Cover Letter: Scott Lord on Silent Film. https://garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com

The website hosted at garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com (titled Swedish Silent Film and frequently referenced as Scott Lord on Silent Film) is a specialized digital archive, historical repository, and scholarly platform curated by independent film historian and researcher Scott Lord. The blog is dedicated to exhaustive, multidisciplinary explorations of early international cinema, with its primary focus centered on the "Golden Age" of Swedish Silent Film (roughly spanning 1917 to 1924) and the substantial aesthetic, thematic, and industrial migration of Scandinavian talent to the classical Hollywood studio system.

Core Thematic Pillars and Figures

The platform derives its name from two monumental figures whose careers came to symbolize the transatlantic exchange between Stockholm and Hollywood during the silent era:

• Greta Garbo: The blog charts her transformation from Greta Gustafsson in Stockholm into the iconic "Divine Garbo" of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Rather than offering a standard biographical retrospective, the site explores her screen presence as a crafted, modernist construct—analyzing how advanced lighting, Art Deco aesthetics, and the directorial approaches of filmmakers like Clarence Brown and Mauritz Stiller engineered her legendary public enigma.

• Victor Sjöström (Victor Seastrom): The site features granular breakdowns of Sjöström’s dual legacy. It examines his foundational Swedish masterpieces produced for Svenska Biografteatern (such as The Outlaw and His Wife and The Phantom Carriage)—noted for pioneering naturalism, psychological complexity, and innovative double-exposure techniques—as well as his influential American directorial tenure at MGM, highlighting major psychological works like He Who Gets Slapped and The Wind.

• Mauritz Stiller and the Scandinavian Diaspora: The blog documents the broader creative network that shaped early studio cinema, including Stiller (Garbo's mentor and discoverer) alongside key actors and directors such as Lars Hanson, Einar Hanson, Gustaf Molander, and John Brunius.

Methodological Approach: "Lost Films in Found Magazines"

One of the blog's most significant contributions to film historiography is its reliance on "extratextual discourse" to combat the devastating reality of silent-era preservation: the estimation that 70% to 80% of all silent films are entirely lost due to the chemical decomposition of unstable nitrate stock.

To counter the physical absence of these works, Scott Lord adopts a forensic, archaeological approach by systematically mining vintage print ephemera. The blog extensively references:

• Vintage Fan Magazines: Periodicals such as Photoplay, Motion Picture Classic, and Screenland.

• Trade Publications: Contemporary industry resources like Exhibitor's Herald and Motion Picture News.

• Serialized Fiction and Photoplays: Contemporary novelizations, book dustjackets, screen adaptation reviews, and full-page promotional layouts.

By cross-referencing these primary sources, the blog reconstructs the structural intent, visual style, technical specifications (such as tinting instructions and reel lengths), and contemporary audience reception of films that can no longer be physically screened.

Significance

Functioning as a digital museum and research tool, garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com bridges historical preservation with modern film appreciation. It emphasizes the importance of looking past mere plot summaries to understand the photoplay as a complex social phenomenon, ensuring that the ephemeral visual culture of the early 20th century remains documented and critically analyzed.

Cover Letter Scott Lord on Silent Film https://garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com

The URL [https://garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com](https://garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com) points to "Scott Lord on Silent Film" (also known as the Garbo-Seastrom blog), a specialized digital archive and scholarly repository curated by independent film researcher and historian Scott Lord.

The platform serves as a dedicated resource for the preservation, critical exploration, and historical analysis of early international cinema, focusing primarily on the following core areas:

1. The Golden Age of Scandinavian Silent Cinema

• Swedish and Danish Masters: The blog provides extensive commentary and video material centering on foundational Scandinavian directors and artists—most notably Victor Sjöström (frequently referenced by his Hollywoodized name, Victor Seastrom) and Mauritz Stiller.

• Greta Garbo and Early Diaspora: It documents the transition of iconic Swedish performers from the European art-house tradition into the classical Hollywood studio system, featuring deep dives into the works of Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson, Einar Hanson, and associated silent-era luminaries.

2. "Lost Films in Found Magazines"

• A unique methodological approach utilized on the blog involves cross-referencing extratextual records—such as 1910s and 1920s trade journals, vintage fan magazines (Photoplay, Motion Picture Classic), contemporary reviews, and serialized screenplay adaptations—to reconstruct lost, missing, or heavily deteriorated silent films.

• This technique uses the printed word to map out the visual style, structural intent, tinting notes, and audience reception of cinematic history that no longer exists on physical celluloid.

3. Early American Cinema and Literary Adaptations

• Biograph & Pioneers: The archive frequently highlights early American milestone cinema, including D.W. Griffith’s foundational shorts at Biograph and performances by pioneering actors like Lillian Gish, Blanche Sweet, and Mary Pickford.

• Photoplay as Literature: The blog studies the complex translation of European literary traditions (such as the novels of Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf and Henrik Ibsen) into silent screenplays, examining the aesthetic tensions between original authorial intent and Hollywood studio requirements.

Cover Letter: Scott Lord on Silent Film https://garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com

The blog "Garbo-Seastrom" (authored by Scott Lord) is a specialized online publication dedicated to the preservation, historical analysis, and critical appreciation of silent cinema, with a particular emphasis on the golden age of Scandinavian film—specifically Swedish and Danish cinema.

Core Focus Areas of the Blog

• The Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film: The blog heavily examines the monumental contributions of Swedish directors and actors during the silent era, focusing centrally on Victor Sjöström (often anglicized as Victor Seastrom) and Mauritz Stiller. Their pioneering work at production companies like Svenska Bio established a cinematic language characterized by deep psychological realism, stark Nordic landscapes, and a profound connection to nature and folklore.

• Greta Garbo and Early Collaborations: Given the blog's namesake, it frequently explores the trajectory of Greta Garbo, her early roots in Swedish cinema, and her vital artistic partnership with Mauritz Stiller (who famously discovered her and brought her to Hollywood, shaping her early screen persona).

• Lost Films and Archival Research ("Lost Films in Found Magazines"): A recurring theme of the blog is the investigation of "lost" cinematic history. By utilizing contemporaneous print culture—such as film fan magazines, trade publications, and novelizations from the silent era—the author reconstructs lost or deteriorated celluloid. This extratextual approach illustrates how films were marketed, reviewed, and received by audiences of the 1910s and 1920s, treating the photoplay as both a literary and a significant social phenomenon.

• Transatlantic Connections: The blog bridges European silent cinema and early Hollywood, tracing how Scandinavian filmmakers like Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller transitioned to the American studio system (such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) and influenced American directors like D.W. Griffith, as well as actors and stars like John Gilbert and Lon Chaney.

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: Scott Lord on Swedish Film https://garbo-seastrom.blogspot.com/2016/08/swede...

This link opens an entry from the blog Silent Film, Swedish Silent Film: Biograph and Svenska Bio; D.W. Griffith and Victor Sjostrom titled "Sweden Talks, Waiting in Vain for Greta Garbo; Victor Sjostrom the actor."

Overview & Summary of the Post

The article examines the critical transition of the Swedish film industry from the Golden Age of silent cinema into the early sound era (roughly 1928–1935). Key themes and historical points detailed in the post include:

• The Arrival of Swedish Sound Film & Lost Works:

  • Sound technology provided a commercial revival for Svensk Filmindustri (SF) after a period in 1928–1929 when production nearly halted.

  • Sweden's first sound feature was The Dream Waltz (Säg det i toner, 1929/1930), directed by Edvin Adolphson and Julius Jaenzon. It featured no spoken dialogue, only music and sound effects on disc.

  • The transition resulted in a tragic loss of early sound heritage: 56 Swedish sound films from the early decades are considered lost today, including Doctor's Secret (Doktorans hemlighet, 1930), Hjärtats röst (1930), Den farliga leken (1930), and False Greta (Falska Greta, 1934).

• Shift in Cinematic Style:

  • Moving to sound meant shifting away from the wide, iconic exterior landscape shots of the silent Golden Age toward interior shot/reverse-shot dialogue scenes, leaning toward Strindbergian domestic drama (which later influenced directors like Ingmar Bergman).

• Key Figures & Returning Stars:

  • Directors, cinematographers, and actors who led this shift included Julius Jaenzon, Gustaf Molander, John W. Brunius, and Victor Sjöström (who returned to Sweden to focus more on acting).

  • Some Golden Age silent actresses made brief, isolated sound comebacks, such as Edith Erastoff in Johan Ulfstjerna (1936) and Karin Molander in Gabrielle (1954).

• Historical Records & Extratextual Archives:

  • Because so many films from this era are lost without surviving celluloid, the author emphasizes relying on print ephemera—trade magazines (Photoplay, American Cinematographer, Motion Picture News), stills, program sheets, and news reports—to piece together film history and document uncredited appearances or cut scenes.

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

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

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

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


Gustaf Molander

Gustaf Molander

Scandinavian Silent Film

Lars Hanson

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

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

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

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

Scandinavian Silent Film

Gustaf Molander Gustaf Molander

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

E and M Robson, in their volume The Film Answers Back, note that upon being established in 1909, the Swedish Biograph Company "immediately excerted a great influence upon European cinema". Leslie Wood, in Mirace of the Movies adds that Swedish Silent Film during 1909 had propitiated a "comparatively late start compared with other nations and its output at first confined to scenic subjects".

Before Charles Magnusson, who became manager of Svenska Bio during 1909, had initiated the beginning of the classic period of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film, while Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller were involved with acting and theater production on the stages of Sweden, Sweden was not far behind other nations in producing one reel news footage and actualities. Documentary like news footage of royalty, Presidents and poltical personages was not uncommon during the transnational cinema of attractions and, notably, while under N.E. Sterner of Svenska Kinematograf, Charles Magnusson had photographed "Konung Haakongs mottanging i Kristiana" (1906), a short film on the King of Norway's visit to Kristiania, almost as though to presage that it would be there rather in the later Rasunda that the groundwork of his beginning the Swedish film industry would be laid, his also having directed the short films "Gosta Berlingsland Bilder fran Frysdan" ("Bilder fran Fryksdaeln,1907) an early lost Swedish Silent Film and example of his interest in the work of Selma Lagerlof and the Swedish landscape joining him tighter with the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film and "Krigsbilder fran Bohusian", leaving the question of how much influence the cinema of attractions through the travelougue documentaries and newsreels of Magnusson had had upon the later camerawork of Jules Jaenzon. Photographer Charles Magnusson for Biokronan followed with "Gota elf katastafen" (1908) and Resa Stockholm-Goteborg genom Gota och Trollhatte kanalor" (1908).

Peter Cowie notes that despite the weather conditions of thick fog, Magnusson had shot the most professional footage of the event of the royal visit of the King of Norway when compared to other Swedish cameramen of the time. Peter Cowie writes about the dynamic between Charles Magnusson and the cinema of attractions, "He sensed that the short farces made by the aristocratic Carl Florman would only play into the hands of the showmen who were determined to exploit the cinema as if it were some circus spectacle.

Photographer Robert Olsson is listed as having worked on the filming of King Oscar in Kristianstad, his having filmed several of the earliest films photographed in Scandinavia before working with Carl Engdahl, among them "Pictures of Laplanders" (Lappbilder, 1906), "Herring Fishing in Bohuslan" (Sillfiske i Bohuslan, 1906) and "Equal to Equal" (Tit for Tat, Lika mot lika, 1906), directed by Knut Lambert and starring Tollie Zelman. John Fullerton, in his paper Intimate Theatres and imaginary scenes: film exhibition in Sweden before 1920, notes the presentational mode within the cinema of attractions in one reel comedies such as "Tit for Tat" suggesting a dynamic between fiction and actuality.

During 1897, Ernest Florman photographed Oscar II, King of Sweden, in a one minute film, "Landing of the King of Siam at the Logardtrappen", featuring the Crown Prince Gustaf. Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, credits Ernest Oliver Florman with having directed Sweden's first fiction film, "The Village Barber". During 1903 Florman directed actress Anna Norrie in the short film "Skona Helena".

Jan Christopher Horak typifies the cinema of attractions as a "fascination with movement within the frame". William Rothman writes that only one sixth of the silent film shot before 1907 had storyline. Author Charles Musser maintains that no more than four fifths of the films made by the Edison studios between 1904-1907 were narrative, or stage fiction. It is not suprising that Kenneth Magowan writing as ealy as 1965 in Behind the Screen divides early silent film into three periods: 1896-1905; 1906-1915 and 1916-1925. Form and content in film technique seem to have developed together. 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 funeral of 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.

Film historians have noted that Kristianstad, Sweden was home to another early Swedish Silent Film, "The Man Who Takes Care of the Villian" (Han som clara boven), filmed in 1907. Produced by Franz Wiberg, the film has never been released theatrically. It appears to be the first example of narrative integration, ie. fiction film, in Sweden. On further study, the film was the only film directed by Oscar Soderholm, who went on to be an actor for director Carl Engdahl in 1910. The film has been listed as being presumed lost, with no surviving copies existing.

Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scandinavian Film mentions cameraman Julius Jaenzon as having been in the United States during 1907 to make a film of Teddy Roosevelt (Report from the United States on President Theodore Roosevelt). Author Aleksander Kwiatkowski gives an account of Charles Magnusson having sent Julius Jaenzon to America during 1911 to shoot footage of Niagra Falls. Ironically, Julius Jaenzon has been credited with having photographed the funeral of playwright August Strindberg in Stockholm (August Strindberg's Begravning, 1912). The film was produced by Pathe Freres at a time when Jaenzon had directed himself almost entirely to narrative films. Not incidentally, the Intima Teatern (Intimate Theater) was closed with Strindberg's death, it already having had been long bankrupt. John Fullerton leaves a reminder that Mauritz Stiller performed on stage during the premiere of August Strindberg's play "Leka med elden", which he later directed at the Lilla Teatern for the 1912 sixty third birthday of the playwright.

Writing about what control Theodore Roosevelt may have had over his likeness or public image, Roosevelt supressing an early newsreel due to a woman in a skirt with sensuous legs having entered the frame, scholar Jan Olsson sees the cinema of attractions as having been flaneuran but while discussing the "unnoticed camera", Olsson comes near to a cinema of attractions cinema of narrative integration chronology by looking to Richard deCardova's discourse analysis and screen bodies, the plasticity of human form onscreen, models posing as photographic discourse and performers acting as theatrical discourse.
The periodical Nickelodeon in 1909 chronicled the Swedish National Moving Picture Company, headed by Ture Marcus, as having exhibited footage showing "scenes from the life of King Oscar" and his funeral to audiences in the United States.

Laura Horak, in The Global Distribution of Swedish Silent Film notes that before 1910 the film made by Charles Magnusson and Svenska Bio did not circulate widely outside Sweden, the first widely popular Swedish export, "To Save a Son" (Massosonns offer), it having had been directed by Alfred Lind for Frans Lundberg in 1910. The film features actress Agnes Nyrup Christensen in the first of a handful of appearances as a Swedish Silent film actress.

Hedvig Mardh, Uppsala University, in his paper on "Authenticity on the Silver Screen", looks at two Swedish Silent period films that transverse into narrative integration through costume drama, "Gustaf III och Bellman" (1908) and "En afton has Gustaf III pa Stockholms slot" (1910). "Period film was a marginal feature of early film production in Sweden. Partly because such films were costly to produce and difficult to export, since they primarily appealed to Swedish audiences, it was not untillthe 1920's that the genre had its real breakthrough." These later films that connected Swedish Silent Film director John Brunius to the golden age of Swedish SilentFilm were to provide a sense of "imagined community". There eleven minute film "Gustaf III och Bellman" was written and directed by Erik Dahlberg. The only other film dir3ted by Erik Dahlberg, "Kolingen" (1908) is presumed lost, with no surviving copies.

Swedish Silent Film producer Frans Lundberg in 1910 filmed "The People of Varmland" (Varmlandinggarna) directed by Ebba Lindkvist, photographed by Ernst Dittmer and starring actresses Agda Malmberg, Astrid Nilsson and Esther Selander.

In Kristianstad, Sweden, Svenska Biografteatern released the film "The People of Varmland" (Varmlannigarne)directed by Carl Engdahl during 1910, the film having starred actresses Ellen Stroback, Kattie Jacobsson, Ellen Hallberg and Frida Greiff.

Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema notes that the early silent narrative films of Carl Engdahl filmed in Kristianstad exhibited "the bucolic, folkloric tinge that would colour so much of Swedish cinema in the years ahead." Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scandinavian Film, prefigures the historiography of transnational analysis within genre theory when noting that "Men of Varmland", filmed at Kristianstad, held a "national theme that could not be duplicated elsewhere" 'and a "characteristic Swedish concern with national folklore and national landscape".

With an onscreen running time of over a half hour, the film "Entrusted Funds" (Anfortrodda medel), directed in 1911 by Ernest Dittmer for Frans Lundberg brought actresses Phillipa Fredrikssen and Agnes Nyring Christensen to the screen. The film is presumed lost with no surviving copies existing. Ernest Dittmer that year also directed the lost silent film "Rannsakningsdomaren", starring actresses Gerda Malberg and Ebba Bergman for Frans Lundberg. "The Black Doctor" (Den Svarte Doktorn), also directed that year for Stora Biografteatern by Frans Lundberg, held theatergoers in their seats for three quarters of an hour. Actress Olivia Norrie stars in the film, which is presumed lost, with no surviving copies existing.


In 1911, Gustaf Linden directed the film "The Iron Carrier" (Jarnbararen) photographed Robert Olsson and starring Ana-lisa Hellstrom and Gucken Cederborg. Scholar Mattias Lofroth, Stockholm University, includes the film among early Swedish Silent fiction films that illustrate an intermediality in an early Swedish cinema that "depended on their association on other media" in regard to "pictorialism and literary presentation", an intermediality that perhaps paved the way for audiences to find themselves no longer viewing a cinema of attractions, but a cinema of narrative integration.

Aleksander Kwaitowski, in his volume Swedish Film Classics, chronicles the shift if early cinema from documentary to fiction feature, "With Magnusson, Svenska Bio soon surged ahead. The result was a whole series of films patterned after the French film'dart, painstakingly crafted to the extent that limited running time allowed. Extremely stage-orientated versions of literary works were directed for the firm by Gustaf Linden. a theatrical director from Stovkholm."

While chronicling the move of Svenska Biografteatern from Kristianstad to Stockholm, then, during 1911, comprised of Julius Jaenzon and Charles Magnusson, author Forsyth Hardy in his volume Scandinavian Film, describes Swedish Silent Film prior to its Golden Age, "The camera remained static and the action was artificially concentrated in a small area in front of it." Hardy is describing the exingencies of the cinema of narrative integration after the theatricality of the novelties and actualities of the cinema of attractions, the second hand filmed theater left over from the camera technique of earlier news and travel footage.

Leslie Woods, author of Miracle of the Movies described Charles Magnusson, "He regarded the screen as much more akin to the printed page than to either the stage or photograph. Every Swedish film hpad an intellectual, almost lyrical, appeal to the mind rather than the eye or to emotions."
Author Bo Florin, Stockholm University, mentions that Julius Jaenzon's brother, Henrik Jaenzon, was also present at Svenska Bio in Lindingo. Among the first films for Svenska Biografteatern to which Henrik Jaenzon was assigned cinematographer were two directed by George af Klercker during 1912, "Jupiter pa Jordan" and "Musikas makt", starring Lilly Jacobsson. Both films are presumed to be lost, with no surviving copies existing.

During 1912 JuliusJaenzon was the photographer and director of the film "Condemned by Society".

Swedish Silent Film Director Anna Hofmann-Uddgren Silent Film

Swedish Silent Film
Swedish Silent Film

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."

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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).

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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



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