of the Swedish constellation may be added to the European counterparts of American stars. Lesley Mason denominates him 'the Charles Ray of Sweden' and considers him the best male bet of Europe so far as American popularity is concerned. The most popular of the Swedish feminine stars, according to Mr. Mason, are Tora Teje, Karin Molander and Mary Johnson. During the following year, 1922, the periodical Picturegoer magazine in fact recognized actress Mary Johnson as being the leading actress from Sweden in an article about actors known internationally and transnational cinema but opined that as a foreign celebrity she entertained a more subdued fame, as though to denote a lack of commodification of the female in extratextural discourse, ie. exploitation. "Although she rejoices in the title of 'Sweden's Sweetheart", loveable, little Mary Johnson has never recieved a 'fan' letter from Sweden. The reason is extremely simple. There are no 'fans' there. The star, as a star and personality, simply doesn't count. The Swedish picturegoer is very critical as to story, technique and acting and highly appreciative too; but as to writing to the movie stars- perish the thought." Author Walter Bloem, in his volume The Soul of the Moving Picture from 1924, in a discussion on The Scene, singled out two Swedish Silent Film actresses by briefly mentioning Karin Molander and Tora Teje as having "the psychic power which spells variety in the creation of character" as contrasted with a plentiful supply of American actresses that presented "a soporific drama of a single sorrow or grief or pain, of a conventional melancholy, sadness or lament." Author Benjamin B. Hampton to the contrary, in his volume A History of the Movies, published during 1931, seems to transverse the period following the Golden Age of Silent Film as though from 1925-1930 were stagnant, typifying Swedish Silent Film as tendentious. "The Scandinavians, despite fine actors and directors, lean so frequently toward gloomy, sophisticated stories, that they have been negligible factors in production as far as production is concerned." Hampton overlooks that this is exaclty what helps to account for the film made in Sweden after 1925 having been attempts at commercial success through light hearted comedies.

The periodical Motion Picture News during 1925 cited Charles Magnusson as the president of The Swedish Film Industry, Inc. of Stockholm. The occaision was his visit to America and Hollywood. It quoted Magnusson as having said, "American pictures are teaching the people of Sweden to think like Americans, to dress like them and to act like them...They are all emulating the American screen stars and bobbed heads are almost universal throught the North country." He added that Swedish filmmakers were dependent upon artifical lighting, "Our plant in Stockholm is about twelve acres, but we have only two production stages." The Film Daily covered the same visit of Charles Magnusson to Hollywood with the title "Sweden Can't Compete". It claimed that Sweden would look to European markets rather than American and that Swedish audiences demanded American films, one hundread out of one hundread and forty films shown in Sweden being made in Hollywood.

The sentiment that the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film had been overwhelmed by Hollywood and its towering economic system rather than the expected bolstering of Swedish studios through exportation is expressed by author Joel Fryholm, Lund University, who includes the global prescence of American films as conributing to the decline of the Scandinavian art film in a paper tracing the "Swedish Agitation against American Films" and the splashing of advertisements for them in Swedish newspapers that had neccesitated the need for debate regarding legislation. Providing a historiography of Ipsea, for which Gustaf Molanger and Olaf Molander directed, Fryholm sees Ipsea as much of the demise of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film by its differing from the transnationalism of a global American cinema by providing a national cinema that differed it choice of subject material from earlier "peasant films", their romanticism, their depiction of provincal culture and that they often "forgrounded the local natural landscape". In effect, Fryholm seems to decribe Sweden as losing world wide ticket holders by offering a new Sweden shown in "Swedish International Films", the reverse effect modernizing storylines had had for the silent film career of Greta Garbo, who at the crescendo of the silent era began to offer a flapper alternative while depating from early costume dramas. In extratextual discourse, film critics had begun to appraise the lack of "peasant films" before the departure of Sjostrom, Stiller, Hanson and Garbo to America had taken hold in the critical reception of first run features. Perhaps not an autuer, Molander had reinvented himself and the signature styles of Swedish silent cinema, newspaper critics attempting to compare his films to those made in Hollywood, which at the beginning of the decade absorbed 80% of the Swedish market, as though a new cinematic experience for the remaining 20% of Swedish movie theater tickets. This alternative cosmopolitanism and metropolitanism intended to vie with Hollywood is in part faulted for the decline of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film it later having beenn seen unfavorably by film historian Gosta Werner.

During 1921, the periodical Motion Picture Magazine reported there would be an increase of importations from Stockholm and while it featured still photographs from the films Dawn of Love, The Secret of the Monsastery and A Fortuned Hunter, it marked that the storylines we're to be adaptations from the literature of Ibsen, Bjornsen and Selma Lagerlof and that the principal players had come from the Swedish theater, which aptly describes the way in which actress Greta Garbo would be introduced to Swedish film audiences two years later.

Swedish director Ivan Hedqvist during 1919 directed the Svenska Biografteatern film "The Downy Girl"(Dunungen) from a play by Selma Lagerlof, the film having starred Renee Bjorling, Jenny Tschernichin-Larssen and Mia Grunder in her first appearance on the silent screen. The cinematographer to the film was Julius Jaenzon. Among the films produced by Filmindustri Skandia during 1920 photographed by Raol Reynolds and directed by Rune Carlsten was the film "The Bomb" ("Sunshine and Shadow", "Bomben"), starring Karin Molander and Gosta Ekman. Actress Karin Molander had starred in the lost film "Surrogatet" during 1919, the being no surviving copies of the film. A short film lasting only slightly over a half hour, it was directed by Einar Braun for Filmindustri Scandia, Stockholm. Rune Carlsten in 1920 wrote and directed the film "A Modern Robinson" ("Robinson i skargarden") with actress Mary Johnson. The cinematographer to the film was Raoul Reynolds. Actress Mary Johnson married Norwegian actor Einor Rod after having appeared with him in the film. Director Rune Carlsten that year also directed Mary Johnson with Tora Teje and Hilda Castegren in "Family Traditions" ("Familjens traditioner") which he coscripted as well, his co-author having had been being Sam Ask. The film was produced by Svensk Filmindustri and photographed again by Raoul Reynolds.

Solve Cederstrand directed his first film, "A Fateful Incognito" (Ett odesdigert kognito), starring Tage Alquist and Signe Selid in 1920. The film was written by Axel Essen and photographed by Kurt Jager, who went on to direct the film "Elaman maantiella" (1927) in Finland. Children were allowed to public exhibition of the 1920 film "The Shoemaker Prince",directed by Hjalmer Davidsen and scripted by Jens Locher for Palladium film. The film starred Maja Cassel as Princess Charlotte and Oda Larsen. In her paper The Excavation of New Swedish Childen's Film History, scholar Taichi Niibori, Stockholm University, asks if Pauline Brunius, wife of Swedish Silent Film director John Brunius was the "Founding Mother" of the Swedish Barnfilm with the film "Dragonfly" (1920) in a chapter on the Ambiguity of Generic Identity in exhibition strategies, that its "textural aspect symolises the contemporaneuous concept of children's films". It is a short film of 21 minutes running time. Brunius often made short films with child actors in the leading parts.
Scripted by Hjalmer Bergman as an adaptation of his 1917 work "Friarna pa Rockesnas", the 1921 film "Fru Mariannes fare" was directed by Gunnar Klintberg, the cinematographer to the film having had been Robert Olsson. The film starred Astri Torsell, Ingrid Sunblad, Aslag Lie-Erde and Gota Klintberg. Gunnar Klintberg continued by directing Astr Torsell in two more Swedish Silent Films, "The Love Circle" [Elisabet) with actresses Julia Hakanson and Gota Klintberg and in "Lord Saviles Brott", adapted from the work of Oscar Wilde. Gunner Klintberg's wife, actress Gota Klintberg had appeared with Signe Kolthoff during 1919 in the film "Jefthas dottar", directed by Robert Dinesen.
Swedish Silent Film director Ivan Hedqvist in 1921 directed the film "Pilgrimage to Kevlaar" (Valfarten till Kevlaar). Ragnar Hylten Cavallius, who scripted the photoplay of the film, appears on film as a supporting actor. Ivan Hedqvist followed the film in 1924 with "Life in the Country" (Livets pa Landet), photgraphed by Julius Jaenzon and starring actress Mona Martenson. /
Formerly a journalist, Gustaf Edgren in 1922 had founded his own film company, Varmlandsfilm, making his screenwriting and directorial debut with the film "Miss at Pori" (The Young Lady of Bjorneborg/Froken pa Bjorneborg) starring actresses Rosa Tillman, Elsa Wallin and Edith Ernholm in her first film. The photographer was Adrian Bjurman. Adrian Bjorman was again the photographer for Gustav Edgren during 1923 for the film "People of Narke (Narkingara), which Edgren wrote and directed. Starring in the film were Anna Carlsten, Gerda Bjorne, and Maja Jerlstrom in her first appearance on screen. The film was also produced by Edgren's company Varmlandfilm, which would continue to produce only the flms of Gustaf Edgren.

Aparrently actress Karin Swanstrom was required to give co-directing screen credit to her screenwriter Oscar Rydqvist to the first film she was to direct, "Boman at the Fair" (Boman at the Exbhition, Boman pa Uttstallingen", 1923). Photographed by Gustav A Gustafson, the film starred Ingeborg Strandin and was the only film in which Karin Gardtman was to appear.

Although it joins the narrative of film history in a chapter concerned with the decline of Swedish Silent Film and its Golden Age, author Forsyth Hardy describes the work of Inga Tiblad and Einar Hanson in the 1923 Gustaf Molander film "Malapirater" as "pleasant acting". The film is a comedy. Ragnar Widestedt in 1923 directed Agda Helin and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson in the film "Housemaids" (Hemslavirmor) written by Ragnar Hylten-Cavallius.

Frederick Andersson in 1923 directed the film "En rackarunge" with actresses Elsa Wallin and Mia Grunder. Gustaf V, King of Sweden, is listed as being in the film. It was photographed by Swedish cinematographer Sven Bardach.

Per Lindberg directed his first film during 1923, "Norrtullsligan", written by Hjalmer Bergman and starring Tora Teje, Stina Berg, Linnea Hillberg and Nils Asther. Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, commended the film by writing it "nelongs among the most courageous and enjoyable films of the European decade. Films prior to 1923 had presented individual female characters of flesh amd blood, but the Nortell Gang established a precedent....The screenplay by Hjalmer Bergman transcends the familiar image of women as decorative objects." Hjalmer Bergman was in fact the borther-in-law of director Per Lindberg.

Swedish Silent Film director Sigurd Wallen during 1923 directed the lost silent film "Friaren fran Landsvagen", which co-scripted with Sam Ask had starred Edvin Adolphson, Jenny Hasselquist, and Mia Grunden.

The periodical Motion Picture World during 1927 reminded itsteaderarhat actresa Sigrid Holmquist had already been introduced to audiences in the United States. "Sigrid Holmquist , once called the 'Swedish Mary Pickford' is another foreign star, very popular with american public, who might named. She is at present making some color art pictures at Tiffany." The periodical Motion Picture Classic countered with a full page portrait of the actress photocaptioned with ,"Sigrid Holmquist is one of the dozen or more 'Swedish Mary Pickfords' - every country has one to fifty." After her first silent film made in the United States, "Just Around the Corner" (Frances Marion, 1921, seven reels) in ehich she started with actress Margaret Seddon for Cosmopolitan Pictures, most of the filmscmade in Hollywood by Swedish actress Sigrid Holmquist are presumed lost, with no surviving existing copies, including two of her earliest, the lost silent film "The Prophet's Pradise" (Alan Croslnd, 1922), and the lost silent film "My Old Kentucky Home" (Ray C. Smallwood, as well as including the films "A Gentleman of Leisure" (Joseph Heneby) (1923) and in all probality the film "The Light That Failed" (George Melford, 1923) in which she starred with actress Jacqueline Logan; all filmed in the United States before Greta Gabo, Mona Martenson, and Vera Schmiterlow had entered the Royal Dramatic Training Academy. Before having left Sweden, actress Sigrid Holmquist had debuted in three comedies directed by Lau Lauritzen during 1920 for Palladium, among which were "Karleck och bjornjakt" and "Flickorna i Ave".

John Lindlof in 1924 directed the film "Man of Adventure" (Odets Man) with Inga Tiblad and Uno Henning, photographed by Gustav a Gustafson and written by J. Evicius. Knut Lambert who appears as an actor in the film and subsequently several later films, directed the lost film "Equal Among Equal" (Lika mot lika) in 1906, it having been the first film in which actress Tollie Zellman was to appear. Lambert appears with Tollie Zellman in the film as an actor with his wife Helfrid Lambert. There are no surviving copies of the film.

Sigurd Wallen during 1924 directed Inga Tiblad with Einar Froberg in " Greune pa Svanta" photographed by Henrik Jaenzon. Mostly known for being a theater director it was the first of only a handful of films Froberg had appeared in and the only film script that he had written. Froberg had directed an earlier film, "Lunda-indianer" starring Ture Sjogre and Malte Akerman, during 1920, his only time behind the camera, and had directed his own play, "Individerna Forbund' in Stockholm during 1919. Gustaf Molander appeared on stage in Stockholm in Froberg's play "Erna" under the direction of Gustaf Linden at The Drama (Dramaten) during 1922.

Ivar Kage in 1924 directed Gosta Hillberg and Edvin Adolphson in the film "When the Lighthouse Flashes" (Dar fyren blinken) for Svensk Ornfilm. The script was written by Esther Julin who had earlier adapted the novels of Selma Lagerlof to the screen for Victor Sjostrom. A fairly obscure or nonprolific photographer, Hellwig Rimmen during 1924 photographed the only film that he was to direct, "Hogsta Vinsten", it having starred actress Hilma Bolvig. The running time to the film was a half hour. Rimmen had began filming in Sweden under the direction of Einar Fronerg during the only film he was to direct, the 1920 film "Lunda-Indianer".

Included in the number of Swedish Silent Films that are lost, with no surviving copies known to exist is the film "40 Skipper Street" (Skeppargatan 40), directed by Gustaf Edgren during 1925. The film brought Mona Martenson and Einar Hanson together on screen , it also having featutred actresses Magda Holm and Karin Swanstrom. The photoplay was cowritten by director Gustaf Edgren with HUgo CLareus and Solve Cederstrand.

During 1925, Pauline Brunius was appearing on stage with Gosta Ekman in the play "Dalin och Drottningen", written by her brother in law, August Brunius. August Brunius has recently been described by one biographer as having been "the first professional Swedish critic", his having had begun writing essay on the theater in 1917.

Swedish Silent Film director William Larsson during 1925 directed the films "Broderna Ostermans huskors" with Jenny Tscherichin-Larsson and Frida Sporring and "For hemmet och flickan" with Jenny Tchernichin Larsson and Elsa Widborg in what was to be the first film in which she was to appear. The former was photographed by Arthur Thorell, the former by Henrik Jaenzon.

Swedish Silent Film director Sigurd Wallen during 1925 directed the film "Hennes lilla Majestat" starring actresses Margita Alfven, Stina Berg, Gucken Cederborg, and Olga Andersson in the first feature film in which she was to appear. With a photplay scripted by Henning Ohlson, the film was photographed by Axel Lindblom.

Olaf Molander, to bring the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film to an anticlimax rather than a crescendo, directed only three silent films, the first in 1925, the next the following year and one the year following that. About the 1925 film, "Lady of the Camelias"(Damen med kameliorna) Forsyth Hardy writes,"The film derived some distinction from the delicately composed interiors and the touching performance of Tora Teje gave in response to Molander's skilled direction." Peter Cowie writes, "Although the film betrays the theatrical loyalties of its director, the camera observing most scenes from a single, rigid, set up, Molander knows how to rein in the histrionics of his players (Nils Arehn, for example creates an excellant Georges Duvall) and he copes well with the outdoor scenes." Photographed by Gustaf A. Gustafson, the films stars Ivan Hedqvist, Hilda Bjorgstrom and Lisskulla Jobs in the first film in which she was to appear. Olaf Molander chose August Strindberg's short story "Ett Dockhem" for his second of three Swedish Silent Films, adapted for the screen in 1926 from a screenplay by Per Axel ranner as the film "Married Life" (Giftas), photographed by Gustaf A. Gustafson. Scholar Jesper Larsson, in his paper "Tora Teje, Reception and Swedishness" writes that actress Tora Teje "was deemed to be stiff and unsuited for the screen". Jesper Larsson intuitively or sagaciously recognizes the reception of the star image of Tora Teje as "an extension of how American films reproduced ideas about consumption and luxury" veering from the concept and aesthetic of the golden age of Swedish Silent Film and its "distillation of a distinctive national style...often set in historical times or rural Sweden." Also appearing in the film "Married Life" are actresses Hilda Borgstrom and Margaret Manstad.

Sigurd Wallen during 1926 directed the film "Ebberods Bank", the assistant director to the film Rolf Husberg. The film starred acresses Stina Berg, Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson and Carina May in her first of three screen appearances. The film is presumed to be lost, with no survivivng copies.

There are no surviving copies of the lost film "My Wife Has a Fiancee" (Min Fru har en Fastman, 1926) directed by Theodor Berthels who coscripted the photoplay with wife Greta Berthels. SWedish silent film actress Jenny Hasselquist stars in the film with Thora Ostberg and Tyra Leijman-Uppstrom. It was one of two films produced by Thebe Film. THe following year Theodor Berthels directed the film "Arnljot" (1927) from a manuscript written by his wife Greta Berthels. Both appear onscreen in the film with actress Thora Ostberg. The photographer of the film was Adrian Bjurman. The film is also presumed to be lost, with no surviving copies.

Petschler-Film during 1926 produced the film "Brollopet i Brana" directed by Eric A. Petschler and written by Esther Julin and Lars Tessing. The film, photographed by Gustav A. Gustafson, teamed Edvin Adolphson, Mona Martensen and Emmy Albin. The film "Hin och smalanningen" directed by Erik A Petschler for Petschler Film during 1927 is presumed to be lost, with no known surviving cooies of the film. Co-written by Petschler with Sam Ask as an adaptation of the 1888 play by Frans Hedberg, the film starred actresses Jenny Tchernichin-Larsson, Anita Dow, Birgit Tengroth and Greta Anjov. Screenwriter Sam Ask appears on screen as an actor. The film was photographed by Gustav A. Gustafson.

"Mordbrannerskan" (1926), directed by John Lindlof, photographed by Gustaf A. Gustafson and starring Vera Schmiterlow and Brita Appelgren was the first film in which Birgit Tengroth was to appear.

Actress Vera Schmiterlow, fondly remembered for being a friend of Greta Garbo, during 1927 under the direction of Sigurd Wallen with actress Stina Berg in the film "The Queen of Pellagonia" (Drottninggen av Pellagonia". Scripted by playwright Henningen Ohlsson, the film was photographed byAxel Lindblom.

Gustaf Edgren in 1927 directed "The Ghost Baron" (Spokbaronen) starring Karin Swanstrom and photographed by Adrian Bjuman, which was followed by "Black Rudolph" (Svarte Rudolph) in 1928, starring Inga Tiblad amd Fridolf Rhudin, both films having been written by Solve Cederstrand. The assistant director to the film "Black Rudolph" had been Gunnar Skogland. It was the first film in which actress Katie Rolfson was to appear.

Vilhelm Bryde directed his only film during 1927, "A Husband By Proxy" (En Perfekt Gentleman) a comedy scripted by Hjalmar Bergman starring Gosta Ekman, La Jana and Karin Swanstrom. The film was produced by Minerva Film. Bryde had acted in a more than a dozen Swedish Silent Films beggining with "Erotikon", directed by Mauritz Stiller.

Sam Ask wrote and directed the 1928 Swedish Silent Film "Erik XIV", it having starred Sophus von Rosen, Eva Monk af Rosenchold, Lisa Ryden and Gosta Werner. Nothwithstanding, despite the film "Erik XIV", author Peter Cowie sees 1928 as the beginning of a "barren period" ensuing after Charles Magnusson was "eased out of" Svenska Filmindustri by Ivar Kruger with Olaf Andersson as head of the firm. Charles Magnusson had folded, and left his position at Svenska Filmindustri during 1928, but the present author feels that perhaps author Peter Cowie is either mistaken or exaggerating when he claims that it had precipitated a "veritable exodus of talent"- the directors Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller admittedly were in the United States, but contrary to Cowie's volume Scandinavian Cinema, actor and actress Greta Garbo and Lars Hanson had u doubtedly left Sweden prior to the departure of Charles Magnusson, as had Einar Hanson, leaving only the screenwriters Hjalmer Bergman and concievably Tancred Ibsen. And yet the spirit of Cowie's passage views him as essential as a founder and catalyst, which he was.



Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema chronicles the end of the silent era in Sweden as being a time of less output, "Swedish film production declined through the 1920's, reaching a nadir in 1929, when a mere six features were released."

Danish Silent Film

Victor Sjostrom

Victor Sjostrom

Sweden Talks, Waiting in Vain for Greta Garbo; Victor Sjostrom the actor

Author Jon Wengstrom has noted that as early as October of 1933 director Gustaf Molander and cameraman Julius Jaenzon were among the founding members of the Swedish Film Society (Svenska Filmsamfundet), a body which eventually let to the forming of The Swedish Filminstite (Svensk Filminstitutet), established by the critic Bengt Idestram-Almquist who wrote for Stockholms Tidningen. Other members included Vilhelm Bryde, Arne Bornesbusch, Eyvind Johnson and later Einar Lauritzen. Einar Lauritzen chronicles his having been persuaded to head the Swedish Film Archive by Idestram-Alquist in 1940 and the archive not only having stored film, but also posters and stills. While Goran Bolin and Michael Forsman add Gosta Werner, crediting him with having helped found the cinematic society in Lund during 1929, to the company of Begnt Idestam-Almquist and Rune Walderkranz, they specifically note the contributions made by author Tytti Soila for having analyzed the "function of images of femininity" in early Swedish sound films from between 1929-1939. The authors point out that in addition to the silent era, recent concerns of Film Studies have been historiography, neoformalistic narratology and autuer criticism.

Edvin Adolphson directed his first film, it having been the first film made in Sweden to include sound, "The Dream Waltz" ("Sag debt I toner") co-directed by Julius Jaenzon and starring Jenny Hasselquist and Eric Malberg.  per Olov Quistad and Peter Von Bagh specify the place of the film in chronological history, "It had no talking parts, just a soundtrack with music and sound effects on disc, but it's immediate success convinced the direction board to continue."