O Tesouro do Sr. Arne

In Sweden in the 16th Century, three Scottish mercenaries -- Eric Stocklassa, Bror Berger and Richard Lund -- escape from a prison and make their way to the coast. It's the dead of winter, and the sea-road to Scotland is frozen over. Maddened, they invade the home of Sir Arne, burn the place down, steal his treasure and kill everyone except Mary Johnson, who hides, and goes to live at the home of Axel Nilsson, a poor dealer in preserved fish.

Sir Arne's treasure carries a curse, however. It was stolen from a monastery when the Swedes dissolved them, and the death of Sir Arne and his wife was foredoomed. The Scottish mercenaries, however, are now likewise doomed. The seas are still frozen over, so they must wait. While they do so, they hear about Miss Johnson. They go to hear her story and Mr. Lund and she fall in love.

It's a tale of madness and horror. However, while the German movies in that still-undefined genre were psychological and used an expressionist camera, this Swedish movie by Mauritz Stiller uses an objective one, showing a more terrifying, frozen hellscape than anything Caligari's sick mind ever envisioned. This terror is not made by man or devil. It is G*d who seeks His vengeance.

Stiller and Gustaf Molander adapted a novel by Selma Lagerlöf to make this movie. Molander would direct the sound remake after the Second World War.

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.

I have two favorite silent films, "The Penalty" (1920) with Lon Chaney, Sr. and "Herr Arnes pengar" ("Sir Arne's Treasure") (1919), a Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller. I again watched "Sir Arne's Treasure" (1919) with Richard Lund, Erik Stocklassa, Bror Berger, Mary Johnson, Axel Nilsson, Hjalmar Selander, Concordia Selander, Gösta Gustafson, and many others. Based on the novel The Treasure by Selma Lagerlöf, this explores Scottish mercenary soldiers during the sixteenth century going to Sweden during the reign of King Johan III who throws them out of the realm for conspiratorial behavior undermining the Swedish army. Three officers are put into prison, Sir Archi, Sir Filip, and Sir Donald. They escape and brutally murder a number of guards in their escape. After some time, famished and freezing in the gripping icy and snowy winter weather, they enter a home and take food and lots and lots of drink... Drunken and wild with cold, the three go to a monastery where the head, Sir Arne, has his family and relatives and...a very heavy and full chest of silver coins, a collection supposedly taken from other monasteries by Sir Arne over time and greedily kept where he now is. The three kill all but one girl, the foster sister of another who was stabbed through the heart by a wild and drunken Sir Archi... The one survivor is Elsalill (Johnson)... She's found by others while the monastery burns to the ground, taken to live with distant relatives who can barely afford to keep her. Eventually, she meets Sir Archi, still around and trying to find a way back to Scotland; and she falls in love with him - and he with her... The story progresses from here to a foregone ending that has to be tragic.

Told nearly in a Shakespearean manner, the story is magnificently moved forward by Stiller, acted nearly perfectly, and the photography is some of the finest in all silent film. Tinted and toned in hues that amplify the cold and winter weather, the hardship that existed in the sixteenth century, and the natural toughness of the characters who lived in these harsh conditions, the story also contains an overlying superstitious faith that plays constantly into the goings-on.

The mise-en-scene is equal to any that has ever been done and which tries to capture the harsh conditions of winter weather in Sweden and the type of living conditions that existed during the sixteenth century. The buildings, down to the types of doors and how they fitted, the furnishings within, the outbuildings, the iciness and slipperiness of snow as horses proceed in the weather - just everything...is done with a studied precision that is stupefying for a 1919 film.

I have the Kino release, a 107 minute print of what was a 122 minute release. To understand the greatness of silent film, this film should be on everybody's watch list. For me, this film gets better and better with each viewing!

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.

Herr Arnes Pengar / Sir Arne's Treasure (1919) : Brief Review -

Evil vs Love vs Justice. A visually appealing and honest adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf's novel. I knew Mauritz Stiller's name for giving a domestic break to legendary actress Greta Garbo, but this is my first film of him. I am impressed with his storytelling and vision to look at things that were slightly higher than what the graph suggested at that time for Swedish filmmakers. When Selma Lagerlöf's novel The Treasure came out in 1903, Swedish cinema was not even born properly. But even by 1919, nobody had seen such an engrossing storyline in the cinema world. This tale has three basic elements that form a human and its surroundings. Evil, love, and justice. If you try to think about these three things at the same time, it sounds like a weird combo. Evil is the opposite of love, and if evil and love meet each other, they can't do justice. That's where Mauritz Stiller's adaptation has you in for a show, with due credit to the novel, of course. The story takes place on the Swedish west coast during the 16th century and revolves around a Scottish mercenary who murders a wealthy family for treasure with his companions, only to unwittingly begin a relationship with the surviving daughter of the family. Will their love story make things difficult for him and her? Will they ever get together after knowing the truth? Sir Arne's Treasure is more about this philosophical conflict than just Arne's treasure. It has some fantastic visuals that will wow you. I loved those dream sequences and still wonder how they did it with such less advanced technologies. Mauritz Stiller and the technical team deserve full credit for that, and the actors have done a nice job too. Overall, it's a think-about kind of film, which I believe has explored new dimensions in love stories and crime dramas.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.