Film Review
Mauritz Stiller is best known as the man who created one of cinema's
most enduring screen legends, Greta Garbo, not only mentoring her but
also giving her the role that made her an international star in his
1924 film
The Saga of Gosta Berling.
Stiller was, however, far more than an astute talent spotter and
mentor; he was one of the finest filmmakers Sweden has ever produced, a
name that deserves to rank along side his compatriots Victor
Sjöström and Ingmar Bergman. By the time he met Garbo,
Stiller was among the most highly regarded directors at Svensk
Filmindustri, Sweden's foremost film production company, with a string
of masterpieces already under his belt. Among these is the
absolutely stunning
Sir Arne's
Treasure (a.k.a.
Herr Arnes
pengar), a hauntingly atmospheric period piece, of the kind that
Svensk excelled in throughout Sweden's first golden age of filmmaking
(1913-1924).
Sir Arne's Treasure is an
inspired adaptation of the popular novella
The Treasure at Svenska Biografteatern
by Selma Lagerlöf, the Nobel Prize winning author whose novels
were frequently adapted for Swedish cinema (Stiller's
The Saga of Gosta Berling and
Sjöström's
The Phantom Carriage being the
best known examples). Lagerlöf's magical romanticism may
have been popular in literary form at the time but it appeared dated
for contemporary Swedish cinema, which was showing an increasing drift
towards rigorously naturalistic drama. This tension between two
very different modes of expression can be felt in Stiller's
Sir Arne's Treasure, which plays
down the supernatural aspects of Lagerlöf's novel and instead
accentuates the power of the natural world to determine an individual's
fate. Stiller's striking use of landscape - rivalled only by John
Ford in his finest westerns - powerfully evokes the immense natural
forces that shape our lives. Rarely in a film do the protagonists
appear so vulnerable and so helpless in deciding their own
destinies. They are mere specks of dust in the bitterest of
snowstorms, entirely at the mercy of the elements - as we all are, to a
greater or lesser extent, in our own lives.
The film begins and ends with two of the most striking images in
Swedish cinema. The opening shot of horsemen traversing a vast
expanse of snow and ice is mirrored by the solemn funeral procession
that ends the film. The shot of a fish hawker making his way on a
sleigh across the ice anticipates the most spectacular set piece in
The Saga of Gosta Berling.
Another shot of a ship trapped helplessly in the ice is a potent visual
metaphor for nature's power over man. Again and again, Stiller,
assisted by Sweden's legendary cinematographer Julius Jaenzon, reminds
us of the pathetic puniness of man when set against the overwhelming
mightiness of the world he inhabits, a godlike supremacy that endlessly
mocks us with its inviolable rules and total disregard for human
happiness.
It is not only the external forces of nature that the protagonists have
to contend with, they are also prey to internal forces which prove to
be just as destructive, just as uncontrollable. The three
Scottish mercenaries who are so jovially introduced at the start of the
film are, a short while later, shown to be ruthless killers who murder
all but one member of a family. We are unable to decide whether
they are bad men. They hardly seem to be responsible for their
actions, as they are driven to extreme measures by extreme
circumstances, the need to survive in the harshest of
environments. By a cruel twist of fate, the one family member
they fail to slay, a young woman named Elsalill, ends up falling
passionately in love with one of their number, the most likeable rogue
of the bunch, Sir Archie. That these two individuals end up being
drawn together by the most mysterious of forces, namely love, hardly
surprises us. What is surprising is how Elsalill remains true to
her love, and even risks her own life to save Sir Archie, when she
realises that she is one of the three who massacred her family.
It is guilt - powerfully visualised via the haunting vision of her dead
foster sister - that compels Elsalill to denounce Sir Archie, but it is
a more powerful emotion - love - that forces her to act to save him,
with predictably tragic consequences.
In both narrative and cinematographic terms,
Sir Arne's Treasure is a film that
is years ahead of its time. There is probably not a single film
made in France or America of this era that is as visually compelling
and as imaginatively crafted. Stiller's use of camera movement is
particularly impressive, drawing the spectator into the fabric of the
film and emphasising the dynamic forces that are play. The
landscapes are so imposing and expressive, literally spilling out of
every frame, that they become a key player in the drama - not a mere
backdrop but a character of formidable proportions. The snow and
ice are so prevalent, encroaching on virtually every scene as though
they were part of some malevolent, living entity, that you can hardly
avoid feeling chilled to the core as you watch the film.
Sir Arne's Treasure is a thing of
inordinate beauty, one of the most expressively poetic works of the
silent era of cinema, but it is also endowed with a harrowing
primordial brutality, reminding us just how small and inconsequential
man is in the grand scheme of things.
© James Travers 2014
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In 16th century Sweden, King Johan III decrees that the Scottish
mercenaries who are plotting against him are to be expelled from the
country and their commanders incarcerated. Three of the latter -
Sir Philip, Sir Donald and Sir Archie - manage to escape from their
prison and hasten to the coast, where they must wait for the ice to
melt before they can find a ship that will take them back to
Scotland. On the way, they invade the house of an aged vicar, Sir
Arne, slaughtering almost the entire household and escaping with a
small fortune in coins stored in a chest. Rumour has it that this
bounty was looted from the monasteries and that dire misfortune will
come to whoever possesses it. The only survivor of the massacre
is the vicar's foster daughter, Elsalill, who is taken in by a kindly
fish hawker named Torarin. Although she is still haunted by her
memory of her family's brutal murder, Elsalill does not recognise Sir
Archie when she next sees him. He has spent some of his ill
gotten gain on fine clothes and resembles a nobleman. Within no
time, the two young people have fallen deeply in love and Sir Archie
intends taking Elsalill back with him to his home country. But
overhearing a conversation between Sir Archie and his friends Elsalill
suddenly realises that these are the same three men who attacked and
killed her foster family. Her desire for justice compels her to
report this fact to the authorities, but then she has second thoughts
and cannot prevent herself from warning Sir Archie that his arrest is
imminent. Before the day is out, Sir Arne's accursed treasure
will live up to its terrible reputation...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.