Ingeborg Holm

Ingeborg Holm / Margaret Day (1913) : Brief Review -

Master Victor Sjöström's Swedish Melodrama is one of the earliest notable works about a mother's Tragedy in the cinema world. I am a big fan of Victor Sjöström and his prominent classics from the 1920s decade. It gives me an immense pleasure to view his early films, which were made on basic formulas as per the requirements and understanding of the era. Ingeborg Holm forced me to think about all the films based on Mother's tale, and I quickly realised how influential it was. It was much before Chinese cinema made "SheNu" / "The Goddess" (1934) and Indian cinema made the classic "Aurat" (1940). However, Holm's story is not that broad. It sticks to the basics while dealing with a relatable and emotional topic like motherhood. When I tried to find out the similarities between this film and other ones, I found the Marathi film "Chimni Pakhare" close to it, but then the main character had to go through different conflicts. The best close answer was the Telugu flick, "Jeevana Jyothi" (1975), which also had a double role boost. Imagine, a film from the 1910s decade influencing modern well-known films. The film is about a mother with three children who had to send her children to foster homes due to the financial crisis after her husband's death. The insanity angle is also used well by mixing it with high-end melodrama. I remember Hilda Borgström from Victor's "The Phantom Carriage" (1921), but today I noticed that her face and expressions are familiar with those of Lillian Gish. Her face kept reminding me of Gish, who also happened to work during the same period of time. Victor Sjöström's film has everything to make a classy watch, but it missed the classic tag by just an inch, in my opinion. Nevertheless, a great work from the early stages of movies that set many iconic formulas once and for all.

RATING - 7.5/10*

By - #samthebestest.

I dont know if netflix got involved before or after the restoration .but this a great achievement for1913 may be I'm a wimp but the end made me cry. More like this netflix please

The Holms are a happy Swedish family who live an easy bourgeoisie life. In order to further improve their living, Herr Sven Holm requests a line of credit in the amount of 10.000 kronor in order to open a grocery shop.

Unfortunately things will change drastically for the Holms when Herr Sven falls ill with tuberculosis and dies. The grocery store, in the meanwhile, was left improperly unattended by an employee. Frau Ingeborg Holm is left bankrupt and alone with her three small children. This forces her to ask for help in a poorhouse.

Sweden has contributed to mankind some debatable inventions. For example, there's the safe but unstylish tank automobiles made in that Northern country ( nothing in common with elegant "Hispano-Suiza" cars )... or.. that modernen and consequently, ugly furniture manufactured in pieces that the buyer must to try to assemble ( ah, the "Rococo" overloaded style! ) ...or ...with not a trace of a four string quartets, the Swedish instead tormented aristocracy with bands of four longhaired youngsters singing tunes that even today are popular among commoners… But certainly the most important Swedish contribution to the whole world was Social Security for their population via a program that provides protection to their commoners with unemployment insurance, poverty protection and pensions, among others. It's a public welfare state that other countries will model years later.

But unfortunately things weren't always that way as Herr Victor Sjöström depicted in his early silent film "Ingeborg Holm", directed by the Swedish director in the silent year of 1913.

The film was based on a play by Herr Nils Krok, who can be seen posing as the film starts in an elegant old photograph ( nothing in common with the coloured ones that the youngsters put in their modernen profiles ). The picture version tells the human tragedy of Frau Ingeborg Holm, who due to circumstances and the blows of fate, will face destitution. Her personal drama is worsened by the unsympathetic and strict poorhouse rules that during the last centuries were applied by Swedish officialdom.

Herr Sjöström admirably depicts the process of loss that affects Frau Holm's life and her desperation, abandonment, helplessness and finally insanity. It's a terrible sad odyssey that Frau Holm will suffer and includes making heartbreaking decisions such as when she is forced to put her children in an orphanage.

Certainly "Ingeborg Holm" is not an easy film. It is an uncomfortable drama in which Herr Sjöström denounces in a realistic and harsh way the injustice caused by strict central government laws that have no concern for their subjects.

Such bitterer sensations continue during the whole film climaxing at the end of the picture when Frau Holm, after 15 years, reunites again with one of her sons. This is a wonderful scene full of infinite sadness and very moving ( at this point it must be said that the original music score composed and performed by Herr David Drazin for the longhaired "Kino" modernen disc edition, is absolutely touching and elegant ).

But this is not a happy ending because there is no comfort in this reunion; there is not a chance in recovering the happy old days when times were better for Frau Holm and her three children. Instead Frau Holm has lived a miserable life in where everything she had and loved was destroyed. Herr Sjöström depicts a desperate, hard and moving portrait of a ruined life.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must pay a visit to his aristocratic fostered parents.

The classic narrative films so familiar in "The Golden Age of Hollywood" movies had its beginning in October 1913 with Sweden's "Ingeborg Holm." Writer/director Victor Sjostrom adapted the Nils Krok 1906 play about a family who sinks to the depths of poverty after the father dies just as he assumes ownership of a store.

What sets "Ingeborg Holm" apart from the movies produced previously to the autumn of 1913 was the breath of its plot. Instead of taking a slice of a full-scale biography of the characters and producing a film on one particular stand alone event, here Sjostrom portrays an entire family's history, beginning when the head of the household receives bank funding to begin his enterprise. He continues the plot until years later, concluding in an emotional reunion with the mother and her long-absent son.

"Ingeborg Holm" fits all the criteria in cinema's full narrative definitions. A classic narrative begins by introducing all the characters who will propel the plot forward, just as Sjostrom illustrated with the comfortable middle-class family embarking on its new enterprise. Narratives contain a triggering event which shakes things up. Here, the father dies and his assistant at the store rips off the family's profits. Sjostrom continues the narrative plot by showing the mother-led family sinking into poverty, with the kids shunt off to the poor house. Events lead up to the conclusion, where the director visually reveals Sweden's lack of a safety net for the country's poor caused by, through no fault of themselves, their hardships.

Hollywood would follow Sjostrom's pattern of full narrative movies, especially during its classic 1930's--1950's golden age. There are variations of the narrative pattern in movies today, but the Swedes were the first to put into practice on film what literature and drama had been delivering for centuries.

Today's movie viewers may be familiar with Sjostrom by his last appearance on the screen in Ingmar Bergman's 1957's "Wild Strawberries," where he had the leading role of an aging professor who rediscovers his past through a journey to receive a honorarium.

Again, this is an early not-that-bad drama from Sjostrom about a person driven mad by tragic circumstances. It has a nice sense of restraint, especially for its era, with a fine performance by Hilda Borgstrom and a well-paced story. Nothing about the movie sucks. It just takes a little something extra for me to get involved with a silent film... some sort of avant-garde twist or dazzling technique or some thrilling action. Yeah, it's a good plot with a sympathetic protagonist, but my heart just wasn't in it. I can't imagine anyone besides a Sjostrom scholar watching this more than once.

6/10