Herr Arnes pengar

As far as I can tell, this is the first Swedish Silent that I've watched (I'd previously been intrigued by a solitary still – actually used for the DVD sleeve itself – found in "The Movie", a British periodical from the early 1980s); I've seen a handful of early efforts from neighboring Denmark – and the aesthetic starkness in the predominant style of both countries is pretty similar. It's also the first from Swedish master Stiller (I also own his two other well-known titles, EROTIKON [1920] and THE SAGA OF GOSTA BERLING [1924], that were released on DVD from Kino – and I may very well include the latter in my current Epic/Historical films schedule); incidentally, I've only checked out – and was duly impressed by – two American-made pictures from Victor Sjostrom, the other great director to emanate from this country during the Silent era.

SIR ARNE'S TREASURE is best described as a historical melodrama – since the elements typically expected of an epic only really come into play in the scenes involving a fire early on and a sword-fight towards the end. However, one shouldn't overlook the vast and forbidding icy landscape which not only serves as an extremely realistic backdrop to the narrative – incidentally, the quality of the cinematography throughout likens the film to an uninterrupted series of medieval tableaux – but is very much another character in it, since the villains' flight (the perpetrators of a massacre in a household, from which they also abscond with the titular fortune) is prohibited because the sea has frozen over! Notable scenes here include: a cart-wheeling horse falling head-first through cracked ice; the youngest of the thieves having ghostly visions of one of his murdered victims (as it happens, he later falls for the girl's sister…and she with him, which leads to the latter being torn whether to give her lover away or run off with him to Scotland!); the leading man ultimately using the heroine as a human shield against the oncoming soldiers; the closing procession over the ice by the townsfolk to reclaim the girl's dead body (justly considered one of the visual highlights in all of Silent cinema).

The plot also effectively incorporates the element of premonition – such as when the fish-hawker's usually docile canine companion senses impending doom and starts to howl, Sir Arne's wife literally hearing from miles away the preparations for the subsequent assault on her abode, the ship captain's tale of a previous case of poetic justice similarly brought on by severe weather conditions, and the heroine being led by her dead sister to the villains' whereabouts in a dream. The print I watched featured nice use of blue (for outdoor night-time scenes) and red (the afore-mentioned blaze) tinting; the newly-composed accompanying score is appropriately sweeping, albeit making use of mostly modern instruments. The main extras on the Kino DVD involve noted film historian Peter Cowie, who supplies an informative background to early Swedish cinema (where he also discusses the seminal contribution of authoress Selma Lagerlof – who was behind the source novel of both this and THE SAGA OF GOSTA BERLING) and, in a separate featurette, focuses exclusively on the film at hand.

The Golden Age of Swedish Cinema was in high gear when one of its country's leading directors, Mauritz Stiller, produced what is considered his masterpiece, September 1919's "Sir Arne's Treasure." Stiller had been directing and writing scripts since 1912, and is largely known for being responsible for making Greta Garbo into an international star. His adaptation of the 1903 novel "The Treasure" resulted in the sweet spot for his craft, placing all the internal and external elements of storytelling onto the screen.

Back during that Golden Age, from mid-1910s to mid-1920s, Swedish cinema had been known to incorporate Nature to explain the motivations of its characters' actions. "Sir Arne's Treasure" follows three unfairly imprisoned Scottish mercenary commanders who have escaped their jail cell. In the dead of winter they travel through Sweden's countryside in the late 1500's seeking to return to Scotland. By way of their journey, they hear of a family who harbor a large chest of silver coins. Obsessed by the treasure after experiencng their bone-chilling and starving ordeal, the three proceed to steal the chest of silver and murder the entire family, except for the daughter. A love interest develops between the surviving woman and one of the murderers, setting off a spiritual understanding of the two.

Stiller captures the elemental forces of Nature to steer the plot and explain the impulses of all concerned, including the internal forces overcoming any rational thought. And the overwhelming motive, Love, shines a light on the daughter's actions to save her murderous lover.

"Sir Arne's Treasure" played a huge influence on the composition of directors Fritz Lang and Sergei Eisenstein, the later Russian duplicating almost the exact same scene in his 1944 'Ivan The Terrible' as Stiller constructed in his finale funeral sequence in "Sir Arne's Treasure"--showing a long line of black-clad village mourners contrasted against the pure white snow tredging to the ice-bound boat to pick up the daughter's corpse.

SIR ARNE'S TREASURE is one of three releases from Kino devoted to Swedish silent cinema and in particular the work of Mauritz Stiller. Stiller is remembered today, when he is remembered at all, as the man who brought Greta Garbo to America. Garbo, of course, went on to screen immortality while Stiller simply went on to his own mortality. After arguing with Louis B. Mayer and others in Hollywood while having made only one film there, Stiller returned to Sweden a broken man who died in 1928 at the age of only 45.

SIR ARNE'S TREASURE shows us what a tragic loss his early death was. A gripping, moody, and extraordinarily bleak film set in 16th century Sweden, ARNE tells a story of greed, murder, revenge, ghostly visitations, and ill-fated passion. It's influence on Eisenstein's ALEXANDER NEVSKY and Bergman's SEVENTH SEAL to name but two films is fairly obvious. SIR ARNE was in turn influenced by Stiller's fellow compatriot Victor Sjostrom's OUTLAW AND HIS WIFE from 1918.

Although extremely well acted by the ensemble cast, the real star is the Swedish landscape which is used to tremendous effect by Stiller and cameraman J. Julius (Julius Jaenzon). Shots of frozen ships, stark stone buildings, and the heavily clothed people reinforce the claustrophobic air of gloom and repression that surround even the minor characters. It's a harsh, unforgiving world that people somehow manage to live in. And this was from a man usually known for drawing room comedies such as EROTIKON (also included in this set of releases along with Garbo's first big success THE SAGA OF GOSTA BERLING).

The restoration by Svensk Filmindustri is truly handsome although at 107 minutes it's missing 15 minutes from the original release time (122 minutes according to imdb), the color tinting of blue, sepia and red is very effective, and the new music score by Matti Bye and Frederik Emilson helps to set the mood the way a proper score should especially for silent films. A most welcome addition to the ever growing list of silent restorations, it should (along with GOSTA BERLING) help to restore Mauritz Stiller to his rightful place as one of the great pioneers of silent filmmaking...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

One is given to understand that painstaking efforts were undertaken to restore the film based on multiple surviving prints, and that endeavor paid off handsomely. If you can find just such a restoration to enjoy, then you will be greeted with 'Sir Arne's treasure' in all its silent splendor. It's not just that it's well made, and arguably just about as strong in its craftsmanship as any title to follow for years to come, even after the advent of talkies. There's also a wonderful finesse and subtlety to many aspects that well exceeds what one might suppose of early cinema. This applies to the terrific cinematography of Julius Jaenzon, as sharp and smart as he has illustrated elsewhere (such as with Victor Sjöström's 'A man there was' or 'The outlaw and his wife'), and possibly one of the chief highlights of this picture as it proves to be surprisingly dynamic and frankly rather advanced for 1919. The film editing is no less keen, and filmmaker Mauritz Stiller demonstrates firm command of the medium in orchestrating shots and scenes, a task made easier by a fine cast who all demonstrate commendable skill; of everyone, Mary Johnson stands out with an especially adept performance as Elsalill. Why, if film awards existed so early in the medium's history I'm quite sure Johnson and Jaenzon both would be surefire winners for their contributions here.

'Sir Arne's treasure' is certainly well-made in other regards, too. The filming locations are lovely, and more than this, the production design is outstanding. Still more admirable might be the costume design - no matter where one casts their gaze at any given point, the visual presentation is dazzlingly rich with detail. True, one might assume this of the silent era, where visuals were all important, but not all are equal across the board, and this surely counts among the greatest exemplars. Even the tinting applied to the film stock to indicate interior, exterior, or extreme conditions at the climax shows a splendid attentiveness that not all contemporary titles could claim. And overall, the adapted screenplay penned between Stiller and Gustaf Molander is fantastic, serving up a tragic but compelling narrative, and even more robust scene writing by which the tableau is assembled piece by piece. I don't think it's unfair to say that some scenes are sturdier as written than others, but by and large the result is so excellent that the feature becomes a classic of Swedish cinema, well worth remembering and exploring, and unreservedly deserving of such tremendous restoration.

It's not all good news. There's an awkward precision to how some moments are executed that butts against suspension of disbelief, even in matters as small as the exact timing of when characters happen to overhear another conversation. While I understand that 'Sir Arne's treasure' was adapted from a novel of some years prior, I wonder if the feature isn't a little too overfull of intertitles generally, and specifically those that relate exposition; had some reduced their verbiage, or been cut outright, the film may have had better narrative flow. To that point, I think the title is also bad at conveying the passage of time, and in some cases the plot progresses with a choppy Just So sensibility, declining connective threads, that further chips away at suspension of disbelief. There are aspects of the tale that one can only take at face value, as thinking too hard about the proceedings as they present raises meddling questions, and this is not even taking into account the light supernatural elements (that I gather are heavier in the source material). I can appreciate that some modern viewers have a hard time abiding silent movies - I would have said as much about myself at one time - and for as well made as it broadly is, I don't think this is a production that would change anyone's mind. Sadly, I'm also forced to ponder the reality of how some moments were captured, above all a scene with a horse that looks a lot to me like abject animal cruelty; I hope I'm mistaken.

Still, though the picture may fall short of perfect, ultimately its faults aren't so severe a detraction as to substantially diminish its value. I wish the narrative as we see it boasted greater flow, clarity, and connectivity, yet nonetheless it's complete, cohesive, and more solid than not. And when one then takes into account how fabulously strong 'Sir Arne's treasure' is in other regards, I ponder if I'm not being too harsh in the first place. Much more than not this is marvelous, a movie that anyone enamored of older cinema should make a point of watching at some point. If it isn't absolutely beyond critique, well, what is? I don't know that I'd say it's entirely an essential must-see, but it's well worth checking out if one has the opportunity, and its place in the annals of cultural history is very much earned.

A Scottish mercenary falls in love with the foster sister of the girl he murdered while stealing a clergyman's hoard of silver coins. A beautiful, dreamlike tale set in the frigid beauty of the snowswept landscape of rural Sweden. The characters in director Mauritz Stiller's haunting saga drift inexorably towards their tragic fates like leaves on a river. Powerful stuff.