This 50-minute documentary, made by Swensk-Filmindustri, is a somewhat academic but nonetheless fascinating survey of Sweden's pioneering film days. Unlike Denmark, Sweden had no noted directors to help it along at the very beginning, and its early films are primitive indeed. Kristianstadt, a small town in the South of Sweden, could be considered that country's Fort Lee, and it was the country's film-making centre until 1911, when operations were moved to Stockholm. In 1921, Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller joined the company, and Swedish film began its rapid rise to both artistic and commercial success.
Kristianstadt was an outgoing, lively little town, ideal for film-making. It had a dramatic society, a temperance society that also put on plays, a big Army barracks, and a population that was seemingly entranced by movies and, judging by this film, spent much of their spare time just staring the newsreel cameras!
Film-taking emerged under the guidance of Charles Magnusson and Julius Jaenzon; the latter an outstanding documentary and newsreel cameraman who traveled over the world (including the U.S.) shooting important events. Jaenzon later of course became the key cameraman for Sjostrom and Stiller, Initially, film-making was only a secondary concern for their company - Svenska Biografteartern - and the shorts that they made for their theatres merely supplementary to those imported from abroad.
The first sections of the documentary cover Kristianstadt as a community: most of this documentary footage, including some "war games" staged by the Army, local fairs, a fire - was shot by Jaenzon. The little rural comedy with the farmer and his cow was the first "story" film shot in Sweden - and was considered so poor that it was not released. This is hard to accept in one sense, since the quality, though low, isn't so much lower than much cheaper American material considered acceptable, and one would have thought that the sheer novelty of native production would have made up for it. But apparently Magnusson's standards, at least photographically, were quite high; once or twice later in the film we are shown other sequences from films rejected for release. Successes in this very early period include "Men of Varmland," still a popular staple for periodic production on the Swedish stage, and an early comic-serious military "saga", somewhat in the tradition of the Conan Doyle "Brigadier Gerard" - although its comic content is heavy, indicating already the Swedish uneasiness with comedy material. Immigration from Sweden was a major problem in this period, and a number of strong, anti-immigration films were made -- showing the farmers leaving their barren soil at home, only to be fleeced in England and mugged in Chicago, returning home to still barren soil, but at least to friends and neighbors who help make life worthwhile! One of these immigration films, with location work in both Gotenburg and London, and which looks quite elaborate, was also - we are told - considered inadequate for release which is very surprising, in view of the quality of the excerpts shown.
The film has only Swedish narration (much of it superfluous, with fairly elaborate synopsising of plots) but I think the above information should carry you through, and I'll add an occasional comment here and there as necessary.
Obviously the main interest is in the footage itself, and it's certainly the kind of footage that we've not seen before from Sweden. If nothing else, the primitive nature of this material reinforces more than ever the tremendous debt owed to Stiller and Sjostrom for the incredible strides that Swedish cinema made once they joined the fold. |