Seeking a change of pace from his already successful career as a Swedish director and actor, Victor Sjöström arrived in New York in January 1923 at the invitation of Goldwyn Pictures. Sjöström’s intention was to study American production methods and to involve himself in a film or two. The Swede … [Read more...] about He Who Gets Slapped
The Great White Silence
When rescuers found the frozen bodies of three members of the 1910–1914 British Antarctic Expedition camped eleven miles from the nearest food depot, it had been almost a year since the explorers had died. Outside the tent, all that remained of the sledge they had man-hauled for the 850-mile journey … [Read more...] about The Great White Silence
The Goose Woman
It could have been a lurid, “ripped from the headlines” melodrama from a studio known for its cheap genre films. Instead, The Goose Woman (1925) became one of Universal’s “Jewels,” a prestige production with a better than average script, an excellent cast and production values, and an up-and-coming … [Read more...] about The Goose Woman
The Curator and the Composer: Creating a New Song for Two Humans
This feature was published in conjunction with the screening of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans at SFSFF 2011 Behind the film’s artistry, technical innovations, and outsize budget, Sunrise is ultimately the story of two people. A woman from the city takes her summer holiday in a quaint lakeside … [Read more...] about The Curator and the Composer: Creating a New Song for Two Humans
La Bohème
In 1926, when Lillian Gish went in search of a new contract, a bidding war ensued between MGM and United Artists. She was not a major moneymaker but having trained on the sets of D.W. Griffith’s Biograph, she had a reputation as a great actress. A veteran of Griffith’s stock company since 1912, Gish … [Read more...] about La Bohème
The Blizzard
Without the writings of Selma Lagerlöf, Sweden might not have experienced its first Golden Age of cinema, which lasted from 1917 to 1924. The first woman and first Swedish writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1909), Lagerlöf wrote novels suffused with a respect for nature and deeply rooted … [Read more...] about The Blizzard