The Phantom Carriage (1921)

Originally posted to Facebook on 3/14/2017

The Phantom Carriage was our third film from from 1921, and our fourth directed by Victor Sjöström. Of all the directors of this period, I think Sjöström has the best batting average, and this film continues the pattern -- in fact it is probably the best of his films we’ve seen to date. He again plays the male lead, as was true in all but one of his previous films we’ve seen, and Hilda Borgström, who also played the title character in 1913’s Ingeborg Holm, plays his wife. What sets Sjöström apart is mostly competent and assured storytelling -- though he is as innovative and technically solid as any of his peers. For instance, in the early part of this film, Sjöström’s character begins telling a story, which switches to a flashback. During that flashback, another character begins telling a story, and the film begins showing that narrative. Perhaps that had been done previously, but it seems pretty unusual for 1921; yet it was handled as smoothly as it would be in a modern film.

Sjöström, in the film, plays a character whose alcoholism has ruined his life, and Astrid Holm plays a Salvation Army worker who attempts to save him. She is played as a virtual saint, and apparently has fallen in love with him as well, though that is never fully motivated or developed. (I pointed out to the kids that her character had more or less the same profession as the women temperancists in Intolerance, who are of course portrayed in that movie as shrewish killjoys.) When the movie opens Holm is dying of tuberculosis and wants to see Sjöström before she dies. Most of the story is told in flashbacks -- again, fairly innovative for 1921 -- led by the driver of the eponymous Phantom Carriage, who is the ghost of a man whom Sjöström’s character once knew. I think the plot probably owes something to A Christmas Carol, but it is much more focused on the specifics of Sjöström’s alcoholism than the grand sweep of his life. Another interesting bit of trivia about this film is that there is a scene where Sjöström breaks down a door with an axe, which some people have theorized was the inspiration for the similar scene in The Shining.

Our next film, the fourth from 1921, will be the iconic Rudolph Valentino film The Sheik. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT

Ingeborg Holm (1913)

Originally posted to Facebook on 4/4/2016

We finished off 1913 in our chronological movie viewing with Ingeborg Holm. This film was directed by Victor Sjöström (later Victor Seastrom after moving to Hollywood.) He directed many other famous films, including The Phantom Carriage, He Who Gets Slapped, and The Wind, and also was the lead actor in Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries in 1958. But that was almost half-a-century after he directed this film, which is probably the most naturalistic we’ve seen to date. The plot revolves around the title character (played by Hilda Borgström), whose husband has just taken out a loan to open a general store. Unfortunately he falls ill and dies a few scenes after prominently coughing, and she loses everything and is forced to enter a workhouse, and place her children into foster homes. And then things get worse from there. (“I hope this never happens to us,” said Alli.) It’s played less sentimentally than it sounds, at least through the first three-quarters, and is probably the best film we’ve seen from 1913 (though the first few episodes of Fantomas were more entertaining.)

Next week we start 1914 with D.W. Griffith’s first full-length feature: Judith of Bethulia. I’ve also added a slate of films representing 1915 to the spreadsheet, which takes us out through late May. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT