FILM FILM - University of Macau Library

Traces of the Narrator
If Sjöström’s role as a scriptwriter has generally been emphasized, little has been
said about the actual results of his work, apart from more general comparisons
of the plot in the play and the film respectively. A closer look at the cutting
continuity script – that is, also, in the finished film – would thus be well motivated.
How, if at all, could the voice of the implicit narrator be traced in the
script? In which ways has Sjöström as screenwriter left his actual imprint in the
script, and thus in the finished film? The question is all the more interesting as
he generally follows his scripts very closely as a director. This would, then, be a
unique opportunity to discern a possible authorial presence at several stages of
the work, operating also within the more limited system of production in Hollywood.
A first addition to the play is made by the introductory intertitle in the film,
which, by its proverbial reference, strikes a note for what is to follow:
In the grim comedy
of life, it has been
wisely said that the last
laugh is the best –
Moreover, on the subject of laughter, another intertitle in the beginning, as
Beaumont is slapped by the Baron and ridiculed by the whole academy of scientists,
reads:
Laughter – the bitterest and most subtle death to hope –
Likewise, later in the film (in the third reel), two more intertitles appear which
both share a similar function as general, philosophical statements. The first occurs
as Consuelo and Benzano talk, as “He” is looking at them, in turn falling in
love with Consuelo, at the same time as their mutual love is revealed both to the
spectator and to him:
A strange thing, the heart
of man – that loves, suffers,
and despairs – yet has courage
to hope, believe – and love – again.
From Scientist to Clown – He Who Gets Slapped 49
The second is formulated as a rhetorical question, and appears as the Baron has
been shown looking into the programme to discover that “He” is the next to
appear on the arena. The intertitle is immediately followed by “He” making his
entrance, getting up on stilts.