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Europeans in Hollywood The Shadow of the Silents – A Lady to Love 131 In the case of A Lady to Love, no parallels were drawn to Sjöström’s Swedish career, possibly for the reason that the transition to sound has generally been considered to mark such a break in film history that sound cinema didn’t seem to allow for comparisons to the silent era – though, as we have seen, elements of a former “silent style” could still remain. The theme as such was also without any real counterpart in Sjöström’s former career, though even here, central elements – adultery, conflicting loves and loyalties, guilt, forgiveness – are reminiscent of his previous films. The “phantasm of origins” associated with Swedish landscape, as it appeared for example in relation to The Wind, thus seems to have disappeared completely here – as has the landscape as such. Only a few images in the film seem to suggest a Californian vineyard. At the same time, the phantasm instead reappears in another guise, now rather on the thematic level connected to the characters, as a phantasm of Europeanness in an American context. What is perhaps most striking with this film, however, is its multicultural character. As Film Europa had come to an end, European perspectives were included in an American film. The European aspects in the film would probably have passed unnoticed had the film been a silent feature, whereas within sound cinema, they became almost too obvious. Indeed, even the way that the film was conceived seems to have been the result of the transition to sound – a possibility to handle narratively the different ethnicities involved in the shooting, by inscribing them into the plot, and thus also turning a possible problem into an advantage, in addressing spectators of different ethnicities in a multicultural American society. Last but not least, with the different versions, the concept would also allow for export. 29 The different ethnicities are most obviously marked by the heavy accents already mentioned, in the case of Tony’s character only further emphasized as he is supposed to play an older Italian immigrant, but also in Lena’s case it is motivated by the plot. The role of music, underlining his Italianness, has already been discussed. The fact that Lena is a foreigner is also clearly marked, as we have seen, by the photo of her old home, located respectively in Switzerland or Hungary. Tony’s status as Italian is also marked visually, not least by the numerous crucifixes present in several shots, but also by a portrait of Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, hanging on the wall together with a portrait of the US president, Herbert Hoover, under an American and an Italian flag, hanging side by side in the room where the couple marries. This is even more apparent in the German version of the film during the wedding scene, as the priest is shot from another
132 Transition and Transformation angle. Lena, against all odds, chooses Tony, the European, rather than Buck, the American. It is also tempting, therefore, to interpret the film on a metaphorical level, as an image of Europeans in America, as the film tells its bittersweet story of two Europeans in exile meeting and getting together in a new context within American culture. With the advent of sound, the importing of Europeans to Hollywood had come to an end. Some – like Ernst Lubitsch – remained, whereas many – even a relatively successful director like Sjöström – returned. The early sound film period was also a period of struggle between “European” and “American”. 30 With its theme – as close to the director as to its actors – A Lady to Love on a metalevel thus may seem to conclude Sjöström’s whole career as a European in Hollywood.
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Contents Acknowledgements 7 Introdu
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Acknowledgements This book traces i
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Introduction - From Sjöström to S
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From Scientist to Clown - He Who Ge
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Traces of the Narrator If Sjöströ
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Page 160 and 161: Film Culture in Transition General
Page 162 and 163: Marijke de Valck and Malte Hagener
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