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The mood of complacency into which the Swedish cinema appeared to have slipped was not, however, complete. There were many protests about the empty elegance of the films being produced. In 1936 a mass meeting was held in the Concert Hall in Stockholm to protest about the decline of the Swedish film. Critics, authors, social workers and civic leaders debated, discussed and exhorted until the early hours of the morning. Among the film-makers themselves there grew a determination to find some more worth-while material for their films.
One of the first indications of a new approach was given in 1934, when Gustaf Edgren made Karl Fredrik Regerar. This story of a peasant who becomes a statesman was the result of a collaboration between Edgren, John Sanden, a member of the Swedish parliament, and the journalist, Oscar Rydqvist. It was a sincere attempt to describe from the inside the development of Socialism in Sweden and the social democratic attitude towards the Conservative class. Always close to the people, Edgren was a good story-teller and when he could escape from the farces which he directed with such facility he could develop a warm, human quality in his films. This he demonstrated in another film of the everyday life of the people, Valborgsmassoafton (1935), in which Victor Sjostrom, Lars Hanson, and Ingrid Bergman appeared. In 1936 he made a new version oijohan Ulfstjerna, and in the following year attempted an ambitious film dealing with the life of the Swedish-American inventor and engineer, John Ericsson, played by Sjostrom. This film, with a story moving from Sweden to England and later to America, strained the resources of the studio and the capacity of the director, but was nevertheless an indication of his search for more rewarding themes.
Most of the films of the middle 'thirties were received by the critics with some reservation. They were anxious, sometimes over-anxious, to see signs of a revival. The following was written in November, 1936, following the premiere of Intermezzo, which was to take Ingrid Bergman to Hollywood:
'Swedish film production has its surprises. Just when there is talk about the degradation of the Swedish film we are shown at Roda Kvarn a production which can least of all be called degraded. It comes from an unexpected quarter, where we should not expect there to be a struggle against the current, the revue author Gosta Stevens and the elegant comedy director Gustaf Molander. . . . Intermezzo not only can, but does, say significant things in a language we all will understand. Many of the scenes are so powerfully felt and so roundly created that the audience's attention is gripped. When was the last time a Swedish film was so gripping? There is Karl Fredrik Regerar and perhaps Szvedenhielms. Intermezzo, however, plunges right into deep water and tries individualistic descriptions of human beings which are both beautiful and sensitive. Just one technical remark: how fine it would have been if the film had got out of the studio more often into the fresh air. Real pictures of Stockholm and the Tyrolean Alps would have made the film quite perfect.'
It seems strange that it should have been necessary to urge the Swedish directors
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