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Gbsta Berlings Saga held some memorable performances. Greta Garbo had appeared in some short publicity films and in Liiffar Peter, a comedy in the style of Mack Sennett, when she was introduced to Stiller by Gustaf Molander. Stiller was impressed by the grave beauty of her young face — she was then seventeen — and gave her the part of Elizabeth Dohna. She responded with a performance of extraordinary sensitiveness, revealing a range remarkable in so young an actress. Lars Hanson made a dramatic figure of the clergyman whose rebellious temperament is one of the motivating forces in the story, and there were impressive performances by Gerda Lundequist (as the Mistress of Ekeby), Jenny Hasselqvist and Karin Swanstrom.
Stiller took Greta Garbo with him to Berlin for the German premiere of Gosta Berlings Saga. Having sold the film to the German Trianon Company, Stiller interested them in a new film he had been preparing, Konstantinopel. He involved himself, Greta Garbo and Einar Hansson deeply in this undertaking for which they spent some months in Turkey. The Trianon Company failed while they were still in Constantinople and Stiller returned to Berlin with Greta Garbo. She appeared in The Joyless Street (1925) for Pabst, and when Stiller was invited to go to Hollywood by Louis B. Mayer he arranged for his protege to accompany him.
Mauritz Stiller's activities in Hollywood lie outside the scope of this survey. As with so many other European directors, his experiences in America were uncomfortable. He began work on The Temptress (1926) with Greta Garbo, but following a disagreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was removed from the film, which was completed by Fred Niblo. Under Erich Pommer's supervision he directed Hotel Imperial (1926) for Paramount, but credit for the excellence of that film is generally given to the German producer. He made The Woman on Trial (1927) with Pola Negri and Einar Hansson. His last film, from a scenario by Josef von Sternberg, was The Street of Sin (1927), with Emil Jannings, Olga Baclanova and Fay Wray. He left Hollywood in 1928 and died shortly after his return to Stockholm.
Victor Sjostrom provides continuity for the story of the Swedish cinema. He made the first films which served to focus the eyes of the world's film-makers on Stockholm; and, after his Hollywood period, he is again in Sweden, helping with his wide experience of film-making and his matured skill as an actor in the revival of his country's cinema. He has been directing and acting in films for nearly forty years, and some of his recent performances are as vital and compelling as anything he has done.
I suspect that Sjostrom was always more interested in acting than in direction. Not only did he appear in most of his own films, but he also found time to appear in a number directed by Stiller. His first film of consequence was Ingeborg Holm (1913) which he adapted from a play by Nils Krook. The influence of the stage weighed heavily on this film which consisted of a series of episodes linked by
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