RogerBW's Blog

1917 Swedish comedy, dir. Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjöström, Karin Molander; IMDb. Thomas Graal is a struggling scriptwriter who falls for, and takes inspiration from, his secretary… Vtt original Thomas Graals bästa film and in rerelease Wanted - A Film Actress.

Most of the people in front of and behind the camera here were luminaries of the early Swedish film industry, and honestly I had more fun reading about their careers than watching the actual film. To be fair, it wasn't helped by the title cards on the print I watched, often black text on white, being very washed-out and hard to read, so even the few hints to what was going on were often missing.

There is enjoyment to be had: Graal makes up a screenplay based on what Bessie's told him about her hard life at home, but in fact that itself is a fabulation and she's a rich girl working for fun. David Thomson in Have you seen… builds this into a conceit that neither of them really knows whether they're in love with each other or with the film they're making, but while it's plausible I don't think it's supported by the actual film. Instead, we get sudden broad comedy moments in among the more characterful bits. (And Graal himself starts off assuming that his pretty young secretary will be available to him for non-secretarial duties, and even if that causes her to flounce out he never really seems to get out of that mindset.)

This is on YouTube.

I talk about this more on Ribbon of Memes.