Film Persona

  Erich von Stroheim's "Blind Husbands" In 1909, Austrian filmmaker Erich von Stroheim emigrated to America when he was 24 years old. His experiences as a travelling salesman brought him to Hollywood in 1914, where he found work as a stuntman. That year, he was lucky enough to work on the biggest film in the history of cinema, D.W. Griffith's " The Birth of a Nation ." He was an extra and horse handler on the production. Because of this work, he was also able to work on Griffith's next project, " Intolerance ," this time as an assistant director. After the success of the film, Stroheim went around Hollywood as a swiss army man for productions, as he vacillated between acting, assisting, and technical advising. In 1917, the United States had entered the first World War, and Hollywood began crancking out pro-war, anti-German propoganda films. Stroheim, being of Austrian descent as well as an expert on German military uniforms and paraphemalia, st...

Victor Sjostrom's "The Wind" As a producer, Gish wanted to continue to work with Victor Sjostrom. Their next collaboration, after " The Scarlet Letter ," was an adaption of the stage play of the same name by Dorothy Scarborough. The play, and the film, tells the story of a frail Eastern waif who becomes impoverished and is forced to move in with her cousin out West. Throughout her story, she faces many hardships, including the unyielding wind. The penetrative wind in the story is meant as an allegory to constant pressure of the unsavory men around her. Throughout the story, she is constantly having to defend herself from various male presences. The film is laced with sexual metaphors, like desire, jealousy, seductions, prudism, virginity, and rape. By the end of the film, the protagonist, Letty, reaches her breaking point and kills the man who tries to rape her. By then, her superficial frailty is now replaced, as she had gone to the deep depths of her soul to u...

  Victor Sjostrom's "The Scarlet Letter" Signing on to an MGM contract, Lilian Gish wanted to flee her ingenue roles. After doing King Vidor's " La Boheme ," she decided that she wanted to adapt Nathaniel Hawthorne's " The Scarlet Letter ." Louis B. Mayer, the production manager, was incredibly reluctant, concerned that MGM would object to such a frank depiction of adultery. However, Gish wanted to point out the bigotry of the Puritans from the novel as a allegory to contemporary bigotry. She felt that the Swedish were closer to and would understand the Puritans better than anyone in America would, so she hired Swedish director Victor Sjostrom. She had long been a fan of Sjostrom's and had wanted to work with him for a long time. Particularly, she loved the Swedish acting method he employed, in which silent actors show more restraint to their performance, rather than acting animated. Shooting took a couple of months, until Gish learned that...

  Victor Sjostrom's "He Who Gets Slapped" After enjoying commerical and critical success in Sweden, Victor Sjostrom took his talents to Hollywood. He arrived in New York in January of 1923, not expecting to stay too long. However, by 1924, he had gotten into good favor with Irving Thalberg, the newly appointed head of MGM, which had just merged. Sjostrom was so prestigous a director at this point, that the studios had given him full control over his pictures. Due to this freedom, Sjostrom made films that he considered more artistically viable. Deciding to adapt the Russian play "He Who Gets Slapped" by Leonid Andreyev, the film would end up being the very first film the newly established MGM put into production (although it would not be the first released). The film was even the very first to feature the lion as MGM's mascot. The film, based on the play, is an incredibly bleak affair, but would garnish much commercial and critical success. The film centers o...

  Victor Sjostrom's "The Phantom Carriage" After the successes of " A Man There Was " and " The Outlaw and His Wife ," Victor Sjostrom decided to move away from his outdoor melodramas and do something more urban and gritty. Having already adapted three of Selma Lagerlof's novels, Sjostrom made it four with " Korkarlen ." The 1912 novel deals with occultism and mysticism, and would provide a definite challange to Sjostrom's simplistic approach. After its release, the film would become a global phenomenom and would merit Sjostrom's enlistment in the Hollywood system.  The film opens on a dying woman named Sister Edit as she spends her New Year's Eve on her death bed at the Salvation Army. Her dying wish to is to speak with David Holm. David, a drunkard, sits at a graveyard with two friends and recounts of an old friend named Georges, whom years ago told him a story of the 'Phantom Carriage.' Through flashback, we are sho...

Victor Sjostrom's "The Outlaw and His Wife" Coming off the success of " A Man There Was ," Victor Sjostrom created another intimate piece of filmmaking, called " The Outlaw and His Wife ." The film, like his previous, focused more on emotional realism rather than melodrama. Nature is a big element in this film, as Sjostrom showcases its beauty and its coldness. Adapted from the 1911 play by Johann Sigurjonsson, the film takes place in 18th century Iceland. All the reaches of human emotion are on display, and all of them placed in front of the backdrop of devine nature. The film centers on a man named Ejvind. Ejvind is on the run for stealing a sheep to feed his starving community. Changing his name to Kari, he escapes into the mountains and happens upon a farm, where he gets work. The widow farm owner, Halla, falls in love with him. After discovering his secret, the two run off together higher into the mountains to evade capture. Five years later, they...

  Victor Sjostrom's "A Man There Was" While D.W. Griffith was inventing the conventions of cinema with large scale historical epics in America, Victor Sjostrom was making far more intimate affairs in Sweden. Based on the Norwegian poem, "Terje Vigen," " A Man There Was " marked a new era in Swedish and European cinema. The film was the most expensive Swedish film made up until that point, with a budget of SEK 60,000. The result is a story of the life of a simple man, dealing with excruciating circumstances.  Terje Vigen lives with his wife and baby in Norway, until the Napoleonic Wars begin in 1809. Due to the British blockade, many of the people in his village are left without food. In order to supply food to his wife, child, and village, Terje rows to Denmark so that he can smuggle it into the country. However, when returning, he is captured by British forces. A ruthless British captain shows him no mercy and sends him to jail, where he spends five y...