FILM FILM - University of Macau Library

50 Transition and Transformation
What is it in human nature that
makes people quick to laugh
when someone else gets slapped
– whether the slap be spiritual,
mental – or physical – ?
Finally, towards the end of the film (in the seventh reel), three more rhetorical
questions are posed, which Graham Petrie has mistakenly interpreted as the
dying man’s last attempts to express his thoughts. However, as the intertitle
appears, “He” is already dead; “He” has been shown falling to the ground, having
a final talk with Consuelo, but then “He” “stops smiling, falls away from
her and out of scene”. 20 The shot immediately preceding the intertitle shows his
hand in close-up, holding the bloody heart of cloth, followed by a final fade-out,
which definitely marks his death. This title, just like those previously cited,
should thus rather be interpreted as voiced by an implicit narrator. 21
What is Death – ?
What is Life – ?
What is Love – ?
As this intertitle fades out, it is followed by a fade-in on the circus ring, where a
horse enters at a gallop – as Forslund writes, “the show must go on, Consuela
[sic] and Benzano are allowed to ride out... and people applaud...”. 22 In this
case, however, the rhetorical questions posed also seem to be inspired by Andreyev’s
play, where Consuelo on three occasions questions “He” on matters of
life and death: “What does ‘love’ mean?”; “And what is – death?”; “What is
sickness?” 23 In spite of the fact that “the show must go on”, this intertitle functions
as an ending point to the film, to which the following, final images only
seem to respond.
The fact that only one of these reflective intertitles has any background at all
in the play clearly underlines their importance as a vehicle for the narrator. They
communicate to the spectator a dimension that he obviously wanted to add to
the original story. Also, these intertitles must be seen in their historical context,
against the backdrop of general practices in Hollywood in the mid-1920s. As
Kristin Thompson has pointed out, expository titles were severely limited, and
replaced – to the extent that it was possible – by dialogue:
Dialogue titles also insured that most of the spectator’s understanding of the narrative
came directly from the characters themselves – from their words and gestures –
rather than from an intervening narration’s presentation. 24
The function of these intertitles in Sjöström’s film is nothing else than a breaking
of this rule – a narration that intervenes – though they rather represent an at-