FILM FILM - University of Macau Library
FILM FILM - University of Macau Library
FILM FILM - University of Macau Library
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108 Transition and Transformation<br />
dead husband escorts her <strong>of</strong>f to the right in the same manner. Once Ursula has<br />
finally made her way through the fire, she looks up and sees her husband still<br />
hanging there, apparently alive. But he lowers his head to the posture <strong>of</strong> the<br />
dead Christ and then becomes Jesus himself in a final transformation. Thus, the<br />
scene employs five successive dissolves. There are several thematic factors that<br />
account for and condense the sequence: Ursula’s husband was a sculptor, Ursula<br />
had modelled for a sculpture <strong>of</strong> the Virgin Mary, her husband dies <strong>of</strong> a heart<br />
attack and assumes the posture <strong>of</strong> Christ on the cross. The dissolves serve both<br />
as metaphor and as a means <strong>of</strong> alternating among different timeframes. While<br />
Ursula doesn’t poison her husband, her intention <strong>of</strong> doing so is the cause <strong>of</strong> his<br />
heart attack. Thus, the use <strong>of</strong> metaphor allows for the expression <strong>of</strong> a tw<strong>of</strong>old<br />
forgiveness, both by Christ on the cross and by Ursula’s husband.<br />
In this case, just like in The Tower <strong>of</strong> Lies, another type <strong>of</strong> construction en abîme<br />
is created, in Iampolski’s phrasing emphasizing “the play <strong>of</strong> codes, the palpability<br />
<strong>of</strong> representation, structural isomorphism, and, behind all <strong>of</strong> this, the flickering<br />
gleam <strong>of</strong> shifting meanings”. 31 Because, as he underlines, “no reflection is<br />
fully accurate, always involving a variation, a transformation that is stressed by<br />
the repetition itself”–which leads to the spectator’s witnessing <strong>of</strong> “the very birth<br />
<strong>of</strong> meaning”, which s/he shares with the father in The Tower <strong>of</strong> Lies. 32<br />
But The Tower <strong>of</strong> Lies also seems to have contained another kind <strong>of</strong> dissolve<br />
(which occurred in Name the Man and He Who Gets Slapped, and which<br />
would later appear in The Divine Woman). This was mentioned by a Swedish<br />
critic who attributed its use to American “modernities”:<br />
If one is supposed to find some directional modernities, it would be possible to point<br />
to the many “trick transitions”, which is the pr<strong>of</strong>essional term, for example, his trick<br />
to let one image fade into another by dissolving a spinning power-loom wheel with a<br />
car tire. Sjöström seems to have fallen in love with this particular kind <strong>of</strong> transition,<br />
which in his latest film appear almost too frequently. 33<br />
This Swedish critic was obviously not aware <strong>of</strong> the frequency <strong>of</strong> the device in<br />
Sjöström’s previous work, as The Tower <strong>of</strong> Lies contains fewer dissolves than<br />
his other films – seventeen in all, <strong>of</strong> which six may be said to function as analogy,<br />
in the way that has been revealed as Sjöström’s particular style.<br />
According to the Swedish trade press, a particular national version <strong>of</strong> the film<br />
was made preceding distribution in Sweden. Filmjournalen claims that this version<br />
lets the action take place in a Swedish home in America through an intertitle,<br />
“in order to avoid all anachronisms”, but above all, the happy ending already<br />
mentioned, where Glory returns home to marry her love from childhood,<br />
has been cut out:<br />
The Emperor <strong>of</strong> Portugallia is in its Swedish version a tragedy without any redeeming<br />
features. The film ends with the poor farmer in his fantastic costume and with death