Gunnar Hedes saga

Gunnar Hede is raised by a strict mother, who wants him to become respectable to match his family's wealth. He is more interested in his grandfather, who started as an itinerant violin player, but got rich by leading a herd of wild reindeer south to market. He falls for a violinist working with a married couple of traveling performers and renounces his fortune to go with them. He then tries to earn a fortune by driving reindeer to market, but it doesn't work out and he goes insane. He is finally restored to sanity by the violinist when she returns with the performers.

The most fun part are the couple (Blomgren and Stava), though they only get a few minutes screen time. The shots of the reindeer are interesting, and the shots of Gunnar Hede being dragged through the snow by a reindeer are well done.

This is Nobel prize winner Selma Lagerlof's most poetic work although in prose, but the story beams poetic beauty all through, like an advanced development of an H. C. Andersen tale, for Lagerlof was an expert on making tales into novels, (like "Nils Holgersson"). Mauritz Stiller has handled her novel with great piety and care, actually succeeding in transmitting the poetry to the screen, especially accentuated by all the scenes with the poor orphan girl playing the violin. Unfortunately you cannot hear what she played, and the music later attached to the film was not always in congruence with the sensitive poetic character of the story. The cinematography as so often in Stiller's films is very impressive, the major alteration he has made from the novel is to turn the goats into reindeers, which he used for the greatest sequences of the film: the struggle in the snow storm with the reindeer chaos is simply cinematographically sensational. The acting is not exceptional but very in accordance with the novel, and on the large he has succeeded in squeezing a literary masterpiece into almost an equally ranking movie masterpiece. Later he would turn Mrs Lagerlof's first novel "Gosta Berling" into a great film, using the same kind of advanced and effective dramaturgy to fit the novel into a film, which Mrs Lagerlof had some objections against - she did not recognize her novel any more. The film is different from the novel but equally great but in another way. He later brought Greta Garbo to Hollywood.

This film was recently restored (not digitally) by the Swedish film institute, had its original intertitles reinserted and received colour tinting via filters (hand tinting would have bee desirable but was not cost effective here).

The storyline has an overegging of hysteria even by silent movie standards with both leads waifish, prone to fainting, and racoon-eyed, as was the fashion of the time! The plot is also quite ludicrous. I think the film is important for two reasons though, firstly I think it's interesting to look at the material that influenced of Ingmar Bergman. You can definitely see that here with the travelling artistes that first unite our two sensitive young ones. Secondly, the montage is very good in places, including a painting that comes to life, a nasty dream sequence, and a quite weird animal-phobic hallucination.

Gunnar Hede is frustrated at his existence in the tomb of Munkhyttan, the family pile. Grandad, who he hears stories about was an itinerant fiddler before striking it rich with a dangerous reindeer-importing scheme. Gunnar yearns to emulate his grandfather, but mother will have none of it. The scenes that the movie is famous for show reindeer driving, and includes an astonishing river crossing where the reindeer swim across a wide river, snaking away with the current. Gunnar must earn Munkhyttan and win the girl. That is the movie! It may sound strange but the most touching scene for me was of Ingrid helping Gunnar during a weak moment, it is so rare to see a woman helping a man in a movie. I heard somewhere recently that, "the one thing women will never forgive in a man, is weakness".

One very pretty scene was Gunnar staring at himself in the water, not quite sure how they filmed it, it looked as if I the audience member were staring at my own reflection!

'Gunar Hedes saga' is fine example of Mauritz Stiller art and exceptional treatment of nature in Swedish early films, especially by Sjöstrom and Stiller. Snow scenes with reindeers are simply beautiful. I strongly recommend for fans of silent films.