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The Films:
You can trust Kino to search out and bring to home video quality films that
are little know in the US. Their latest releases are a pair of DVDs
containing films by the influential, but greatly ignored Swedish director
Victor Sjöström. The disc at hand contains two of his features,
1917's A Man There Was (Terje Vigen) as well as his early film
Ingeborg Holm (1913). (A review of the other disc containing
The Outlaw and His Wife as well as a documentary on the actor/director
can be found here.)
While the first feature is clearly the better film, both of these are interesting
dramas that would go well in a collection of early cinematic achievements.
Victor Sjöström is best known as an actor, most famously for his
appearances in Bregman's Wild Strawberries. Though he started out
as an actor, he was also a director in the early days of film. His silent
movies started the golden age of Swedish film, and were quite sophisticated
for their time. Sjöström was one of the first to introduce realism
into film. His movies often involved psychologically complex characters and
featured natural settings which played an important role in the films. His
work set the stage for the German bergefilm (mountain film) genre as well
as influenced such directors as Ingmar Bergman and Carl Theodor Dreyer.
The first film presented on this DVD is A Man There Was, often cited
as the film that started Sweden's golden age of film making. Based
on a poem by Henrik Ibsen, the movie tells the story of a sailor, Terje Vigen
(played by Sjöström himself). After returning home from a
long journey at sea, Terje discovers that his wife has had a child.
He's overjoyed at the discovery and spends some time at home with his new
offspring. Before too long however war breaks out (the Napoleonic Wars)
and Norway is under a blockade by the British. When the crops fail
that summer the people start to starve.
With his wife and child desperately in need of food, Terje takes a small
row boat and runs the blockade. He manages to buy three sacks of corn
at a port in another country, but on the way back, when he's within sight
of his town, he's spotted by a British Man-o-war. They fire on Terje
and eventually sink his skiff. Taken into custody, he begs for his
family, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. He's taken to jail and there
he stays.
Five years pass. Eventually the war ends and Terje is released and
taken back to his home. Upon returning however he discovers that his
wife and child were not as lucky as he was. They died during the famine.
Terje turns cold and bitter, missing his family, until one evening when a
sloop accidentally wanders too close to the rocks near the shore. Terje
takes his small boat to their rescue and promises to steer the vessel through
the treacherous waters. The captain promises him a fortune if
he can do it, but when Terje looks at the man in charge he recognizes him:
it's the same captain who refused to let him go to his wife and child those
many years ago.
It's easy to see why this film made such a splash (no pun intended) when
it was released. The ocean scenery is beautiful; something that you'd
expect in a travelogue or nature documentary from the time, but Sjöström
added a strong drama to the striking images and crafted a very powerful film.
Though the intertitles, lines from Ibsen's poem, aren't as striking as they
could be, the acting is first rate. Sjöström is way ahead
of his time, performing his role in an understated way that makes this film
feel a decade or two ahead of its time. When he returns to the house
he used to live in with his wife and child after being in prison for half
a decade and discovers someone else living there, he's worried but curious.
He's almost afraid to ask what happened to his family, and when he finds
out his reaction is to stare and drop the parcel that he's holding, and then
collapse to the floor. He doesn't clutch at his chest and wave his
arms, he just looks terribly sad and that look is all he needs. There's no
hint of melodrama in this film, just heartfelt emotion.
The second film on the disc is Ingeborg Holm, which serves to show
how much Sjöström grew as a director in the three years between
these two films. The story, based on a book by Nils Krok, centers around
the title character, Ingeborg Holm, played with affection by Hilda
Borgström.) As the movie opens Ingeborg lives a wonderful life.
She's married to a successful man who runs a local store and has loving children.
All of that changes suddenly when her husband takes ill and dies. Ingeborg
is left running the shop, but she's not cut out for it and the loafing staff
along with a bad loan soon forces her into bankruptcy. She is sent
off to the poor house, which is bad enough but what makes matters worse is
that she's separated from her children. They are placed in foster homes
and when Ingeborg hears that her daughter is ill, she plans to escape.
While this movie had a lot of drama and was not overdone the way some silent
films are, it was still a bit staid and sedate for my tastes. There
are few exterior scene, the things that bring The Outlaw and His Wife
and A Man There Was to life, and the camera's lack of movement
and fewer editing cuts, something not uncommon in 1913, really lessens the
impact of the dramatic scenes.
Having said that, Hilda Borgström does a wonderful job in her role.
Like a Swedish Lillian Gish, she's able to convey her suffering through body
language rather than exaggerated movements. Her performance saves the
film, and makes it worth checking out.
The DVD:
Audio:
The first film comes with a lovely piano score composed and performed by
Donald Sosin. He always does a wonderful job, and this movie is no
exception. (I almost wish he'd mess up and create a horrendous soundtrack
so I'd have something interesting to say.) The second feature has a
score by David Drazin, which also suited the movie well. Both scores
accent the action on screen without becoming too overt or distracting.
Being recently recorded, there are no audio defects audible at normal listening
levels.
Video:
A Man There Was was considered lost for many years, but a tinted (!)
print was discovered in 2004. A negative was made from that, and this
DVD features a print made from that negative which was then tinted.
I thought the tinting was too heavy at times, the nighttime blue obscured
details and made it hard to see what was going on, but aside from that the
image looks very good. I didn't notice any nitrate decomposition and
though there were specs and some print imperfections there were fairly rare.
The image had good contrast and the level of detail was very good aside from
the night scenes.
Ingeborg Holm didn't look quite as good, though it is still a nice
looking transfer. It looks like this print was a few copies away from
the original negative, as the image was fairly soft for most of the film
and not as distinct as it could have been. The contrast was okay, but
some of the highlights were washed out and whites would occasionally bloom.
There were a few specks too, and one section has some decomposition.
Overall this was still a nice looking print, just not exceptional.
Extras:
There are photo galleries to both films, but no other bonus features.
Final Thoughts:
A Man There Was is an excellent film that has a lot of drama as well
as some wonderful scenery. After watching it, it's easy to see why
Sjöström is such an influential director. Ingeborg Holm
was also a nice film, though it was much more sedate in tone and direction
and didn't jump off the screen like Sjöström's later film does.
This disc is a nice double feature and well worth seeking out. Recommended.
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