Jornal da Mostra
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29th Mostra shows a retrospective of Victor Sjöström, master of Ingmar Bergman
The 29 th Mostra pays a tribute to Victor Sjöström (1879-1960), one of the most important directors from the Swedish Golden Era, with a broad retrospective of 19 of his films, most of them never shown before in Brazil . An accomplished actor and director, Sjöström is considered a master by no one less than Ingmar Bergman, who allegedly watchs at least once a year his classic The Phantom Chariot (1921). The programming also includes Wild Strawberries (1957), one of Bergman's films in which Sjöström is the leading actor in what would be his last participation in a movie.
Sjöström directed 53 films - all of them silent movies, except for the last two ( The Markurells of Wadköping , 1931, and “Under the Red Robe”, 1937). A good number of his films, however, were lost as a result of an outbreak of fire in the archives of the Svenska studios, where he began his cinematographic career, in 1912. In this same very year, Sjöström acted in The Black Masks and Vampyren , two films by his great friend Mauritz Stiller (a film maker acknowledged by a retrospective at the 27th Mostra ). The same year, he directed his first film, a drama, The Gardener , an original script by the same Stiller which was censored ath the time.
Despite this initial trouble with censors, the director obtained great success with his next movie, Ingeborg Holm (1938). His career proceeded with films such as Sea Vultures (1916), The Kiss of Death (1916), Terje Vigen (1917), The Outlaw and his Wife (1918), the mentioned The Phantom Chariot (1921), the two-part epic Ingmar's Sons (1919) and Karin, Daughter of Ingmar (1920), A Dangerous Pledge (1920), Love's Crucible (1922) and Fire Onboard (1923), this one the last he directed still in Sweden before leaving for Hollywood.
Sjöström moved to the U.S. on invitation of the head of MGM studios, Louis B. Mayer, in 1923. There, he became known under the name of Victor Seamstrom and made nine films, amongst these The Scarlett Letter (1927), and The Wind (1928) - both with film star Lillian Gish, who chose him as director.
Back to Sweden again, Sjöström directed only two movies more, The Markurells of Wadköping (1931) and “Under the Red Robe” (1937). In spite of various invitations to go back to directing, Sjöström always refused and remained solely as an actor. He acted in a further 18 films.
