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Sjöström – From National to International 23
inating the world market of cinema. The new European film policy initiated by
an editorial in Lichtbildbühne in 1924, which was named “Film Europa”, was
initially intended as an attempt to defend European production against overwhelming
American competition. 13 But its aim was to take a more offensive
position within film production globally and – in Fritz Lang’s famous phrase
from 1927 –“show the way to the world”. 14
The trend towards international film, however, was not only a production
strategy noted by the critics; it also contributed actively in forming the idea of
cinema in interaction between national and international. Considering Sjöström’s
case, a clear continuity between the Swedish productions and his Hollywood
films might also be traced, not least concerning the various adaptations.
Thus, in his second American film – He Who Gets Slapped (1924) – Sjöström
brought a play by Leonid Andreyev to the screen, whose play Professor Storitzyn
he had previously staged in Stockholm in 1920, where he also played the title
role. 15 In his fourth Hollywood film, Sjöström returned to Selma Lagerlöf in a
free adaptation of The Emperor of Portugallia, with the title The Tower of Lies
(1925); earlier in Sweden, he had already made four films from Lagerlöf novels:
The Girl from the Marsh Croft, 1917), Ingmarssönerna (The Sons of Ingmar,
1919), Karin Ingmarsdotter (Karin, Daughter of Ingmar, 1920) and
The Phantom Carriage, 1921. Thus, it is not possible to easily separate Sjöström’s
Swedish films before Hollywood from his international American productions.
In an article, “National or International Films?”, Kristin Thompson discusses
the European debate of the 1920s concerning these questions. 16 As early as the
war, there was a heated discussion on internationalism in the film press. During
these years and immediately after the war, internationalism was largely regarded
as an addendum to national production cultures: the use of internationally
renowned actors, of subjects devoid of national specificity, or of advanced
technical devices. Such international strategies may be traced in all of Sjöström’s
films from the late Swedish period, after The Phantom Carriage. With Vem
dömer– (Love’s Crucible, 1922) the Swedish film industry made an attempt to
repeat the commercial export success of The Monastery of Sendomir. This
international concentration continued with Det omringade huset (Honour,
1922) from a French drama, where British actress Maggie Albanesi played the
female lead and is set in a highly conventionalized English and African setting.
Critics noted the trend with certain scepticism:
Swedish cinema has lately become strikingly internationalized. Story and scenery are
set in territories more familiar to the world public than earlier and lately even foreign
actors have been engaged for filming. This may be understandable or even necessary
from a business point of view, but it hardly means any artistic gain for what is usually
called “Swedish film”. 17