I cavalieri di Ekebù

Like most silent film fans I had endured the bad, dupey, chopped-up 90m version of this film on VHS and wondered why it has such a famous reputation. Thank goodness for KINO & the Swedish Film Institute for finally making this 184m version available in a beautiful print with a complimentary musical score. This film reminds me of a silent version of WAR & PEACE meets GONE WITH THE WIND in its size and scope with elements of Shakespeare-like plot twists. An alternative title actually sets up the story better, "The Atonement of Gosta Berling." SPOILERS: The narrative opens during a drunken party where the star, Lars Hanson (best known as Lillian Gish's costar in THE WIND, 1928), is sharing the story of his downfall with his friends. In flashback, we see Gosta (Hanson) as an unsure priest with a drinking problem being defrocked in an embarrassing public scene. Shamed, he is later hired by an unscrupulous and wealthy woman to be a tutor to her step-daughter. Secretly the "Noble" woman hopes the two will marry and thus revoke the step-daughter's right to inherit her father's estate by hooking up with the commoner, making the way clear for her foppish son to earn the inheritance. There is another grand dame in our plot at the nearby Ekeby estate, run by the head-strong matron Margaretha Samzelius (Gerda Lundequist) in a larger-than-life performance that reminded me of Louise Dresser in THE SCARLET EMPRESS. She takes in outcasts and calls them her "Knights," inspiring respect from almost all who know her. I loved the way she commands attention, but when she is broken and has to ask her mother to remove a curse put upon her in her youth, the rebuke she gets breaks your heart. Nearly one third of the way through the story, we are introduced to a very young Greta Garbo. Her role starts out small but becomes very important in the ending resolution. Filled with wonderful, nuanced performances by all the actors in the diverse and large cast. Amazingly, there are many on-location outdoor shots and outstanding scenes including an out-of-control fire that destroys a huge estate (reminding me of a similar incident in Hitchcock's REBECCA) and a long chase scene of a horse-drawn sleigh by wolves across a huge frozen lake, filmed at night that must be seen to be believed! Now that this grand epic has finally been released as it was meant to be seen, it will be re-discovered by silent film fans around the globe as they share this masterpiece with their friends. To sum it up, this is the film I have been waiting for to give film preservation its annual shot-in-the arm! Two years ago it was the uncensored BABY FACE; last year the lost film KIKI (Norma Talmadge version) was finally restored, and for 2006 it will be "The Atonement of Gosta Berling."

Mauritz Stiller's amazing film The Saga of Gosta Berling is proof to me of just what an edge the European filmmakers had on the Americans. The cinematography here is often breathtaking. The pacing never flags, and when you're talking about a 180 minute film, that's no small feat. The Kino version I watched, which was the recent restoration by the Swedish Film Archive, also featured a beautifully done soundtrack, something I find that makes such a huge difference -- some of the recent restorations I've watched have featured soundtracks that sound way too contemporary, and I just find that annoying and distracting. Not so here.

But the biggest thing I noticed on my second go-round with this beautiful film was the emotional realism that so many of these wonderful actors brought to their characters. They make mistakes, they regret. They love, they hate, they envy. They are real, believable people, something that wasn't always happening in American films of 1924. Garbo, at this early stage in her career, is already showing star quality. And the now largely -forgotten Lars Hanson is handsome and riveting. Don't let the length deter you from watching this fine and beautiful film.

The Saga of Gosta Berling is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and haunting films I have ever seen in my life. I was lucky enough to only see the improved Kino version, however. Trust me, if you long to see this incredible film, please just save up and buy the elegant Kino version. You won't be sorry you did! No other cheaper version will capture the story and it's just not worth it...

The film is long (three hours) but every second is precious. Perhaps it could have been cut shorter to make the plot more simple but who would want that? Hopefully I'm not the only one but when the words "The End" come across the screen my heart aches and I truly want more. Despite how long the film is, many elements from the book by Selma Lagerlöf had to be cut out in order to avoid a ten-hour-long drama. Be sure to hunt down a copy of the story and read it for yourself. Each and every character is so complex and interesting and every chapter is like a moving short story.

The acting is absolutely superb. Hanson and Garbo have such amazing chemistry that you literally feel as if you'll melt when they simply stare at each other with their expressive, longing eyes. Besides the two main stars, everyone gives great performances, besides Torsten Hammarén. He seemed to have the same annoying facial expression the whole time. Maybe that's just the way his character was suppose to be (Henrik Dohna) but I doubt it, since I recall his character in Erotikon (1920) having that same, stupid look.

The main reason I encourage everyone to see the Kino version is for the soundtrack. The soundtrack for the Kino version of The Saga of Gosta Berling is soaring, gorgeous, and completely wonderful. It's the greatest soundtrack I have ever heard for a silent film. I literally get goosebumps on my arms when I feel the melodies run through me. Matti Bye has created a score that fits the story so perfectly that it's unbelievable.

Everything and everyone in this film is stunning visually. We get to see many shots of the magical country of Värmland and its ravishing scenery. Many lovely actors and actresses were chosen and they absolutely glow with beauty. Lars Hanson and Greta Garbo are both hauntingly beautiful, along with the actress Mona Mårtenson, who plays Ebba Dohna.

Honestly, I can't come up with anything to say except, please watch this film and read the book too. The story will never leave you.

Together with Stroheim and Murnau, Mauritz Stiller is one of the great directors in cinema history who solely directed silent films during his whole career. Even though the majority of his work has been lost forever, some titles have survived: Herr Arnes Pengar (1919), Sangen Om Dem Eldröda Blomman (1919), "Erotikon" (1920) and "Gunnar Hedes Saga" (1923). These famous films are enough to confirm that Mauritz Stiller has been and are one of the best directors of the seventh art through its long history. He has been able to elevate the "silent art" to that great level that we can still now enjoy and appreciate.

One important turn in his work was his last movie made in Sweden: "Gösta Berlings Saga". This film had disastrous consequences for his career, as this Germanic count will narrate later on.

Stiller, together with Victor Sjöström, were the "father founders" of the Swedish cinema. Together with Sjöström, he is the most famous film director of the 20's. This notoriety was not only in his country because his film "Sangen On Den Eldröda Blomman"(1918) made him world famous, a status confirmed definitively with that masterpiece "Herr Arnes Pengar" (1919).

It is very difficult to write about Stiller, even in Germanic, because it is not easy to find all the adjectives to define his great career; his work had the beauty of a great stylist able to make master pieces in such different genres as "saga" (those great stories of the Swedish literature) or that most sophisticated comedy ("Erotikon" (1920) ). He was a director who had a big influence, even on German directors as Herr Lubitsch who was then defining his unmistakable "touch".

The legend of Gösta Berling is related to the "epic" part of his work. There are big stories replete with character with different backgrounds in several situations that the Nordic director manages very well.

The film is an adaptation of a book written by the famous Swedish author Selma Lagerloff, who by the way, had many disagreements with Stiller's adaptation (ah…., the eternal "auteur" ego problems, almost as classic among the aristocrats'!). Changes were made due to Stiller's lack of respect for the text, who changed it according to the necessity of the film, more specifically, according to the "visual needs" of it. As this Germanic count mentioned before, Stiller is a great stylist, always looking for visual beauty (although it is important to mention that he does not look for hollow images or simple postcards). His interest is very different. In a way, he is delighted on the aesthetics of certain scenarios to show us the most miserable side, the squalor of the whole surroundings.

In spite of those stylistics disagreements between author and director, this Teutonic count asserts that the cinematographic adaptation is excellent. Keeping in mind the fact that it is a very dense and complicated novel, filled with characters.

The Leyend of Gösta Berling tells us the story of Gösta, a drunkard minister who is expelled from the priesthood for his "habit" (weird Nordic tradition, those expellings…). But the bigger problem with his parish is his truthfulness. Jobless, Gösta finishes in Värmland, a state managed by the people of Ekeby.

Gösta's strong personality and his special charm with women will bring him many problems. Two powerful families full of hypocrisy, lies and adultery; rule two estates in Värmland and they will surround Gösta with plenty of intrigue, confusing him and costing him a lot of problems to which he was a stranger to begin with.

Only at the end of the movie, will our hero will get his redemption from the hand of Elisabeth, performed by the fascinating Greta Garbo.

It has to be mentioned that for many long-haired, Stiller is still "only" known as the finder and creator of the divine Greta Garbo; which it is true because thanks to Stiller, Ms Garbo got her first great film performance due to her appearance in this movie. This is a great injustice because reduces Stiller's creations to a second place.

It is compulsory to praise all the actor's great interpretations in this movie. They were really memorable, not forced at all if we take into consideration that around that time it was something very difficult to obtain with certain adaptations or argumentative plots that tended to excesses. It is a movie where also big natural spaces predominate, another of recurrent theme of Stiller. This movie combines the beauty of the frozen landscapes with the danger in them.

As this Germanic count said before, the success that "The legend of Gösta Berling" brought to Stiller and Ms Garbo had a different repercussion in their future careers: for her, the beginning of a mythic career, a cinematographic icon that prevails and still impresses us. For him, the beginning of the end as a director when he started a new phase in the United States that lasted for four unhappy years.

Watching the formal and stylist beauty of "The legend of Gösta Berling", one realises, even the oblivious Germanic aristocracy, the great loss for the cinema that occurred with Stiller's premature death. He was a fundamental director for both the Nordic and global cinema. His great work has been timeless.

And now, if you allow me, I have to leave you momentarily because this Germanic count has an appointment with a Swedish sweetie.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

I have to change my previous review as I have watched the true version with a pretty darn good soundtrack that Kino released onto DVD and about time too. All I can say is that if you have seen the atrocious VHS version then do yourself a big favour and buy this one, there is simply no comparison, if you haven't seen the VHS version, well, do yourself a favour and get the DVD anyway. Garbo is very young in this and quite unrecognisable, but, she is very good as Elisabeth. You can see why Lars Hanson was later hand picked by Lillian Gish to star with her in "The Scarlet Letter" and "The Wind" and hopefully this will increase his fanbase. And you're left wondering why director Mauritz Stiller never became the success that another Swedish director Victor Sjostrom was.