Herr Arnes Pengar / Sir Arne's Treasure (1919) :
Brief Review -
Evil vs Love vs Justice. A visually appealing and honest adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf's novel. I knew Mauritz Stiller's name for giving a domestic break to legendary actress Greta Garbo, but this is my first film of him. I am impressed with his storytelling and vision to look at things that were slightly higher than what the graph suggested at that time for Swedish filmmakers. When Selma Lagerlöf's novel The Treasure came out in 1903, Swedish cinema was not even born properly. But even by 1919, nobody had seen such an engrossing storyline in the cinema world. This tale has three basic elements that form a human and its surroundings. Evil, love, and justice. If you try to think about these three things at the same time, it sounds like a weird combo. Evil is the opposite of love, and if evil and love meet each other, they can't do justice. That's where Mauritz Stiller's adaptation has you in for a show, with due credit to the novel, of course. The story takes place on the Swedish west coast during the 16th century and revolves around a Scottish mercenary who murders a wealthy family for treasure with his companions, only to unwittingly begin a relationship with the surviving daughter of the family. Will their love story make things difficult for him and her? Will they ever get together after knowing the truth? Sir Arne's Treasure is more about this philosophical conflict than just Arne's treasure. It has some fantastic visuals that will wow you. I loved those dream sequences and still wonder how they did it with such less advanced technologies. Mauritz Stiller and the technical team deserve full credit for that, and the actors have done a nice job too. Overall, it's a think-about kind of film, which I believe has explored new dimensions in love stories and crime dramas.
RATING - 7/10*
By - #samthebestest.
Evil vs Love vs Justice. A visually appealing and honest adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf's novel. I knew Mauritz Stiller's name for giving a domestic break to legendary actress Greta Garbo, but this is my first film of him. I am impressed with his storytelling and vision to look at things that were slightly higher than what the graph suggested at that time for Swedish filmmakers. When Selma Lagerlöf's novel The Treasure came out in 1903, Swedish cinema was not even born properly. But even by 1919, nobody had seen such an engrossing storyline in the cinema world. This tale has three basic elements that form a human and its surroundings. Evil, love, and justice. If you try to think about these three things at the same time, it sounds like a weird combo. Evil is the opposite of love, and if evil and love meet each other, they can't do justice. That's where Mauritz Stiller's adaptation has you in for a show, with due credit to the novel, of course. The story takes place on the Swedish west coast during the 16th century and revolves around a Scottish mercenary who murders a wealthy family for treasure with his companions, only to unwittingly begin a relationship with the surviving daughter of the family. Will their love story make things difficult for him and her? Will they ever get together after knowing the truth? Sir Arne's Treasure is more about this philosophical conflict than just Arne's treasure. It has some fantastic visuals that will wow you. I loved those dream sequences and still wonder how they did it with such less advanced technologies. Mauritz Stiller and the technical team deserve full credit for that, and the actors have done a nice job too. Overall, it's a think-about kind of film, which I believe has explored new dimensions in love stories and crime dramas.
RATING - 7/10*
By - #samthebestest.