FILM FILM - University of Macau Library

110 Transition and Transformation
Sweden was put on Hollywood’s map. Bengt Forslund quotes an American
critic who stated that: “Here is a new Garbo, who flutters, who mugs. This
interesting reserved lady – the Swedish marvel at emotional massage – goes
completely Hollywood, all at once.” 38 Obviously, Sjöström’s American films
were recognized as being more or less in the “Hollywood style”, with all that
this brought along for better or for worse, depending on the values of the critic
or other commentator. (FIG. 20)
Fig. 19: From a rediscovered fragment: Greta Garbo and Lars Hanson (The Divine
Woman).
Most noteworthy in relation to this particular film, however, is that it – perhaps
more so than some of the director’s other Hollywood productions – appears as a
form of popular culture where all kinds of polyphonic voices enter into the text,
which, as Bruno has put it, “are interwoven and disseminated with other cultural
and narrative forms”. 39 If this is less a work by Sjöström the auteur – as the
complaint from Edith Erastoff seems to suggest – it takes on new significance as
testimony of his integration into the new production context; the predominant
fabric of popular culture.