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Sunday, May 18, 2008

EROTIKON (1920)

Perhaps because the Swedish silent film director Maurice Stiller flopped in Hollywood while his protege, Greta Garbo, became legend, his earlier films are slightly over praised, especially his calling card pic, THE SAGA OF GOSTA BERING. His best film is undoubtably SIR ARNE’S TREASURE from 1919, but here’s a pleasingly advanced boulevard comedy that wouldn’t have shamed Lubitsch. A remarkably lux production for the time, it’s the story of three ladies & three men, each romantically mismatched and, scandalously, no doubt, the film uses divorce to set the couples right. Tora Teje & Lars Hanson make a fine leading couple while Karin Molander is always fun to watch, but it’s Stiller’s production, not so much his direction (a little heavy-handed) or pacing (a bit over-extended) that impress. A ballet sequence that mirrors the plot shows how extravagant the Swedes could be in those days. Alas, the odd modernistic chamber score doesn’t help move things along, but the print is watchable.

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