FILM FILM - University of Macau Library

tempt to include a dimension which would not be possible by any other means
of expression; a philosophical dimension, commenting on abstract issues which
would not easily lend themselves to being expressed in the dialogue. 25 However,
the film in general – with only these noteworthy exceptions – seems to
conform to the norms of the time; to a large extent, it is also carried by dialogue
titles, and the visual aspects of the narrative, including an equally symbolic dimension,
is just as important as the words.
The Symbolic Clown
From Scientist to Clown – He Who Gets Slapped 51
It is not only through his intertitles, adding a new dimension to Andreyev’s
play, that Sjöström as a narrator could be discerned in the script. Another important
aspect, added by Sjöström, is the image of the clown with his ball. In the
cutting continuity script, this scene is described as follows:
21 FADE IN
M.S. Symbolic clown with whirling globe looks away, laughs, looks back at globe,
strikes globe to make it turn. – Clown Fades out. Globe fades to geographer’s globe
Scientist fades in, strikes globe to make it whirl. 26
This “Symbolic clown” reoccurs throughout the film, which will also be discussed
in further detail later in relation to transitions between shots. However,
the general function of this image in the narration has hitherto been overlooked.
The first time, it appears directly after the first intertitle, as a visual effect doubling
the function of striking a note for the narrative. The second time, it concludes
the whole introductory sequence. From a medium shot of the symbolic
clown laughing, the globe fades in, and the clown turns his head to one side and
laughs. A close-up of the symbolic clown laughing, looking to his left, is followed
by a close-up of a spinning ball, which in turn is dissolved to the globe
of the world spinning. There is a cut back to a close-up on the clown laughing,
followed by another cut back to the globe spinning, where clowns now appear
from above “and sit down on meridian round globe”. A cut back to the clown
laughing in close-up is followed by a final cut back to a close-up of “globe
clowns seated about it. Globe dissolves to Circus Ring. Clowns seated around
ring, small boy turning somersaults in ring.” 27 (FIG. 4)
When the Symbolic clown appears for the third and fourth time, these two
shots serve as a frame for the love story between the wife and the Baron. The
fifth and sixth time, they serve equally as a frame, but now for the counterpart
of the same story: that of the Baron leaving the wife. Towards the end of the
film, upon the death of the clown, the visual theme of the revolving globe with