Scandinavian silent cinema

Before Hollywood lured them away, the Swedish and Danish studios dominated European cinema in the tens and twenties, and did so with nature: forests, frozen lakes, isolated farms, northern light. Sjöström sends a death cart through a village on New Year's Eve, Stiller adapts the sagas of Selma Lagerlöf, Christensen films a documentary on witchcraft that reconstructs sabbaths and gets itself banned, Dreyer begins with domestic chamber pieces before becoming the film-maker of faces.

works 5

• CinemaFörstadsprästenGeorg af Klercker · 1917A pastor in a poor district devotes himself to his flock, and what he sees there puts his faith to the test.Cinema
• CinemaSir Arne's TreasureHerr Arnes pengarMauritz Stiller · 1919In the sixteenth century, a family is massacred for its treasure, and the only survivor unknowingly crosses paths with those who killed it.Cinema
• CinemaThe Phantom CarriageKörkarlenVictor Sjöström · 1921The coachman of the dead comes for a drunkard on New Year's Eve and shows him what he has left behind.Cinema
• CinemaWitchcraft Through the AgesHäxanBenjamin Christensen · 1922An illustrated lecture on witchcraft that shifts along the way into fiction, to show what superstition does to the sick and the weak.Cinema
• CinemaMaster of the HouseDu skal ære din hustruCarl Th. Dreyer · 1925A modest home, a man who rules it, and an old woman who sets out to put him right.Cinema