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

When I wrote to Bo Florin, Stockholm University, author of the volume Transition and Transformation: Victor Sjostrom in Hollywood 1923-1930, asking him if he had a favorite film directed by Victor Sjostrom he responded with, "Concerning favourites. I guess my favourite Sjostrom is the same as was Bergman's ("the film he saw at least once a year") 'The Phantom Carriage'."

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, noted 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 in 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.

Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scandinavian film, praises the contribution of cameraman Julius Jaenzon to the film, "Julius Jaenzon's work for 'Korkarlen' helped both to enrich the director's expression of his theme and to bring international recognition to the technical achievement of the Swedish films."

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”. Directed by Victor Sjostrom from his own screenplay, "The Phantom Chariot" has often been compared to the opening symbolic sequence of the film "Wild Strawberries", directed by Ingmar Bergman; Victor Sjostrom stars in both films.

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. On the film resulting from the dynamic between Julius Jaenzon and Victor Sjostrom, Bo Florin, Stockholm University, in his paper From Sjostrom to Seastrom, writes, "An important device in this respect is cutting across the 180 degree line to a completely reversed camera position, which occurs in most Swedish films of the period, but is particularly frequent in Sjostrom ; for example it may be found on eighteen different occaisions in 'The Phantom Chariot'." It is in fact a use of filmic spave that involves the spectator with a repeated similar image. Bo Florin adds that typical in the cannon of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film was the feature of staging in depth, "the use of tableau-like composition with static camera where frequent cuts have replaced mobility."

The British periodical Picturegooer arranged for an interview with Victor Sjostrom during 1922 in London while he was travelling. "He was extrenemely reticient as to the splendid double exposure work and other effects in 'Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness, conenting himself (not myself) by observing thst the weird under the sea scene (like most of the others, too) was made in the studio. Also that the man who photographed it was in the next room. He was. I saw him. I saw him when we left. He was a grave bearded man who looked as though he took life very seriously indeed." By all accounts, this could have been Julius Jaenzon who had photographed almost all of Victor Sjostrom's films in Sweden, much like D.W. Griffith and G.W. Bitzer in the United States.
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."

Actress Hilda Borgstrom during 1920 returned to Dramaten to appear in Gudmunger Kambar's play Vi Modare Emellan. Actor Tore Svennberg, who appears in "The Phantom Carriage", went on to become manager of the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten), Stockholm, between 1922-1928. Other managers have included Pauline Bruinius, Olof Molander, Ingmar Berman and Erland Josephson. Greta Garbo and Victor Seastrom


Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller

Victor Sjostrom Playlist

Scandinavian Silent Film playlist

Cover Letter: Victor Sjostrom as Victor Seastrom, Mauritz Stiller, The Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film

The "Golden Age" of Swedish cinema represents more than a mere chronological era; it was a profound artistic movement characterized by a "national style" that fused the rugged Scandinavian landscape with deeply poetic narratives. Between 1917 and 1924, this period established a visual language that treated nature not as a backdrop, but as a primary character capable of personifying human emotion.

The Architects of the Golden Age

The era’s success was driven by a powerful collaboration between high literature and innovative direction, specifically through the works of Selma Lagerlöf, whose folklore provided the foundation for the cinematic "national legend".

• Victor Sjöström: I sought a massive, realistic style that emphasized man’s relationship with the universe. By utilizing exterior locations, I aimed to deepen characterization through the environment. My film A Man There Was (1917) is often cited as the starting point of this era.

• Mauritz Stiller: Stiller possessed a "delicate," romantic-exotic temperament. He was known for taking creative liberties with source material to achieve his specific visual visions and is famously credited with discovering Greta Garbo.

• Julius Jaenzon: As a cinematographer, his technical brilliance was essential, particularly in his use of complex double exposures to render the supernatural in The Phantom Carriage (1921).

The Transition to Hollywood

By the early 1920s, economic shifts and the overwhelming global dominance of the American market—which controlled nearly 90% of silent film production—drew Swedish talent toward the United States.

• Economic Catalysts: A financial crisis involving producer Charles Magnusson facilitated the departure of myself and Stiller for Hollywood.

• Greta Garbo's Path: Following her lead role in Stiller’s The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924), Garbo was brought to MGM by Louis B. Mayer.

• The Hollywood Legacy: While I became known as Victor Seastrom in America, directing icons like Lillian Gish, Stiller faced more significant struggles adapting to the Hollywood studio system.

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Archival Reconstruction: The Work of Scott Lord

Because many physical prints from this era have been lost to time, modern scholarship relies heavily on "archival poetics" and "extratextual discourse". Historian Scott Lord maintains the digital archive Swedish Silent Film, which serves as a vital resource for resurrecting these lost works.

Methodology of Resurrection

Lord utilizes a unique "archaeological" approach to study films that no longer exist on celluloid:

• Spectral Clues: He treats vintage magazines like Photoplay and Screenland as primary sources.

• Visual Synthesis: By combining high-quality movie stills, contemporary reviews, and narrative novelizations, he reconstructs the visual grammar and plot of lost masterpieces.

• Key Reconstructions: This method has been used to document lost "vamp" films starring Theda Bara and early 20-episode serials like The Eagle’s Eye (1918).

Analytical Focus

Lord’s archive categorizes the "Swedish Triumvirate"—Garbo, Sjöström, and Stiller—within the broader context of global cinema:

Figure	Analytical Lens
Greta Garbo	Her evolution from Swedish actress to "Art Deco icon."
Victor Sjöström	The dual legacy of Swedish naturalism and Hollywood stardom.
Mauritz Stiller	Visual language and the challenges of the studio system.

Despite the loss of many early works, the efforts of the Swedish Film Institute and researchers like Lord continue to offer new insights into the "authorial mark" of the early masters, ensuring the poetic lyricism of the Golden Age remains accessible to modern audiences.

Cover Letter: Scott Lord on Silent Film: Victor Sjostrom, Greta Garbo, Lon Chaney https://garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com/2016/04/victo...

The article serves as an insightful examination of the "Golden Age" of Swedish silent cinema, centering on the monumental contributions of Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller. It interrogates the narrative of their careers, particularly the transition from the distinctively Swedish style—often characterized by the deep integration of landscape as an emotional and thematic mirror—to their later work in the Hollywood studio system.

A significant portion of the text discusses the scholarly efforts to move beyond a simplistic canonization of the era. While directors like Sjöström and Stiller are rightfully lauded as pioneers who elevated film as an artistic medium through the adaptation of Swedish literary giants like Selma Lagerlöf, the piece emphasizes the importance of acknowledging other vital figures—such as John Brunius, George af Klerker, and Gustaf Molander—to provide a more complete historical picture.

The narrative is woven through the lens of recent film scholarship and personal correspondence, notably the author’s engagement with researchers like Bo Florin and Patrick Vonderau. It highlights the "film archaeologist" methodology, which utilizes forgotten shooting scripts, vintage trade journals, and archival correspondence to reconstruct lost pieces of cinematic history. This approach is exemplified by the discussion of A Tale from Constantinople, which illustrates how even unfilmed or lost scripts contain invaluable data about an artist’s development and the "singularity" of their creative process.

Furthermore, the article bridges the gap between the silent era and later cinematic history. It traces the enduring influence of Sjöström not only through his work with Greta Garbo but also through his pivotal role in Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (1957). The mention of the passing of key participants like Guge Lagerwall and Max von Sydow underscores the urgency of preserving the history of this era, suggesting that the "Golden Age" is not a static point in time, but a dynamic, evolving discourse that continues to shape our understanding of the relationship between film, literature, and the human condition.

Swedish Silent Film: 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” and "Song of the Scarlet Flower" (Sangen om den eldroda blommen) directed by Mauritz Stiller during 1919 and “Let No Man Put Asunder” (“Hogre Andamal”, 1921) directed by Rune Carlsten. Stiller had directed Edith Erastoff in a 1914 production of August Strindberg's work "Storm" at the Intima Teatern, where she had witked mostly with Einar Froberg. Swedish Silent Film director Rune Carlsten had directed her twice on the stage of the Intima Theatern before her having appeared in Sjostrom's "The Outlaw and his Wife".

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 grand, 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."
Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Film, nodded to the cinematography that Victor Sjostrom and Julius Jaenzon had already developed together, "The everyday rythmn of pastoral life and the pleasures and pains accompanying it merge in a charged brilliance in the cinematography of Julius Jaenzon. The interiors in the farm at the beggining of the film look quite authentic...."

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." Peter Cowie, in his volume Swedish Cinema adds,"The magnificent scenery towers over this film and sets a precedence for such later ckassics as 'Salska Valka' and 'Summer Interlude'."

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 also 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."
Bo Florin sees the landscape as metaphorical in the films of Victor Sjostrom, often representing conflict between characters and within characters after establishing the relation of man to nature, "Fullerton points to the dialectics in the relationship between human and landscape, which establishes analogies between them." Bo Florin then almost suprisingly goes further to stimulate the reader by entering into the effect of enviornment, ie. atmosphere as trope, on plot and whether it is part of the storyline, "The shape of the landscape in the film functions as a series of presages, which to the spectators forbode the dark conclusion of the narrative." Florin often sees Victor Sjostrom continuing his work from the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film as Victor Seastrom in Hollywood, his having analysized Sjostrom's work on both continents in his paper "Confronting the Wind".


Tom Milne sees the film as being an example of a director "articulating the sense of space and liberty in the use of landscape which was already one of the distinguishing marks of the Swedish cinema".
"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".

David Bordwell, in his paper French Impressionist Cinema, Film Culture, Film Theory and Film Style, supports the idea that "The Outlaw and his Wife" had helped mark the incipience of a Golden Age of Swedish Silent FIlm. Bordwell notes, "'The Outlaw and his Wife' had begun an "influx" of Swedish Silent Films into France by Gaumont to complement a growing avaunte garde movement of French Impressionistic films, "In one week in 1921, no fewer than eight Swedish Films were playing in Paris, nearly all by Sjostrom and Stiller. Again, the Swedes use of flamboyant lighting effects and occaisional spatial distortion (e.g. the superimpositions of Sjostrom's 'The Phantom Carriage') probably reinforced and encouraged certain tendencies in French filmmakers work." Borwell described the Swedish camera techniques as "narturalistic" when compared to other European markets. Bordwell writes that Cinea, one of the magazines founded by Louis Delluc, proponent of the French Impressionist avaunte garde film movement, devoted a large amount of space to the reviewing of the films of Sjostrom and Stiller and their having been revered in France by critics and filmmakers, which is evident by the numerous appearances of Victor Seastrom on the cover. The volume Experiment in Film, edited by Roger Manvell in 1949 opined that while the films of Victor Sjostrom inspired the film of the French Avant-Guarde movement when it "set a fashion for dreams and superimposition", German silent cinema, with Nosferatu produced "deplorable experiments in composition."

Greta Garbo

Victor Sjostrom

Victor Sjostrom playlist

Under the Red Robe (Victor Sjostrom, 1937)

Advertisements placed in the Motion Picture Herald during 1937 noted the film "Under The Red Robe, directed by Victor Sjostrom as having been adapted from the "unforgettable novel" written by Stanley T. Whyman and the play by Edward Rose. The Review of Reviews section of World Film News during 1937 quoted the Birmingham Mail. "The period film, we are continually being told (by people in the industry, not the public) is dead. And the period film, hardier than the prophets, continues for the delight of the romantically inclined in an unromantic age...This is a film to enjoy if you have a heart for swashbuckling."

From the letters to his wife during the summer of and autumn of 1936 we can very well follow the work of the script, the planning and the shooting of "Under The Red Robe". Bengt Forslund chronicles the film's direction by Victor Sjostrom.

The novel "Under the Red Robe", written by Stanley J. Weyman in 1894, had been filmed on two previous occaisions, once in Great Britain in 1915, directed by Wilfred Noy and again in as a ten reel silent film the United States durin 1923, directed by Alan Crosland and starring actress Alma Rubens. The work had already appeared on stage as dramatized by Edward Ross.

Scholar Bo Florin mentions that although while directing in Sweden, Victor Sjostrom spearheaded the Golden Age of Silent and brought international recognition to a Scandinavian cinema that situated its narrative in the literature and landscapes or rural Sweden, in regard to characters and plots, the dramas depicted by Sjostrom would have fit into any international context, perhaps this evolving from Sjostrom's beginnings on the Swedish stage and in the theater.

Bo Florin's seminal volume on Victor Sjostrom and Hollywood concludes chronologically before Sjostrom travelled to England to direct "Under the Red Robe", but if we were to formulate his opinion after his ghving analyzed the transition to sound and the film "Lady to Love" directed by Victor Sjostrom, "Under the Red Robe" might be both like and unlike what we are to expect from Victor Sjostrom. On the one had Florin argues with Begnt Forslunnd that the scripts handed to Sjostrom were primarily literary adaptations and accordingly, "Under the Robe" would fit into Sjostrom's aspiration, although more of a historical costume drama perhaps more suited for Swedish director John Brunius in regard to genre audience expectations. On the otherhand, Victor Sjostrom's success in both Sweden and America was based on his developing a Swedish national style in regard to mise en scene and lyrical intimacy where his last film, filmed with sound might veer from the style of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film.

"Under the Red Robe" was the last film directed by Victor Sjostrom, who returned to appearing on screen as an actor during 1939 in the films "Mot ny Tider" (Towards New Time, Sigurd Wallen) and "Gubben Kommer". Author Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, describing the Sweden to which Victor Sjostrom was to return. "Finally, more encouragement was given to authors to write direct for the screen and there was less dependence on fiction and stage sources. As a result these various influences, the Swedish cinema gradually underwent a change. It is not possible to isolate a moment in film history and say that everything before belongs to one period, everything after to another."

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Victor Sjostrom playlist
Victor Sjostrom

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 Hofmann-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.) Marina Dahlquist, in her article "The Best-Known Woman in the World", chronicles, "Charles Magnusson published the booklet "Nagra om Biografcensuren (A few remarks on film censorship) in the name of Svenska Bio regarding its appeal of the ban against three films, among them "Tradgardsmastaren/Varldensgrymhet" (The Broken Springrose/The Gardner [1912]). Even though the importance of censorship was acknowledged by Magnusson and others, the over zealous ambition to protect even an adult audience met with irony."


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 between 1914-1916. 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 copies. 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.

Apparently the film "Den Svarte Doktorn" filmed for Stora Biografteatern by Frans Lundberg is not only a lost film, with no surviving copies exusting, but was also banned at the time of production by Swedish Censorship. The film starred actress Olivia Norrie, Einar Zangenberg, and Holger-Madsen. "Anfortrodda medel", also made by Frans Lundberg in 1911 is also presumed to be a lost film with no surviving copies existing and was also banned by Swedish censorship. The film starred actresses Phillipa Fredricksen and Agnes Nyrup Christensen.

Interestingly enough, Swedish Silent Film cinematographer camerman Julius Jaenzon brought his equipment aboard the S.S. Lusitania during 1912 to make the film "Tva Svenska Emigranters Afventyr i Amerika", starring actresses Lisa Holm and Lilly Jacobsson under the direction of Eric Malmberg. It might be worth noting before continuing to the dynamic between the four horsemen of Swedish Silent Film, Victor Sjostrom, Mauritz Stiller, Julius Jaenson and Charles Magnusson, that another director was there at Svenska Biografteatern during 1912, director Eric Malmberg. Seemingly overlooked, Malmberg directed six films for Svenska Biografteatern during 1912, including films presumed to be lost with no surving copies photographed by Julius Jaenzon and starring actress Lilly Jacobsson, among them "Det Grona Halsbandet", "Stolen Happiness" (Oceanbreakers, Branniger eller Stulen lycka), "Agaton and Fina", "Kolingens Galoscher", in which Jacobsson starred with Erika Tornberg, and "Samhallets Drom", in which Jacobsson starred with actresses Agda Helin,Tollie Zellman and Lisa Holm in her first on screen appearance in film. It is only conjecture as to whether Malmberg at Svenska Bio would have belonged to the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film as it had not properly begun, even were the lost films to be found. After leaving Svenska Bio, Eric Malmberg went to Hasselblad to apeear on screen as an actor under the direction of Georg af Klercker.

Peter Cowie, in his golume Swedish Cinema, documents that after having moved to Lidingo, near Stockholm, Charles Magnusson produced a total of twenty five films during the year of 1912, only nine of which were directed by either Mauritz Stiller or Victor Sjostrom. Taken into account that George af Klercker directed only four that year, one is hard pressed to complete the filmography without the six directed by Eric Malmberg, author Peter Cowie alluding to six films that seem to be missing, or on the peripheral, with marginal importance. If looking for orphaned film, Julius Jaenson photographed the lost film "Leban Oetterkvist is training fot the Olympics", and Jaenzon or Magnusson might be credited as director, while a lost film directed by Algot Sandberg, "Uncle Johannes Arrival in Stockholm" was also filmed by Julius Jaenson during 1912.

It is clear that the enivitable crash between the theater of August Strindberg and the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Frued would manifest itself in a similarity of themes, here specifically the Electra Complex and the repression of the Id soon to be summarized and synthesized in Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, although it is difficult to find a historiography of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film where man's relation to the elements and landscape is reviewed as symbolic of sublimation of the sexual instinct rather than a metaphysical symbolism of ontological location- nevertheless the era brought contemporaries of Selma Lagerlof that, within modernity, were proponents of the suffragete movement in Swedish Literature, notably Elin Wagner, Anna Lenah Maria Elgstrom and Ellen Key. In Stockholm bookstores, during 1910, Elin Wagner published the novel Penswoman (Pennskattet) and during 1913, Maria Sandel published the novel The Vortex (Virveln).

Silent Film Victor Sjostrom Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller

Scott Lord Silent Film: Lon Chaney in He Who Gets Slapped (Victor Seastr...

Scholar Bo Florin points out that a famiar image in "He Who Gets Slapped" (seven reels), directed by Victor Sjostrom is referred to in the cutting continuity script as the "Symbolic Clown", the isolated character dressed in white recurrently appearing spinning his ball. Florin looks at the function of this image within the narrative as bookending sequences with a direct adress to the audience. Albeit while blogging David Bordwell notes that the film was a great success, mostly due to the emerging talent of Lon Chaney, he does in fact give the film only a brief mention when looking at Scandinavia's Golden Age of Silent Film Drawing to a Close, which can very much be attributed to Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller both coming to America.

Begnt Forslund compares Sjostrom's direction of "He Who Gets Slapped" with the direction of "The Scarlet Letter", the former being 'more personal, and also more cinematically exciting' while the latter can be recognized as a return to the type of film that Sjostrom made in Sweden, to which he returned. Not incidentally, it was the Swedish actor Gosta Ekmann who had portrayed the Lon Chaney character in "Han som far orilarna" on stage during 1926 in Stockholm at the Oscateatern.

As film criticism often inludes audience reception on the part of the journalist-spectator, it may be worth looking at fan magazines from the first-run of the film, not so much for the public sphere of reception, which perhaps includes the art house, but for the public dimension. Picture Play Magazine wrote of Lon Chaney, "As the loveable clown in the Metro-Goldwyn feature 'He Who Gets Slapped' he gives a achara terization of rare qualities and when he dies he pulls your heart strings untill the really break."

Norma Shearer and John Gilbert starred in a second film together for the Metro-Goldwyn Picture Corporation during 1924 with Conrad Nagel, "The Snob" (seven reels), directed by Monta Bell. The film is a lost silent film, with no surviving copies existing. Also presumed lost is the six reel film "The Wolf Man" in which Norma Shearer and John Gilbert starred together under the direction of Edmund Mortimer for the Fox Film Corporation during 1923. John Gilbert and Lon Chaney had starred together under the direction of Maurice Tourneur in the 1923 six reel film "While Paris Sleeps".The film is presumed lost with no surviving copies existing.

Victor Sjostrom Victor Sjostrom Lon Chaney

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Vem Dömer (Love’s Crucible, Mortal Clay, 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 filmf. 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 expensive film to make in hope 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."

While interviewing Victor Sjostrom the periodical Picturegoer noted that his then most recent film, "Love's Crucible" had taken three months to film, to which Sjostrom replied,"But fully a year was spent in preparatory work. It is a love story of Renaisannce times." When asked where the story took place Sjostrom had replied "The Kingdom of Romance".

Vito Adriaensens, in his paper, "A Swedish Renaissance: Art and Passion in Victor Sjostrom's 'Vem Dommer' (1922)" explains the connection between the title and theme and the use of symbolic imagery in the films of VictorSjostrom, "The statue of Christ adorns the local church and is the first and last thing we see in the film. Christ is pivotal for the narrative and for the title, as 'Vem Dommer' literally translates to 'who judges', implicating that only Christ can, not the community that tries to judge Ursula."

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 stars with actress Julia Cederblad in the first film in which she was to appear. The cinematographer to the film was Julius Jaenzon



Victor Sjostrom

Victor Sjostrom Playlist

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. It had been Victor Sjostrom that had visited Selma Lagerlof in Dalecarli to discuss the filming of adaptations of the novel. Sjostrom had in fact hoped to film Liljecrona's Home rather than Jerusalem. Scholar Ulla Britta Lagerroth, University of California, chronicles Selma Lagerlof and Victor Sjostrom having corresponded at legnth, Lagerroth particularly noting that Sjostrom had turned down adapting a short story about the symbolic relationship between men an trolls, The Changeling, written by Lagerlof during 1908.

Actress Tora Teje costars in the film "Karin Ingmarsdottar" as the title character of the film 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

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

The 1923 film "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. The cinematographer of the film was Julius Jaenzon.
Victor Seastrom


Victor Seastrom Victor Sjostrom

Swedish Silent Film: Monastery of Sendomir (Klostret I Sendomir, Victor Sjostrom,1920)

Bo Florin, Stockholm University, in his volume Transition and Transformation, Victor Sjostrom in Hollywood 1923-1930, points to Victor Sjostrom's use of dissolves in the film "Monastery of Sedomir" as "transformatory devices", to thematiclly link two images. "The dissolve works, in other words, as an independent device, which does not in this context recieve any clarifying support from any other narrative patterns." The character, and the setting in which he placed, change as motif with the dissolve.

Peter Cowie, in his volume Swedish Cinema adds that the film "is not easily recognizable as a film by Sjostrom, for landscape and countryside play no part in it at all."
"The Monastery of Sendomir" (Klostret i Sendomir) was written and directed for Svenska Biografteatern by Victor Sjostrom during 1920. Photographed by Henrik Jaenzon the film starred actresses Rene Bjorling, Jenny-Tschernichin-Larsson and Tora Teje in the first film in which she was to appear during a year in which she would star with actress Mary Johnson in the film "Familjens Traditioner" under the direction of Rune Carlsten, however meteoric her career might seem. The screenplay to "Monastery of Sendomir" was adapted from a short story by Franz Grillparzer that, despite whatever reason Sjostrom had for choosing the material, had been filmed a year earlier, in Germany, by director Rudolph Meinert, starring actress Ellen Richter.

Victor Sjostrom

The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjostrom, 1920) Please screen the films below directed in Sweden by Victor Sjostrom as any double feature you see fit.

Greta Garbo

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, Tyra Dorum and Augusta Lindberg. 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