Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Silent Film







SILENT FILM SILENT FILM In part one of the Swedish Silent Film The Outlaw and His Wife (Berg Ejvind och hans hustru, 1918) Victor Sjostrom on screen portays a character that is introduced with an iris out, the previous scene which included secondary characters having concluded with an iris in; he is drinking from an Icelandic stream in medium close shot, the camera then cutting to a wider angle, it photographing him from the waist up to show more of the stream in the background. After a cut in, Sjöström cuts back to the shot, but only briefly, to show that his character is to the right of the screen, in profile, looking at what is offscreen to the left of the screen. Almost on action, he then abruptly cuts to a full shot in which the character has reversed the relation of his look to the side of the frame, his then cutting to a longshot as his character leaves the frame. He cuts to a vignette shot of his character facing the opposite direction that he does in the scene, and then to another accompanying a dialouge intertitle so that it is as though the line of dialouge has been delivered in close shot.
Throughout the rest of part one Victor Sjostrom carries the story forward, it introducing the woman he will marry in a sidelighted, near over the shoulder, near quarter shot, it being that she hires him for a month and then later makes him steward. While part two begins with establishing shots of the exterior, the horizon line often parallel to the top of the frame line ( a wall is later used to show a vertical division of frame as two lovers meet behind it), there is no interruption of continuity between it and part three, the two not linked by any camera device, but the scene is quickly moved to an interior. In part three she asks him to marry her and he tries to decline while declaring his love for her (Sjöström cuts back and forth between their dialouge and a retrospective scene during which he uses iris in and iris out to show ellipsis).
The rest of the film is of their journey together. In part four he cuts from a three quarter full shot of his character facing the right of the screen going towards her to embrace her to a shot of both of them in medium shot, her in his arms while he is facing the left of the screen. Rather than using suture between shot reverse shots, he holds the camera on them during the dialouge and concludes it by cutting to a closer angle of his character having lowered his body and putting his head on her stomach. During the dialouge which beings part seven an expository intertitle accompanies his interpolating a shot which would have been included in a previous scene and the shot from part four of his being near to her is repeated, their dialouge during while snowbound then continuing.
 Sjöström had written four hundred letters to his co-star Edith Erastoff, the woman he had married. About the film, Einar Lauritzen wrote, "But Sjöström never let the drama of human relations get lost in the grandeur of the scenery." 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."
Par Lagerkvist published the essay Modern Theater (Teater) in 1918, it purporting, and possibly rightly so, that the theater of Ibsen lacked what was needed for then modern audiences. 1919 saw the publication of Par Lagerkvist's play The Secret of Heaven (Himlens hemlighet). Agnes von Krusenstjerna that year published the volume Helenas fösta karlek.
Bille August has recently filmed an adaptation of Lagerlof's Jerusalem- for Victor Sjöström and AB Svenska Biograteatern it became The Sons of Ingmar (Ingmarssonera,1918) starring Harriet Bosse and Tore Svennberg with the director and Karin, Daughter of Ingmar (Karin Ingmarsdotter 1920, six reels), starring Tora Teje, Harriet Bosse and Bertil Malmstedt with the director, thier having been filmed by cinematographer Julius Jaenzon and the screenplays to both film's having had been being Sjöström's; for Molander, Ingmar's Inheritance (Ingmarsarvet, 1925) with Marta Hallden and Mona Martensson and To the East (Till Osterland, 1926). Both star Lars Hanson and co-starring Molander. It had been Mauritz Stiller that had visited Selma Lagerlöf in Dalecarli to discuss the filming of adaptations to the novel. Sjöström had in fact hoped to film Liljecrona's Home rather than Jerusalem. Writing about The Sons of Ingmar, Bengt Forslund notes, "The most striking change that Sjöström introduces in his screenplay is to treat, daringly, the Kingdom of Heaven as a realistic setting...The scenery provides comic relief without seeming ridiculous. " Shooting the film mostly on location, "Sjöström developed dramatic moments that do not have the same intensity in the book" (Forslund). Forslund concludes by writing, "Otherwise, I still find The Sons of Ingmar less cinematic than The Outlaw and His Wife, less personal in its narrative technique." Of the actors in the film, he remarks, "Harriet Bosse seems a little miscast in the role of Brita, which certainly should have been played by an actress ten years younger." In 1918, the first films to be directed by Sidney Franklin, who would later direct Greta Garbo in the silent film Wild Orchids, appeared in theaters, among them being Bride of Fear (five reels), The Safety Curtain (five reels) with Norma Talmadge, The Forbidden City (five reels) and Her Only Way (six reels), both films also starring Norma Talmadge. That year Fred Niblo, who would later direct Greta Garbo in the silent film The Mysterious Lady as well as Norma Talmadge in Camille (1927, nine reels), also began directing, his films having been The Marriage Ring, Fuss and Feathers (five reels), Happy Though Married (five reels) and When Do We Eat?. Director Paul Powell during 1918 teamed Rudolph Valentino and Marry Warren for the film All Night (five reels).
In 1919, Victor Sjöström wrote and directed His Lord's Will (His Grace's Will, Hans nads testamente) from the writings of Hjalmar Bergman. His Lord's Will (1940), starring Olof Sandborg, Barbro Kollberg and Alf Kjellin and scripted by Stina Bergman was directed by Per Lindberg. During 1919 the novel God's Orchid, written by Swedish playwright Hjalmar Bergman, would be published, followed in 1921 by the novel Thy Rod and Thy Staff and in 1930 by Jac the Clown.
Also in 1919, the Swedish director Ivan Hedqvist directed The Downy Girl. Einar Bruun in 1919 directed the film Surrogatet, with Karin Molander for Filmindustri Scandia, Stockholm.

      Danish Film director Robert Dinesen in 1919 filmed the first of two films in Sweden, Jefthas dottar, with Signe Kolthoff, the second having been Odets redskap with Astri Torsell and Clara Schonfeld filmed in 1922.

 
Conrad Nagel appeared in his first films, The Lion and the Mouse (Tom Terriss, five reels), Redhead and Little Women (H. Knoles, six reels), with Dorothy Bernard, Isabel Lamon and Lillian Hall. Theda Bara was to appear in A Woman There Was, directed by J. Gordon Edwards. She wrote "How I became a Vampire" for the June 1919 issue of Forum magazine and was interviewed by Olga Petrova for Shadowland Magazine in 1920 and for Motion Picture Magazine in 1922, both instances of one actor interviewing another.

The selcted poems of Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam were published in 1919. The Swedish poet had published the volume Nya Dikterin in 1915. He is the author of historical novel Karolinerna.
Sir Arne's Treasure (Herr Arne's pengar 1919, seven reels), with Mary Johnson, co-scripted by Molander, continued Sjöström's filming of the novels of Selma Lagerlöf, its director Mauritz Stiller. The film was photographed by Julius Jaenzon. Ingmar Bergman has said, "I think Stiller with his Erotikon and Herr Arne's Treasure is alot of fun. And his Atonement of Gosta Berling, too, is a fresh, powerful, vital film."


Where Selma Lagerlof and Mauritz Stiller had differred was on adaptation; Stiller perhaps seeing film as more visual, or theatrical, Gösta Werner having written that "Stiller later regretted preserving the long winded intertitles copied from the novel" (Tytti Soila) while filming Sir Arne's Treasure, or it may have having had been being that Stiller, as a compliment to Lagerlöf, had begun searching for a connection to the theater that both he and Gustav Molander had studied in Helsinki and similarities within Scandanavian literature. Of the film, Robert Payne writes, "he employed every trick known to cinema: close ups, dissolves, masks, superimposed images, sudden changes of tempo- a slow dreamy pace for the visionary scenes and an unbelieveably fast pace for the scenes of fighting...The film was tinted, thus giving it a heightened sense of reality." Author on Scandinavian Film Forsyth Hardy remarked upon the editing of the film by writing, "It also had a visual harmony, absent from some of the earlier films where the transition from interior to exterior was too abrupt." Wanda Rothgardt also appears in the film.


The Song of the Scarlet Flower (Sangen om den eldroda blomman, 1919), was to star Lars Hanson and Edith Erastoff. The Song of the Scarlet Flower (1956) with Gunnel Lindblom and Anita Björk was directed by Gustaf Molander. The tinting of the first film provides a contrast between its individual scenes, moods and uses of nature as a background, its narrative following a structure of seperate chapters.

Particularly interested in the interrelated components of each film being part of the film in its entirety, David Bordwell writing with Kristin Thompson, also regards the emotion of the spectator during any sequence of a film as being related to the viewing of the film in its entirety; seperate scenes that are tinted belong to the film in its entirety- the film after it has been edited. Narrative and stylistic elements in film form are often interrelated. Long before Bordwell, Raymond Spttiswoode had written, "The film director is continually analysing his material into sections, which, in a great variety of ways, can be altered to suit his purpose. At the same time he is synthesizing these sections into larger units which represent his attitude toward the world, and reveal the design he finds displayed in it. The analysis is an analysis of structure; of the filmic components which the director discerns in the natural world."
Lucy Fischer in fact remarks upon the narrative unity with Jacques Feyder's The Kiss, noting that to view the film as an entirety, the spectator must combine different events from seperate sequences, connecting the plot events centered around Garbo's character. Oddly, she later discusses the background to narrative as conveying the thematic, not in as much as man's relationship to nature can depict the emotion inherent within storyline, as often in the films of Stiller and Sjöström, but in that the mise en scene of the silent films of Greta Garbo, in its being dramatic, provides an embellishment of the narrative through its spatial composition of the image- it being Garbo that is crossing the set and sitting into the shot, it being a melodrama taking place within a world in which she can be otherworldly. Raymond Spottiswoode, writing in 1933, as well saw film as being comprised of its component parts. The sequence is seen as a series of shots that taken as part of the film as a whole add to its untiy. Spottiswoode describes there being implicational montage, where the sequences are seen in their entirety, their then containing within them content that has a relation to the film as a whole through implication, a series of shots producing its effect, creating its significance, in combination with other sequences in the film.
Greta Garbo photographer William Daniels continued his early career as second camerman under the direction of Eric von Strohiem, one film having had been being Blind Husbands (eight reels, 1919), starring Fay Holderness and Francellia Billington, another having been the film The Devil's Passkey (1920, seven reels), starring Una Tevelyan, Mae Busch and Maud George. Although one of the best films of the decade, the silent Blind Husbands, was concerned with marriage and the marital, one actress that had made several marriage dramas had been Katherine MacDonald. Of those she had appeared in were The Beauty Market (Campbell, 1919, nine reels), The Woman Thou Gavest Me, The Notorious Miss Lisle (1920) and Passion's Playground (1920).

     To add to any new look at marriage that was taking place as Hollywood peered through the keyhole into a modernity of what was being shown of the bedroom, DeMille in 1919 directed Why Change Your Husband (six reels), Male and Female (nine reels) with Lila Lee and For Better or Worse (seven reels), his having begun a series of films on marital relations in 1918 with Old Wives for New (six reels), each film scripted by Jeanie Macpherson. Macpherson, who had begun writing screenplays for DeMille with the 1915 film The Captive, starring Blanche Sweet, in 1920 continued with the director by scripting the film Something to Think About (seven reels), starring Gloria Swanson. Fred Niblo directed the film The Marriage Ring (five reels) in 1918. It has been offered that the films of DeMille are not only erotic comedies but reflect the becoming a commodity of matrimony and the reification of married life through the exchange values employed within suture and the syntax of shot reverse shot, the commodification of female sexuality within gendered spectatorship; within a model of the new woman a female subjectivity is constructed that is a result of consumerism. Whether or not the influence is direct, Einar Lauritzen has attributed the success of Mauritz Stiller's film Erotikon (When We Are Married, 1920), starring Lars Hanson, Tora Teje , Guken Cederborg and Karin Molander, to the films of DeMille. Added to that, in that there is a connection between the marriage dramas of De Mille and von Stroheim and the early film of Ernst Lubitsch, author Kenneth Macgowan having written that "in a wittier way" than the earlie two directors, Lubitsch had, "contributed to the delinquency of the screen", in particular with the silent film The Marriage Circle, in regard to the influence Mauritz Stiller may have had, Birgitta Steene writes, "They have often reminded foriegn critics of the comedies of Ernst Lubitsch, but actually the elegant eroticism characteristic of both Lubitsch and Bergman finds its source in the works of the Swedish motion picture director Mauritz Stiller." The film was photographed by Henrik Jaenzon. An emailed newsletter from Kino video during April of 2006 announced the release in the United States of Erotikon on DVD; the film is introduced by author Peter Cowie.
Mauritz Stiller is particularly noted for having directed Sjöström in two comedies for AB Svenska Biograteatern, Wanted A Film Actress,Thomas Graal's basta film, 1917), with Karin Molander, and Marriage ala mode (Thomas Graal's first child, Thomas Graal's basta barn, 1918). Rune Carlsten and Henrik Jaenzon both appeared on screen during Thomas Graal's Best Film. Molander continued as director and writer of Thomas Graal's Ward (Thomas Graal's mindling, 1922), photographed by Adrian Bjurman. Greta Garbo had seen the film Erotikon before her having met Stiller. Erotic comedy was later explored by the Finnish director Teuvo Tulio in his film You Want Me Like This (Sellaisena kuin sina minut balusit, 1944). (
   

Danish film director Lau Lauritzen directed five films in Sweden in 1920, En hustru till lans with Karen Winther, Flickorna i Are, with Kate Fabian, Karleck och bjornjakt with Si Holmquist, Vil de vare min kone-i morgen and Damernes ven. Although The President (Praesidenten, 1919), starring Elith Pio and Olga Raphael-Linden, is not distinguished as being remarkable, it is one of the only two that Carl Th Dreyer made in Denmark before his going abroad, his later establishing a small body of work that would be indelible upon filmmaking. His films are disparate stylisticly, differing in their use of technique; Dreyer has been quoted as having remarked upon his having tried to find a style.
The films of Clara Kimball Young were the springboard for scriptwriter Lenore Coffee, whose first films as a screenwriter, The Better Wife (William Earle, 1919,five reels) and The Forbidden Woman (1920) had starred the actress.
Finnish silent film director Erkki Karu directed two films for Suomen Biografi in 1920, both photographed by Finnish cinematographer Frans Ekebom, War Profiteer Kaikus Disrupted Summer Vacation (Sotagubishi Kaiun Hairitty Kesaloma) and Student Pollovaara's Betrothal (Ylioppilas Pollovaaran kihlaus).
One of the most beautiful silent films ever made by Mary Pickford, Pollyanna (Paul Powell, six reels) was filmed in 1920. The film also stars William Courtleigh. Pickford also that year made the film Suds (five reels) under the direction of John Francis Dillon. The film also stars William Austin. Mary Pickford was portrayed by Swedish actress Agneta Ekmanner in the 1974 teleplay Bakom masker, directed by Lars Amble and based on the play by Hjalmer Bergman. In a film that would almost seem a yardstick for many of the films that would comprise the rest of the silent film era, Douglas Fairbanks starred under the direction of Fred Niblo in the film The Mark of Zorro.
 
Covergirl for Photoplay Magazine, Norma Talmadge was also that year directed by Roy W. Neill in the film A Woman Gives (six reels). A Daughter of Two World (James Young, six reels) and She Loves and Lies were also to star Norma Talmadge that year.

     Norma Shearer appeared in films in the year 1920, among them being The Sign On the Door ( Herbert Brenon, seven reels), The Flapper (Alan Crosland, five reels), The Restless Sex (six reels) written by Frances Marion and The Stealers (seven reels, William Christy Cabanne).
   
     In 1920 Dorothy Gish not only starred in the film Little Miss Rebellion (five reels), directed by George Fawcett, but also had begun filming with the director F. Richard Jones, under whose direction she starred in Flying Pat (1920, five reels), with Kate Bruce, The Ghost in the Garret (1921) and The County Flapper (1922) with Glenn Hunter and Mildred Marsh. Lillian Gish writes about Garbo's later asking her to introduce her to Griffith, which she did, and of Garbo's asking her how she should dress. Garbo had said to her, "It would be nice to have dinner at your house."
During 1920 Sjöström also directed Master Samuel (A Dangerous Pledge,Masterman), in which he starred with Greta Almroth and Concordia Selander. Photographed by Julius Jaenzon, it was scripted by Hjalmar Bergman, as was the 1921 film Fru Mariannes friare, directed by Gunnar Klintberg and starring Astri Torsell, Inga Ellis and Aslaug Lie-Eide, the cinematographer to the film having been Robert Olsson. Gunnar Klintberg would continue by directing Astri Torsell in two other Swedish Silent films, The Love Child, with Julia Hakansson, and Lord Saviles brott.

     The Fishing Villiage
(Chains, Fiskebyn) was filmed in 1920 by Stiller and Henrik Jaenzon, it starring Lars Hanson. Appearing in the film was Hildur Carlburg, who that year also appearred in the film The Witch Woman (Prastankan), shot in Sweden by Danish film director Carl Dreyer. Sölve Cederstrand directed his first film, Ett odesdigert inkognito, starring Tage Alquist and Signe Selid.

A Fortune Hunter (En Lyckoriddarre, 1921 six reels) starring Gosta Ekman, Mary Johnson, Hilda Forsslund and Greta Garbo, her appearing with her sister Alva Gustafsson in a scene that takes place in a tavern. In 1922 he directed Iron Wills (Harda viljor).

Directed for Filmindustri Scandia, Stockholm in 1920, the first three films by Pauline Brunius, De lackra skaldjuren, Ombytta roller and Trollslanden, were also the first three films in which the actress Frida Winnerstrand was to appear.

Rune Carlsten in 1920 wrote and directed A Modern Robinson (Robinson i skargarden) with Mary Johnson. He that year also directed Mary Johnson, with Tora Teje, in the film Family Traditions (Familjens traditioner), which he scripted as well. The film was produced by Svensk Filmindustri
Danish silent film director A. W. Sandberg in 1920 wrote and directed two films for the Nordisk Films Kompagni in which the actress Clara Wieth starred, House of Fatal Love (Kaerlighedsvalen) and A Romance of Riches (Stodderprinsessen), in which she starred with Gunnar Tolnaes. Sandberg also that year directed the film Adrift (Det dode Skib), with Valedmar Psilander, Stella Lind and Else Frolich.
Ivan Hedqvist in 1921 directed the film Pilgrimage to Kevlar (Vallfarten till Kevlaar) starring Jessie Wessel, which he followed in 1924 with Life in the Country (Livet pa landet), photographed by Julius Jaenzon.  Let No Man Put Asunder (Hogre andamal, 1921) starred Edith Erastoff, her director having been Rune Carlsten. Klaus Albrecht that year directed Lili Ziedner in the film The Bimbini Circus (Cirkus Bimbini).  Tyra Ryman was introduced to her later costar Greta Garbo in 1922 at PUB by Eric Petschler, who directed both in Luffar-Peter. Writing about another film directed that year by Mauritz Stiller, Tom Milne sees the film Johan as having contributed to the technique and to the look of the film The Bride of Gromdal directed by Carl Th. Dreyer.
Carl Th. Dreyer in 1921 directed the silent film Leaves from Satan's Book (Blade af Satans Bog).
In the United States during 1921, Mary Pickford continued acting with the silent filmLittle Lord Fauntleroy.


In 1922, Victor Sjöström wrote and directed the films Love's Crucible (Vem domer), with Gosta Ekman and Jenny Hasselqvist and Ivan Hedqvist, The Hellship, from a screenplay written by Hjalmar Bergman and starring Matheson Long and Jenny Hasselqvist and Julia Cederblad in the first film in which she was to appear, both films having had been being filmed by Julius Jaenzon.

 The Swedish director Gustaf Edgren contributed The Young Lady of Bjorneborg (Froken pa Bjorneborg, 1922), photographed by Adrian Bjurman and starring Rosa Tilman, Elsa Wallin and the actress Edit Ernholm in her first film. Sigurd Wallen that year directed his first film Andessonskans Kalle with Stina Berg and Anna Diedrich, his following it with Andessonskans Kalle pa nya upptag with Edvin Adolphson, the debut film of Mona Martenson.  That year Ragnar Ring wrote and directed En Vikingafilm, with Harald Wehlnor and Sigrid Ahlstrom.
Karin Boye, the Swedish poet began publishing in 1922 with the volume Clouds. She continued in 1924 with Hidden Lands and in 1927 with The Hearths. Swedish poet Birger Sjoberg in 1922 published Frida's Songs.
Writing about the 1922 Finnish Silent Film, Tytta Soila notes, "Perhaps one might say that the fortune of Suomi-Filmi, and thus the future of Finnish cinema, was established by portraying the lives of two strong female characters: Anna-Liisa and Hannah. Subsequently, many Finnish films were to have a strong female character at the center of the action."
In 1922 Rudolf Valentino was in an early role, starring with Gloria Swanson in the film Beyond the Rocks (Sam Wood); the only existant copy of the film was found recently and the film, readying for distribution in United States during 2005, had its premiere in Amsterdam at the Filmuseum's Biennale festival. In her autobiography Swanson on Swanson, the actress gives an account of making of the film. "Everyone wanted Beyond the Rocks to be every luscious thing Hollywood could serve up in a single picture: the sultry glamour of Gloria Swanson, the steamy Latin magic of Rudolph Valentino, a rapturous love story byb Elinor Glyn, and the tango as it was meant to be danced, by the master himself. In the story I played a poor but aristocratic English girl who is married off to an elderly millionaire, only to meet the lover of her life on her honeymoon." After describing the fun she had off the set with Valentino, with whom she often had dinner, she concludes, "Several months later he married Natacha Rambova, and from then on he and I saw each other seldom." Valentino had in 1921 starred in the silent film Camille (Ray C. Smallwood, six reels) with Patsy Ruth Miller and Consuelo Flowerton.
It is only with sincere appreciation for for the Silent Film series aired on Turner Classic Movies on Sunday Nights that the best of luck should be wished to Robert Osborne and Charles Tabesh at their appearing at the screening of silent films- Robert Osborne was present at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival for the July 14, 2007 showing of Camille. The film was included in the Greta Garbo Signature released in 2005 near to the 100th birthday of the actress Greta Garbo along with a section entitled TCM archive: Greta Garbo Silents.
By then a producer for United Artists, D. W. Griffith followed in 1923 by directing Carol Dempster in the film The White Rose with Mae Marsh (twelve reels).

 Lon Chaney in 1922 starred in the film Flesh and Blood (five reels).

Norma Shearer first appeared in a starring role in 1922 in the film The Man Who Paid (five reels), directed by Oscar Apfel. Rudolf Valentino in 1922 would appear with Wanda Hawley in the film The Young Rajah (Phil Rosen), the screenplay to the film written by June Mathis, who adapted the script from a novel by ames Ames Mitchell. Valentino would also that year appear with Dorothy Dalton in Moran of the Lady Letty (George Melford).

Filmed in Sweden by Danish silent film director Benjamin Christensen, 1922 saw the release of the long awaited film Haxan (Witchcraft Through the Ages). The film, recently included in the films of Janus Films and in the silent film from Criterion, in the United States, was photographed by Johan Ankerstjerne and written by Christensen, who appears in the film with Ella la Cour, Emmy Schonfeld, Kate Fabian, Elisabeth Christensen, Astrid Holm and Elith Pio. Notably Alice O Fredricks and Tora Teje also appear in the film. In a film that to Sweden was to be its Intolerance, Christensen numerously uses the iris in to punctuate the end of a particular scene and the iris out in the subsequent shot to begin the adjacent scene; he goes so far as to use both during the same shot. Raymond Sptossiwoode remarked upon the fade in and fade out, along with the dissolve and wipe, as being something that was to "produce a softening effect, an indeterminate space between successive shots", his delegating it to being "the mark of the termination of an incident or of a defined period of time". German director Paul Wegener, two years earlier than Christensen's film, released a remake of his film The Golem (Der Golem), which he had first filmed in 1915.
Gunnar Hede's Saga (1922, seven reels), directed by Mauritz Stiller, and photographed Pby Julius Jaenzon, starring Pauline Brunius and Julia Cederblad, is based the novel En Herrgardsaggen by Selma Lagerlöf. Forsyth Hardy on Gunnar Hede's Saga writes, "Again there was a distinctive combination of a powerfully dramatic story and a magnificient setting in the northern landscape. It was the first film in which actress Lotten Olsson was to appear.
The King of Boda (Tyranny of Hate, Bodakungen, 1920) was the first film to bear the name of Gustaf Molander as director. It was also the first film to be photographed by cinematographer Adrian Bjurman. The film stars Egil Eide and Wanda Rothgardt. Continuing the filming of the novels of Lagerlöf, he directed Birgit Sergelius and Pauline Brunius in Charlotte Lowenskold (1930). Charlotte Lowenskold is the second in a trilogy of short stories written by Selma Lagerlöf, each of them having the Scandinavian landscape of Varmland as their background. The beginning volume, Lowenskolska Ringen was published in 1925, the third volume, Anna Svard having appeared in 1928. Victor Sjostrom had starred with Wanda Rothgart and Gunn Wallgren in the first filming of The Word (Ordet, 1943) under the direction of Molander, the actor Rune Lindstrom having written the screenplay. Victor Sjostrom also acted under Molander's direction in the films The Fight Goes On (Striden gar Vidare, 1941),in which Sjostrom appeared with Renee Bjorling and Ann-Margret Bjorlin, it having had been being the debut of the actress in film, Det Brinner en Eld (1943), in which Sjöström appeared with Lars Hanson and Inga Tiblad and Kvartetten som Sprangdes (1950). If as though to either to complement or to counter the use of mise en scene and Victor Sjöström's use of landscape in early Swedish cinema, Molander is a director of the interior scene. Tytti Soila writes, "Particularly in the melodramas, Molander used the composition of the image with the purpose of showing something essential about the existential situation of the characters. The pictures are 'tight' and on the verge of being claustrophobic, as props and other details of the set fill the frame, competing for room with the characters."
Gustaf Edgren in 1923 wrote and directed the film People of Narke (Narkingarna) photographed by Adrian Bjurman and starring Anna Carlsten, Gerda Bjorne and Maja Jerlström in her first appearence on screen, the director following it in 1924 with The King of Trollebo (Trollebokungen), an adaptation of the 1917 novel scripted by Sölve Cederstrand and photographed by C.A. Söström, the film having starred Ivar Kalling, Weyeler Hildebrand and Signe Ekloff.
Per Lindberg directed his first film in 1923, Norrtullsligan written by Hjalmar Bergman and starring Tora Teje, Egil Eide, Stina Berg, Linnea Hillberg and Nils Asther, as did William Larsson, who directed Jenny Tschernichin, Jessie Wessel and Frida Sporrong in the film Halsingar and Karin Swanström, who directed and starred with Karin Gardtman and Ann Mari Kjellgren in the film Boman at the Exhibition (Boman pa utstallningen) for Scandias Filmbyra and Svensk Filmindustri. Halsingar was also to be the first of many films photgraphed by Swedish cinematographer Henning Ohlson. Per Lindgren that year directed a second film scripted by Hjalmar Bergman, Anna Klara and her Brothers (Anna Clara och hennes broder), it starring Anna-Britt Ohlsson, Hilda Borgström, Karin Swanström, Linnea Hillberg, Hilda Borgström and Margit Manstad in what would be her first appearance on the siler screen. The film was photographed by Ragnar Westfelt. Bror Abelli in 1923 directed his first two films, including the film Janne Modig.
Ragnar Widestedt in 1923 directed Agda Helin and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson in the film Housemaids (Hemslavinnor), written by Ragnar-Hylten-Cavallius. Froken Fob (1923) was directed by Elis Ellis and photographed by Adrian Bjurman. Sven Bardach photographed his first film in 1923, Andersson, Petterson och Lundstrom, under the direction of Carl Barklind. The film stars Vera Schmiterlow and Mimi Pollock, both of whom were aquaintances of Greta Garbo, Inga Tiblad, Gucken Cederborg and Edvin Adolphson. Fredrik Anderson in 1923 directed En rackarunge, with Elsa Wallin and Mia Grunder. Gustaf V, King of Sweden is listed as being in the film. The film was photographed by Swedish cinematographer Sven Bardach.
Danish silent film directors Benjamin Christensen and Carl Th. Dreyer, who both had begun as scriptwriters for Nordisk in 1912, would by 1923 have travelled to Germany, as Urban Gad, Asta Nielsen and Stellan Rye had earlier. Christensen would star in Dreyer's 1924 film Mikail (Chained) in addition to directing the film Seine Frau, die Unbekannte (1924) while there.
Danish actress Olga d'Org starred in three films for Nordisk Films Kompagni, all of which were directed by A.W. Sandberg, including the 1923 film The Hill Park Mystery (Nedbrudte nerver).
Finnish film director Karl Fager in 1923 brought the film The Old Baron of Rautakyla (Rautakylan Vanha Parooni) to the screen.
John Lindlof in 1924 directed Man of Adventure (Odets man) with Inga Tiblad and Uno Henning and photographed by Gustav A Gustafson. Sigurd Wallen that year directed Inga Tiblad with Einar Froberg in Grevarna pa Svanta, photographed by Henrik Jaenzon. Theodor Berthels in 1924, wrote and directed the film People of the Simlanga Valley (Folket i Simlangsdalen) with Mathias Taube and Greta Almroth and directed the film The Girl from Paradise (Flickan fran Paradiset). Both films were photographed by Swedish cinematographer Adrian Bjurman. Ragnar Ring that year directed Bjorn Mork and Nar millionera rulla. Ivar Kage in 1924 directed Gosta Hillberg and Edvin Adolphson in the film Where the Lighthouse Flashed (Dar fryen blinkar) for Svensk Ornfilm. Rune Carlsten in 1924 wrote and directed The Young Nobleman (Unga greven tar flickan och priset). Hellwig Rimmen that year directed and photgraphed the film Hogsta vinsten. Silent Film Greta Garbo

: Vampyr (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1932)

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