Scott Lord

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


Silent Film

Victor Sjostrom

Victor Sjostrom

Victor Sjostrom Swedish Silent Film

Tags: Victor Sjostrom

Greta Garbo

Tags: Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo in The Kiss (Kyssen, Feyder/William Da...: Greta Garbo New Movie Magazine quoted the director, " 'Dialougue- that is what will make the love sparkle in American films.&#3...

Directed D W Griffith during 1919 for ArtcraftPictures Corporation, "True Heart Susie" (six reels) was photographed by G.W. Bitzer and paired Lillian Gish in the titular role with Robert Harron with actresses Kate Bruce and Carol Dempster. In their volume The Films of D.W. Griffith, authors Edward Wagenkneckt and Anthony Slide, divide Griffith's films into two genres, much like author Vachel Lindsay would - the epic and the lyric, the latter being "less ambitious, more intimate" the "stylistic directness" of "True Heart Susie" falling into the latter.
Author Anthony Slide perpiscaciously introduces D. W. Griffith actress Seymour by noting that both Seymour and actor Robert Harron, who had appeared together in both "The Girl Who Stayed Home" and "True Heart Susie" during 1919, had died early during 1920.
After directing “True Heart Susie” in 1919, to end the year, D.W. Griffith directed Lillian Gish in the film “The Greatest Question” (six reels), photographed by G.W. Bitzer.

The films "A Romance of Happy Valley", starring Lillian Gish, and "Scarlet Days", both directed by D.W. Griffith, were thought to be lost and donated to the Modern Museum of Art by Russia when rediscovered. Silent Film D.W. Griffith

       Swedish Silent Film scholar Bo Florin makes notes of the province held by Nils Bouveng at the newly structured Svenska Filmindustri after the merger had taken place of the smaller companies into one and that Bouveng had published an article entitled Swedish Film Advertising: How the Industry Plans to Conquer the World in the 1919 periodical Filmjournalen. Nils Bouveng of Swedish Biograph was very much responsible for the distribution of Swedish silent film in the United States. The publication Exhibitor's Herald during 1921 noted that although Bouveng was deemed to have thought the film market overcrowded, he would still export film "of merit" to the United States. It wrote,"Swedish Biograph has control of all product of Scandinavian studios and will offer only the cream of these pictures to American theaters...While Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness is regarded as its finest offering, company executives believe that Judge Not, Sir Arne's Treasure, Youth Meets Youth, Dawn of Love and Secret of the Monastery will compare favorably with any American made production."

Author Anne-Kristin Wallgren, on Nordic Academic Press, notes that the films of Karin Swanstrom may have seemed atypical with the Swedish Silent Film of Sweden's Golden Age. In Welcome Home, Mr Swanson- Swedish Emigrants and Swedishness on Film, she writes, "Of the few Twneties films to mention America, only one has a happy ending, namely, Boman pa utsallningen (Boman at the Exhibition/Boman at the Fair, Karin Swanstrom, 1923, Ironically, Forsyth Hardy, in the volume Scandinavian Film notes, "Svensk Filmindustri, through its producers Karin Swanstrom and Sickan Claesson, was content to produce modestly conceived films for the home front. They were for the most part comedies with a strong theatrical flavor, or farces."

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo: Greta Garbo in Virveln (The Torrent, Monta Bell, 1...: A suitable story for director Mauritz Stiller, famous Swedish director who just began work under M.G.M. contract is now being sought and w...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom- Greta Garbo, Mauritz...: "The Image Makers see their images emerge out of the story. And then suddenly: darkness."- Per Olov Enquist in Bildmakarna, a ...

Greta Garbo: Greta Garbo: Greta Garbo talar! The private life of Greta Garbo escapes the slightest scrutiny of Richard Corliss, the earliest acting done by Greta G...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo in The Kiss (Kyssen, Feyder/William Da...: Greta Garbo New Movie Magazine quoted the director, " 'Dialougue- that is what will make the love sparkle in American films.&#3...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo in Virveln (The Torrent, Monta Bell, 1...: A suitable story for director Mauritz Stiller, famous Swedish director who just began work under M.G.M. contract is now being sought and w...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo in Love (Anna Karenina, Edmund Gouldin...: Photoplay magazine reviewed Love , "Anna Karenina? Not so's you could notice it. But John Gilbert and Greta Garbo melt the...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo in Love (Anna Karenina, Edmund Gouldin...: Photoplay magazine reviewed Love , "Anna Karenina? Not so's you could notice it. But John Gilbert and Greta Garbo melt the...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo Grona Hatten (A Woman of Affairs, Bro...: Photoplay Magazine announced, "Rumor has it that Clarence Brown and Dorothy Sebastian are married." Of her playing against Gre...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo Grona Hatten (A Woman of Affairs, Bro...: Photoplay Magazine announced, "Rumor has it that Clarence Brown and Dorothy Sebastian are married." Of her playing against Gre...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo in The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo, 19...: insert Greta Garbo banner While editor of Film Comment magazine, Richard Corliss signed the dedication of his biography of Greta Garbo...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo in The Single Standard (1929, Marsh): John Bainbridge gives an account of Greta Garbo having returned from Sweden in which the studio and public had expected her to arrive in L...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Remade by Greta Garbo: Camille: For those familiar with the history of Danish Silent Film Lady of the Camellias, (Kameliadamen, Camille) adapted from the novel by Dumas, w...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo before Hollywood- Lars Hanson, Asta N...: The photo caption beneath Einar Hanson's photograph Picture Play Magazine read, "Einar Hanson, who, made his debut in Corinne Griff...

Greta Garbo: Victor Sjostrom as Seastrom: Greta Garbo: Greta Garbo talar! The private life of Greta Garbo escapes the slightest scrutiny of Richard Corliss, the earliest acting done by Greta G...

For those familiar with the history of Danish Silent Film Lady of the Camellias, (Kameliadamen, Camille) adapted from the novel by Dumas, was filmed by Viggo Larsen, who starred in front of the camera as well as creating from behind it, as he was often won't to do, the film also starring Oda Alstrup, Robert Storm Petersen and Helga Tonnesen. It was produced by Nordisk Film and Ole Olsen and it's cinematographer was Axel Graatkjaer Sorensen.


The Divine Bernhardt that was immortalized as a model for Alphonse Mucha exists, the plays that Louis Mercanton adapted for the screen, Jeanne Dore (1915, three reels), starring Madame Tissot with actress Sarah Bernhardt and shown in the United States by Bluebird Photoplays, and Adrienne Lecouvveur (1913, two/three reels), do not, and belong to the province of Film Preservation, if not Lost Films, Found Magazines, a vital part of From Stage to Screen, the transition of the proscenium arc to visual planes achieved by film editing and composition having been relegated to desuetude. By all accounts there still is a copy of Sarah Bernhardt performing Camille on film.

Camille (J. Gordon Edwards, 1917) starring Theda Bara is, like The Divine Woman (Victor Seastrom), a lost silent film, there being no surviving copies of it. Motography not I coincidentally revealed, "Theda Bara in a sumptuous picturization of Camille is the latest announcement of William Fox to the public...Theda Bara as the unhappy Parisian girl who sacrifices herself on the altar of convention, has surpassed all her previous work. This production...Parisian life is followed in every detail so that the atmosphere of the story fits admirably with the acting in it." Surepetitiously, Motion Picture News used the exact same wording, it concluding with, The tears it caused were genuine and the emotions it stirred were deep."

It was a year during which Goldwyn Pictures had spotlighted Mary Garden in Thais, Jane Cowl in The Spreading Dawn(Basil King) and Mae Marsh in Sunshine Alley. Metro Pictures Corporation touted Ethel Barrymore in The Lifted Veil.



Using a still where the two lovers were in embrace on a couch, reminiscent of John Gilbert and Greta Garboin Flesh and the Devil, captioned with "Armand pours out his love to the adored Camille, Picture Play magazine during 1927 introduced the film starring Norma Talmadge and Gilbert Roland as "the latest screen version of the Dumas' masterpiece." Motion Picture magazine noted that it was a film in which Norma Talmadge would wear her hair bobbed, the studio having reported to the magazine that it would be an adaptation located in the then present day Paris of Gerturde Stien, Fitzgerald and Hemmingway and that the cast of the film would also include Lilyan Tashman.


The 1915 screen version of Camille was scripted by Frances Marion. the five reel film starred Clara Kimbal Young under the direction of Albert Cappellani.
Greta Garbo insert banner

Victor Seastrom insert Greta Garbo banner

The photo caption beneath Einar Hanson's photograph Picture Play Magazine read, "Einar Hanson, who, made his debut in Corinne Griffith's Into her Kingdom is romantic adventurous, much more like a Latin than Scandinavian." In the article Two Gentlemen from Sweden, Myrtle Gebhardt relates about having dinner with him, her having at first hoped to interview Lars Hanson and Einar Hanson together in the same room. "For it appeared that Einar was working not for Metro, but for First National...Two evenings later I ringed spaghetti around my fork in a nook of an Italian cafe with Einar Hansen...Prepared for a big, blond man, whose bland face would be overspread with seriousness, I was startled by his breathtaking resemblance to Jack Gilbert. "Ya," he admitted, "Down the street I drive and all the girls call, 'Hello Yack' and I wave to them."

Motion Picture News announced the decision for the directorial assignment to the film with Director or Interpreter, "Svend Gade, the Danish director now making Into Her Kingdom is wondering whether he is engaged as a megaphone weirder or interpreter. In directing Miss Griffith, of course, he uses English; but Einar Hanson receives his instructions in Swedish" Meanwhile it also introduced Griffith's co-star, "Einar Hansen, 'The Swedish Barrymore' has arrived in Hollywood to appear opposite Corinne Griffith in her newest First National starring vehicle, Into Her Kingdom, by Ruth Comfort Mitchell." it had been announced by the magazine during early 1926 that, "Corinne Griffith is already planning to start work the first week of March on Into Her Kingdom though now she is only now finishing Mlle. Moditte, both of which are to be First National releases.
motion Picture Magazine in 1927 published an oval portrait of Einar Hansen with the caption, "In Fashions for Women, Einar is the first man to be directed by Paramount's first woman director. How's that for a record? Incidentally, Einar has become a popular leading man as quickly as anyone that ever invaded Hollywood." The caption to the somber portrait published in Picture Play magazine that year held a more sundry description, "Einar Hansen, the young man from Sweden who looks so like a Latin has fared well during his year in this country. he is now under contract to Paramount and has the lead opposite Esther Ralston in Fashions For Women." The film was the first directed by Dorothy Azner, who had worked uncredited with Fred Niblo on Blood and Sand.

Greta Garbo

Silent Greta Garbo

Danish Silent Film

Remade by Greta Garbo

Silent Film

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Victor Seastrom

Mauritz Stiller

Greta Garbo

Scott LordScott Lord

Silent film



Silent Film

John Bainbridge gives an account of Greta Garbo having returned from Sweden in which the studio and public had expected her to arrive in Los Angeles and her instead having gotten off the train early to rendezvois with John Gilbert. "He had thought that things would turn out as the do in the movies, with the screen's two great lovers united in holy matrimony...According to Gilbert, Garbo had told him, 'You are a very foolish boy, Yacky. You quarrel with me for nothing. I must do my way. But we need not part.' It was on location of the film The Single Standard that Greta Garbo had learned of the marriage of John Gilbert to Ina Claire, "an event that came as a considerable suprise to the entire movie colony" (Bainbridge). His account includes a reporter finding Garbo on the set between two scenes and his showing her the headline, "'Thank you', she said. The reporter began pressing her with questions about her reaction to the news. 'I hope Mr. Gilbert will be very happy,' she said, and walked away." Picture Play magazine reviewed The Single Standard with, "One of the most brilliantly searching moments of acting ever seen in my fifteen years' of observation of the screen occurs in The Single Standard. It is furnished by Greta Garbo. She washes her hands, then washes her hair...Only she could make the story matter, or give it even ephemeral conviction."
It seems apparent that M.G.M. Had avoided the publicity of full page magazine advertisements for the Greta Garbo film The Single Standard and preferred using full page advertisements advertisizing the studio and its vast array of stars, mostly in a more stars in the firmament fashion, one page in 1929 reading It's Just the Beginning of MGM's Deluge of Dialouge Delights and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Your Rock of Gilbralter. It was a full page age in which the photo caption beneath Greta Garboread,"Gorgeous Greta in The Kiss with Conrad Nagel, Greater by far than The Single Standard." This may have in fact been impelled by the quickly advancing coming of sound film, if at all by the fickle contacts of Garbo or Gilbert. During 1929, Exhibito's Herlad and Motion Pictur World listed The Single Standard in a paragraph of films designated as Synchronized Pictures with Sound Effects as differentiated with those listed as Pictures With Talking sequences or Entirely of Dialouge. An advertisement during 1929 in Exhibitor's Herald merely read M.G.M The Important Company while listing the actors and actresses only by name with the working title of their current production, their frequently being instances that the titles would be changed later. With the name of the company was merely the acknowledgement of Lon Chaney in While the City Sleeps, John Gilbert in The Devil's Mask, and Greta Garbo in The Single Standard. Fim Daily of 1929 appealed to exhibitors and its moviegoing readers before providing a synopsis of the film. "Garbo splendid and sends this in for big dough. Story trite and trashy. Greta deserves better." it concluded, "It sounds like a lot of blah in print. That's exactly what it is. Garbo is too fine to waste on such stuff."

Hollywood Filmograph reviewed Greta Garbo in The Single Standard during 1929, "Adele Rogers St. John takes a sort of languid jolt at social conventions in her Single Standard, using Greta Garbo and Nils Asther to propound the doctrine. The theme appears to have been built rather than created and should hardly carry far in the external fitness of things...The Garbo fans will surely like her in this new role- a role in which she shows a little more fervor (not of the bent back kind) than usual...The Single Standard should not be a tornado at the box office." Motion Picture News added, "the story by Adela St John Rogers is highly sophisticated and in the main only suited for the big city houses; in the smaller towns it will appeal to the younger generation but the elder will undoubtedly frown on its altogether too free an exposition of sex will the heroine maintaining the right that a single standard of conduct applies to women as well as men and proceeding to put her theory into effect....Greta Garbo appears a little too old to be the typical flapper that would tackle a sex problem of this sort in the earlier positions of picture." Picture Play Magazine waited until 1930, "Brilliant acting by Greta Garbo although the story is not an inspiration. Arden Stuart attempts to live her own life freely, but conventional mother love dispels her theories." insert Greta Garbo banner

To begin looking at the work of Ingmar Bergman is easily precipitated as we have begun the lecture series Birth of New Wave Cinema, given by Birger Langkjaer and have finished the series Ingmar Bergman Bewteen Classicism and Mordernism, given by Johannes Riis, in a course offered online from the University of Copenhagen, under Professor Ib Bondeberg. Dreyer's Gertrud, which had previously been the subject of a lecture series given by Casper Tyjberg, and the films of the early sixties directed by Ingmar Bergman, including Persona, that had prompted the articles written in Expressen by Bo Widerberg, were attributed as the context from which the new wave of Scandinavian film directing had arose. While discussing the "narrative digress" of Bergman's films, his obituaries were include to provide an overview of his career, and I have therefore since looked to see what I had written the week Ingmar Bergman passed away, which, although brief, included a quote. " 'I believe a human being carries his or her own holiness, which lies within the realm of the earth; the are no other wordly explanations.' Ingmar Bergman - Images.' Shortly after his birthday, it was announced that director Ingmar Bergman had died, July 30, 2007. Ase Kleveland was quoted by SvD.se as having said, 'There will be an enormous void.'" In that particular series of pages I myself had quoted Ase Kleveland from a letter that she had sent me, the pages continuing, "Cissi Elwin will be greeting Swedish cinematographer Gunnar Fischer at the Filmhuset to end the first week of October, 2007 during a film series to honor Ingmar Bergman entitled Long Live Bergman (Lang leve Bergman. Also present will be actress Harriet Andersson." More recently, the trailer to Through a Glass Darkly was recommended in the Readings and Resourses by professor Bondebjerg, University of Copenhagen. In that there had been brief correspondence between the writer that now has the trailer, I had saved a banner from his original page from before the death of Ingmar Bergman and before he had entirely redesigned his superior tribute to the Ingmar Bergman and the artists that appreared in and worked on his films.

In Images, before filming with Victor Sjostrom, the actor, Ingmar Bergman relates his early emergence as a scriptwriter-director by mentioning the playwright Hjalmer Bergman, "According to Molander, Torment ought to be filmed. Stina Bergman showed me his comments, at the same time rebuking me for my penchant for dark and terrible things, 'Sometimes you are just like Hjalmer!'...Hjalmer Bergman was my idol.'" Not entirely unprophetic, Forsyth Hardy saw Ingmar Bergman's influence as screenwriter, specifically on Gustav Molander after the two had filmed, "Molander's association with Ingmar Bergman has clearly been a stimulus, as his subsequent films, notably Love is the Victor (Karleken Segrar, 1949)...have revealed."