FILM FILM - University of Macau Library

20 Transition and Transformation
films and “see what the market wants”, as he wrote in a letter to Hjalmar Bergman.
7 He had already undertaken two such investigative trips in the past – first
to Pathé in Paris in 1912, before he directed his first film, at a time when French
cinema was at the forefront, and then in 1913 to Nordisk films in Copenhagen,
as Danish films became the new stylistic ideal of the time. But in 1923, as he left
Sweden, it was clear that he would not only study production, but also make
films. SF, however, had him sign a contract, which reveals that their intention
was to “lend” him to Hollywood for a short period, in order to let him learn
from American filmmaking, but also to get the rights to distribute Goldwyn
films in Sweden. 8
This time, however, unlike the first study trips, it was a full-fledged director
who went abroad. What, then, were the particular characteristics of Sjöström as
director, the specificity of his film style? It is essential to examine in more detail
the question of whether there is any stylistic continuity between Sjöström in
Sweden and Hollywood, or if he was immediately assimilated by the new production
system.
Lyrical Intimacy as Authorial Style
In my previous research on Victor Sjöström as part of the Swedish national style
of the 1910s and early 1920s, I have distinguished several stylistic markers that
seem particularly characteristic to his film style, which are here summarized.
Sjöström’s preserved films from the Swedish years, which have formed the
overall picture of the director, are perhaps above all characterized by their lyrical
intimacy, created through downplayed acting, thorough work on the lighting
of scenes, and a mise-en-scène and montage privileging a circular space
with a clear centre, towards which movements converge. 9
A particularly clear example of this lyrical intimacy is provided in a scene
from Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru (The Outlaw and His Wife) from 1918,
showing Berg-Ejvind, his wife Halla and their little daughter living as outcasts
in a cave in the mountainside, close to a precipice. In a sequence with eleven
takes, the perspective is changed no less than eight times. Thus, the larger picture
is framed and encircled in a way that creates a more intimate space;
through the camera, a safe and close world is construed. In a few frames, the
stunning view from the mountain is revealed, but mostly in a way that focuses
on the cliff where they live rather than on the distance to the ground below. In
several shots, the cliff face is shown as a protective background to their exposed
existence. In one frame, Halla is shown sitting beside a barrel where a fire has
been lit, which also suggests the idea of home: a safe fireplace. Only late in the