Scott Lord on the Silent Film of Greta Garbo, Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjostrom as Victor Seastrom, John Brunius, Gustaf Molander - the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film........Lost Films in Found Magazines, among them Victor Seastrom directing John Gilbert and Lon Chaney, the printed word offering clues to deteriorated celluloid, extratextual discourse illustrating how novels were adapted to the screen; the photoplay as a literature;how it was reviewed, audience reception perhaps actor to actor.
The 1921 Photoplay review of "The Sheik", starring Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayers may or may not infact seem cryptic to modern readers, "For the glamor and beauty of the desert, the colorful costumes, the real love story lend themselves to shadows...The whole is more or less a tangible version of 'Pale hands I love, beside the Shalimar, where are you now, who lies beneath thy spell.' But we wonder what the censors will do to to it."
While noting that "The Son of the Shiek" (seven reels) was Rudolph Valentino's last film, author William K. Everson opines that it was his best. "It was lush, genuinely erotic and direct in key confrontations- but by 1926 there had been such a change in movie morals that nobody was offended by it, and in any event, its tasteful tongue-in-cheek approach disarmed any serious criticism." It may also be that by now the film is only the material of fanstasy to modern audiences analyzing its diegetic images for keys to female spectatorship and the look.
Actress Vilma Banky had appeared with Rudolph Valentino during 1925 in the film "The Eagle" (Clarence Brown).
Urban Gad directed Asta Nielsen in her first film "The Abyss" (Afgrunden, 1910) in Denmark, a film often written about due to her popularity and to a scene contained in it in which she dances erotically. Uli Jung and Martin Lorperdinger, editors of Importing Asta Nielsen, the international filmstar in the making 1910-1914, see the rise of Asta Nielsen as meteoric with her first appearance on screen, "she became a well-known and popular actress in many countries on the continent in the 1910/11 season." The film is described by Casper Tybjerg as her "breakthrough film". Scholar Casper Tybjerg, University of Copenhagen/online instructor, notes that "The Abyss" was promoted as an art film, a drama in two acts. Author Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scaninavian Film, sees the principal stars that had brought international recogption to the country's cinema as having been Asta Nielsen and Valdamar Psilander, " It was an immdeiate success and audiences everywhere responded to a sensitive, expressive acting style of scting which contrasted clearly with the grimmacing antics of her contemporaries."
It was also that year that Urban Gad and Asta Nielsen would travel to Germany to film for Duetsche BIoscop. Asta Nielsen appeared on screen under Urban Gad's direction with cinematographer Karl Fruend behind the camera that year in the films "Moth" (Nachtfaler) and "The Strange Bird"" (Der Frerde Volgel). Asta Nielsen would later star with Greta Garbo for G.W. Pabst in "The Joyless Street" and in a silent version of "Hamlet" (1920). Scholar Isak Thorsen, University of Copenhagen, in his paper,Nordisk Film Kompagni and Asta Nielsen, explains that director Urban Gad had signed a contract with Kunst Films Kompagni (Copenhagen Art Film) which allowed his to direct film abroad, with a similar contract for wife Asta Nielsen stipulating that she play as many parts as permissable; Nielsen who had already gained international recognition in regard to transnational cinema. Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian cinema adds, "Marrying Urban Gad in 1912, she widened her range of expression to embrace comedy as well as vampish roles."
Janet Bergstrom, in her paper Asta Nielsen's Early German Films, chronicles Asta Nielsen asking Urban Gad if he would write a film for her. "Afgrunden" not only secured an international audience for her but it heralded the film itself becoming an art form. Bergstrom notes Nielsen having written that she aspired to improve her acting ability by watching herself on the screen.
Although many films from the time period were adaptations of theatrical plays, "The Abyss" has no dialougue intertitles, but rather insert shots containing written letters. Both insert shots of printed material and dialougue intertitles are part of the diegesis of a silent film, whereas expository intertitles that either summarize the action or prepare the audience for it are not part of the film's diegesis, insert shots of letters bringing a more first person authorial camera that provides identification with the character.
