Review by jromanbaker

I have just seen the restoration of what remains of Mauritz Stiller's film, and I found it very watchable and that the gay element has to be read between the lines. It is clear that the sculptor Claude Zoret was attracted to the model and artist Eugene Mikael, and that to have made it clearer, given the anti-gay sentiments of the time would have been impossible. When, for example, Zoret dies Mikael clearly rejects the Countess and appears fully conscious that he brought on Zoret's death. As for the film itself what remains of the narrative I found to be fluid, and occasionally only falling into the gestures of melodrama. Stiller had an eye for detail, and the work of sculpture that the two men produced of Icarus who flew too near the sun was erotic enough to show male genitalia. Glimpses too of Mikael's naked body are also seen in the background. As for the Countess who comes between them she turns her infatuated Mikael into a go-between for Zoret's money, so that he in return looks like a kept man. This adds to the emotional and physical destruction of Zoret. A complex web of intrigue and passion on all sides is well conveyed, and the death alone of Zoret beneath the statue of Icarus a stroke of genius. Dreyer's film ' Mikael ' that came later is arguably the better film, but this was a brave first attempt to take on a taboo issue. A deserved 10.