L'épreuve

Though Bergman got most of the attention, Alf Sjoberg looms large as arguably the master director of the period in Swedish film between the groundbreaking silents of Sjostrom and Stiller, and the modern achievements of such as Troell, Widerberg and Roy Andersson.

This romantic melodrama, following somewhat in the line of the Hollywood "Waterloo Bridge" it references, deserves to be compared to the more well known entries in that genre by the likes of Ophuls, Borzage, and Stahl. It is a love affair doomed by class difference which is carefully observed.

There is a possibility Sjoberg had seen the work of Welles from a few years earlier, as there is at least one Kane style low angle of characters at a dinner table looking up at the ceiling, and the scenes of family members squabbling on a staircase with the forum y patriarch, in a somewhat theatrical way, are reminiscent of The Magnificent Ambersons.

The two leads are strikingly portrayed by Alf Kjellin and Mai Zetterling.