Kärlek och journalistik

From time to time is very advisable to return to the early films of important silent film directors in order to observe how they polished and improved their work in the course of time before they achieved the mastery that so influenced the careers of other directors.

"Kärlek Och Journalistik" ( Love And Journalism ) (1916) is probably Herr Mauritz Stiller's earliest surviving oeuvre, a delicious comedy that proves that even in those cold lands, the Nordics had something similar to a sense of humour. This elegant film demonstrates the elements one finds in Herr Stiller's later famous comedies. "Kärlek Och Journalistik" is a medium-length film, well paced and with a story that needs no updating and is still absolutely valid today. Journalism is the subject but it's the fascinating world of old school journalism with methods far different from today (though there were paparazzis and witty fräulein reporters and demanding editors back then too) when the new longhaired technologies and their dangerous new machines are revolutionizing and reinventing that old job.

The basics of Herr Stiller's later work are very recognizable in this stylish Nordic comedy of intrigue, especially in the director's handing of complex situations and the choice of excellent actors like Frau Karin Molander und Richard Lund who collaborated with the Finnish director in many of his films.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must read a Teutonic tabloid.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien