Early Scandinavian Cinema
and the Swedish Golden Age
• Danish Cinema
Early Film Production
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Theaters establish production
companies 1906
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“Vertical integration”
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• How did cinema emerge?
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• The Swedish Golden Age, 1913-1924
• Victor Sjöström
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• Mauritz Stiller
• Erotic melodrama to literary adaptation
• Technical innovation and excellence
• Outdoor shooting in which nature figures prominently
• Realism
•
Nordisk Films kompagni
• Founded by theater-owner Ole
Olsen 1906
• Spectacle Films
• Erotic melodrama
• Worldwide Danish cinematic
success
• By 1910 Nordisk offices in
Berlin, New York, Vienna,
London, St. Petersburg, Prague
• 1910-1916 Nordisk produced
700 films
Domestic specialties
Export
Exoticism
German markets
Varied production
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• Moral Seriousness
Lack of specialization
Control of production,
distribution, and exhibition
Contract driven
Small domestic audiences lead
to particular strategies
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• Trademarks of Early Scandinavian Cinema
Potentially more profitable than
rentals and purchase
Short in length
Le film d’art (literary
adaptations)
Spectacle films
Nordisk Film Kompagni Studios,
Copenhagen, Denmark 1910
Nordisk film productions
• Isbjørnjagten (Polarbear
Hunt)
• 1906
• Successful spectacle film,
at home and as export
• Polar Bear purchased from
Carl Hagenback in
Hamburg
• Who was Hagenback?
• The Lion Hunt (Løvejagten)
• 1907`
• Dir. Viggo Larsen
• Lions purchased from
Hagenbeck
Nordisk Icon -- Polar bear atop
the world
• Justice Minister Alberti
forbids filming of the lions
• Film made secretly, printed
in Malmö
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Nordisk’s competition
• Fotorama
• Den hvide slavehandel
(The White Slave Trade,
1910)
• Dir. Alfred Cohn
• Sensation
• Ole Olsen counters…
• Clear plagiarism
• Distribution networks
• Kosmorama in
Copenhagen
The White Slave Trade (Nordisk) 1910
• Afgrunden (The Abyss,
1910)
• Asta Nielsen
• “Gaucho Dance”
• German Success
The Golden Age 1917-1924:
Svenska Bio and Svensk Filmindustri
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Establishment of legitimacy
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Outcry against “immoral” film evident in 1905
Connection to variety programming
From permit control to office of film censor, est. 1911
Danish influence & Frans Lundberg, Malmö
• Svenska Bio
• Est. 1907 in Kristianstad
• Charles Magnusson appointed chief, 1909
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Charles Magnusson of
Svenska Bio
Literary repertoire
Longer films
Professional actors and crew
Theater chain “Röda Kvarn” to raise status of cinema
• Svenska Bio moves to Stockholm, establishes Råsunda studios, in 1912
• 100 films 1913-1917
• Lack of material to study 1912-1916 period
Victor Sjöström
• Svenska bio contract 1912
• Directed 31 films 1912-1916
Technical skill
Hilda Bergström
Mary Johnson
Cinematographer Julius Jaenzon
Scoring
• Danish imports
• Variety Shows, and their associations
• The First Film Crisis, 1908-1910
• Acting career 1896-1900s
• Theater-Company 1911-1913
Recruitment of theater personnel
and material
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• Film Styles
• Nature scenes and attractions
• Successful theater-background
Threat of Censorship
Differentiation
International ambitions
Quality Cinema
• Victor Sjöström
• Mauritz Stiller
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Swedish Cinema Before 1917
Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940)
• Careful
• Restrained
• Serious
• Literary adaptations
• Hollywood career, including
Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940)
The Wind, 1929
• Melodramatic novel
• Nobel laureate 1909
• Eight films with SF, 1917-1924
Röda Kvarn movie
palaces
• Acting career, including
Bergman’s Wild Strawberries
Victor
Sjöström
(1879-1962)
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Sjöström’s
Breakthorugh:
Terje Vigen (1917)
play during his theater career
(1913)
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First major literary adaptations
• Henrik Ibsen’s epic poem, 1852
• Courageous Terje Vigen’s heroism
in Napoleonic wars
• “Exotic and romantic” theme and
setting
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Victor Sjöstrom as Terje Vigen
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Nature represents emotions and
relationships
• Sea as a dramatic element
• Typical of Sjöstrom’s most
successful films
Huge success establishes
potential of literary adaptation
The Phantom Carriage
(Körkarlen, 1921)
The Outlaw and his
Wife (1918)
Mauritz Stiller
(1883-1928)
• Production 1920
• Double exposures used to
represent ”ghosts”
• Russian-Jewish background
• Theater actor in Finland,
Sweden
• Recruited by Magnusson,
1911
• Proven journeyman
• Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta
(Song of the Scarlet Flower
1919)
• Herr Arnes pengar (Sir Arne’s
Treasure, 1919)
• Inauspicious Hollywood career
• Moral critique of ”modern” life
• Julius Jaenzon as
cinematographer
• Friend of playwright
Shot on location in northern
Swedish mountains
• “Happiest time”
• Edith Erastoff
Distinctive use of nature,
reminiscent of Terje Vigen
• Settings
• Lighting
• Distinctive “natural” lines
• Snow
Kári (Victor Sjöström)
• Lagerlöf adaptation, based on
1912 novel
• Rennovated Svensk
filmindustri studios at
Råsunda
1911 play by Icelandic
playwright Johann
Sigurjonsson (1880-1918)
• Sjöström had produced the
Sister Edit (Astrid Holm)
• 32 films, 1912-1916
• Flamboyant
• Experimental
David Holm (Victor Sjöström)
• Eleven major films, 19171924
• Hollywood 1924-1928
• Premier 1.1.1921
• 25% of Stockholm residents
saw film within first two
months of release
Mauritz Stiller (1883-1928)
• “Discovers” Greta Garbo, who
leads in Gösta Berlings saga
(’24)
• Lack of success in Hollywood
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Song of the Scarlet Flower (1919,
Sången om den eldröda blomman)
 Adaptation of Johannes
Linnankoski novel (1905)
 Iconography of Swedish
and Finnish cinema
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• Stiller’s first Lagerlöf
adaptation
• Revision of earlier German
adaptation of same short story
• “Literally” Lagerlöf, but
realistic interpretation and
reordering of events
Shooting the rapids
Midnight sun
Roll in the haystack
Lumberjack
• Nature themes
• Morality play
 Biggest international
success so far for SF
 Distribution rights in 34
countries
 80,000 crown profit
Sir Arne’s Treasure
(Herr Arnes Pengar, 1919
• Rights sold in 46 countries
Olof (Lars Hansson) and Annikki
(Greta Almroth) in the forest
• In combination with Song
of the Scarlet Flower,
establishes Stiller’s
reputation as a master
Archie, Philip,
and Donald
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Conclusion
• From short, salacious films to longer, prestige
films in theater chains
• Emergence of Swedish style
• Literary adaptation
•Technical innovation and excellence
•Outdoor shooting in which nature figures
prominently
•Realism
•Moral Seriousness
•Victor Sjöström
•Mauritz Stiller
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