Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

Svenska Stumfilmsklassiker
(Swedish Silent Film Classics)
Clyde Jeavons
DVDs
Publié à l’occasion des 70 ans du
Swedish Film Institute, ce magnifique
coffret propose six titres de la période
1917-1924 dans une restauration
impeccable. Bien que ne couvrant
qu’une période de sept ans et se
limitant aux œuvres de trois cinéastes,
le coffret n’en confirme pas moins
la suprématie du cinéma suédois en
ces années : une véritable révélation
pour quiconque découvrirait cette
production à travers ce coffret.
Sjöström, représenté ici par deux
films (Terje Vigen, 1917, et Körkalen
/ La Charrette fantôme, 1921), est le
colosse incontestable du cinéma
suédois : un géant du cinéma, à l’égal
de ses contemporains Griffith et Gance.
Adapté d’Ibsen, Terje Vigen, histoire
de la lutte d’un homme contre la
mer, constitue un véritable référent
du tournage en extérieurs, alors que
Körkalen transforma la structure même
du cinéma suédois et lui assura une
réputation internationale – le film
permit par ailleurs à son réalisateur de
poursuivre sa carrière à Hollywood. (Les
suppléments nous permettent, entre
autres, de voir Ingmar Bergman diriger
Sjöström, dans Les Fraises sauvages).
Mauritz Stiller, moins bien servi par
l’histoire que Sjöström, si ce n’est pour
avoir amené Garbo à Hollywood, est
représenté ici par trois véritables chefsd’œuvre
(Herr Arnes Pengar / Le Trésor
d’Arne,1919, Erotikon, 1920, et Gösta
Berling Saga / La Légende de Gösta
Berling, 1924), qui le confirment comme
l’un des cinéastes les plus innovateurs
et influents de l’époque muette. Chantre
de la nature, personne mieux que lui
n’a su filmer les paysages nordiques où
l’homme affronte la nature.
Häxan (1922) du danois Benjamin
Christensen complète cette riche
sélection. Objet unique dans l’histoire
Is it too fanciful to suppose that original DVD box-sets might one day
become as coveted by collectors as rare vinyl recordings or literary first
editions? Just in case, you would be wise to hang on to this treasury of
silent classic movies from Sweden’s sui generis “guldäldern” – golden age
– defined as the period 1917 to 1924. Conceived by the Swedish Film
Institute, in collaboration with Svensk Filmindustri, to mark and celebrate
the SFI’s 70th anniversary, this important and elegant production brings
together six undisputed, undiluted masterpieces of Swedish silent cinema,
impeccably restored, which can also be seen collectively and opportunely
as a consummation of the recent resurgence of Scandinavia’s film-making
past. Although confined to seven (albeit fecund) years and just three
representative directors – Victor Sjöström, Mauritz Stiller and Benjamin
Christensen - as confirmation of Swedish cinema’s pre-eminence at the
time, the films in this set are shrewdly chosen. To anyone coming fresh
to this corner of national production, they will be a revelation of some
magnitude.
Sjöström remains the colossus of Swedish cinema, one of the great
actor/directors and a giant of the art, whose mastery of soul-searching,
narrative melodrama, driven by national angst, climate and landscape, was
unmatched in scale and intensity even by his formidable contemporaries,
D W Griffith and Abel Gance. Sjöström had already shifted the thematic
boundaries in 1913 with his realistic social drama, Ingeborg Holm, about
a single mother losing custody of her children. With the two films of his
in this collection, Terje Vigen (1917) and Körkalen (The Phantom Carriage,
1921), he transformed both the structure and the international reputation
of Swedish film-making, the latter masterpiece taking him to Hollywood
and his crowning American achievements, The Scarlet Letter (1926) and
The Wind (1928), both starring Griffith’s protégé, Lillian Gish. Terje Vigen,
adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s epic poem about a man’s vengeful struggle
against the sea, set the standard for location film-making, the interaction
of art and nature, whilst Körkalen, an international triumph and arguably
Sjöström’s greatest film – a dark fantasy of alcoholism and death, entirely
studio-shot - astounded audiences with its complex mix of realism and
the supernatural, conveyed through haunting special effects. Equally
astounding is how neglected the film had become outside Sweden in
recent years until its restoration and revival in festivals and retrospectives,
especially as it was the film which most profoundly influenced Ingmar
Bergman, who paid homage to both the film and its director, his mentor
Sjöström, with his echo-resounding Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries,
1957). The special features on the Körkalen disc – footage of the shooting
of Wild Strawberries, showing Bergman directing an ageing Sjöström clearly
besotted by his young co-star Bibi Andersson; the building, during 1920-21,
of the new Råsunda Studios, where Körkalen was shot; and a 1980 interview
with Bergman, speaking in depth about Sjöström – are alone worth the
price of the box set.
79 Journal of Film Preservation / 81 / 2009