Gösta Berlings saga

The Saga of Gosta Berling is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and haunting films I have ever seen in my life. I was lucky enough to only see the improved Kino version, however. Trust me, if you long to see this incredible film, please just save up and buy the elegant Kino version. You won't be sorry you did! No other cheaper version will capture the story and it's just not worth it...

The film is long (three hours) but every second is precious. Perhaps it could have been cut shorter to make the plot more simple but who would want that? Hopefully I'm not the only one but when the words "The End" come across the screen my heart aches and I truly want more. Despite how long the film is, many elements from the book by Selma Lagerlöf had to be cut out in order to avoid a ten-hour-long drama. Be sure to hunt down a copy of the story and read it for yourself. Each and every character is so complex and interesting and every chapter is like a moving short story.

The acting is absolutely superb. Hanson and Garbo have such amazing chemistry that you literally feel as if you'll melt when they simply stare at each other with their expressive, longing eyes. Besides the two main stars, everyone gives great performances, besides Torsten Hammarén. He seemed to have the same annoying facial expression the whole time. Maybe that's just the way his character was suppose to be (Henrik Dohna) but I doubt it, since I recall his character in Erotikon (1920) having that same, stupid look.

The main reason I encourage everyone to see the Kino version is for the soundtrack. The soundtrack for the Kino version of The Saga of Gosta Berling is soaring, gorgeous, and completely wonderful. It's the greatest soundtrack I have ever heard for a silent film. I literally get goosebumps on my arms when I feel the melodies run through me. Matti Bye has created a score that fits the story so perfectly that it's unbelievable.

Everything and everyone in this film is stunning visually. We get to see many shots of the magical country of Värmland and its ravishing scenery. Many lovely actors and actresses were chosen and they absolutely glow with beauty. Lars Hanson and Greta Garbo are both hauntingly beautiful, along with the actress Mona Mårtenson, who plays Ebba Dohna.

Honestly, I can't come up with anything to say except, please watch this film and read the book too. The story will never leave you.

Three hours + and this movie had me on the edge of my seat till the last picture .Fans of Greta Garbo might be disappointed for her role is not very important in the first part of the saga.

Selma Lägerlof's " Gösta Berling" reminds me of Thomas Hardy's "Jude" and "Tess" .Like them ,he is more a victim than a "defrocked " minister. The structure of the movie is stunning including long flashbacks and flashbacks inside the flashback ,and so many characters it is sometimes hard to remember who is who.But this extravagant melodrama features so many memorable scenes it's impossible to mention all of them:

-Berling in his church,in his pulpit ,in front of the clergy .

-The "Devil" ,some kind of jack-in-the-box ,claiming another soul among the "outcasts"

-The big fire,filmed with a stunning virtuosity

-Gösta and Elizabeth,in their sleigh,escaping from a world they are not part of ,one of the most frenzied romantic scene I have ever seen.

"Gösta Berling" takes us to the decadent aristocratic world of the nineteenth century and depicts its deterioration.It is one of these rare silent movies which can still grab today's audience.

Greta Gustafsson grew up in an environment that offered scant hope for a little girl who loved to act. Youngest of three children, Greta remembers living in a small Stockholm, Sweden apartment where in the evenings after work "my father would be sitting in a corner, scribbling figures on a newspaper. On the other side of the room, my mother is repairing ragged old clothes, sighing." She claimed there was always tension in the air, making life for the sensitive girl not very pleasant.

Later, as an 18-year-older, her acting ambitions were slowly realized. Greta was able to get her foot in the door primarily because she possessed a pretty face. Gustafsson appeared in several print advertisements before she popped up in a brief filmed scene while attending the Royal Dramatic Training Academy in Stockholm from 1922 to 1924. Director Mauritz Stiller, famous for his cutting-edge 1919 'Sir Arne's Treasure' and 1920 'Erotikon,' spotted Greta and signed her to play a part in his March 1924 "The Saga of Gosta Berling."

It was this movie that Louis B. Mayer, who had just merged his production studio with Metro and Goldwyn's Pictures to create MGM Studios, was in Germany looking for new talent. Swedish director Victor Sjostrom, recently hired by Mayer, recommended he see the work of his friend Stiller. There's differing accounts on what happened when the film producer saw "The Saga of Gosta Berling," but Myer's daughter recounts him saying upon seeing Gustafsson, "This director is wonderful, but what we really ought to look at is the girl ... The girl, look at the girl! It's her eyes. I can make her a star."

Gustafsson eventually went to Hollywood, where she was given a new name. Studio executives kept the Greta, but her last name became Garbo. The Swedish actress would become the fifth greatest actress in cinema, according to the American Film Institute. Not bad for a girl who never attended high school, which was par for the course for working class Swedish school girls, something that for the rest of her life Garbo claimed gave her an inferiority complex.

"The Saga of Goat Berling" has been tabbed the Swedish version of America's epic "Gone With The Wind" for the breath and scope of its plot. Gleaned from Selma Lagerlof's 1891 novel, the movie's about a Lutheran minister who's fired by church elders for his drinking habits as well as for his controversial sermons. Gosta Berling receives a job offer to become a tutor to a countess' daughter, Ebba. The countess hopes her new tutor will marry his pupil before her son, Henrik, whom she despises, gets the countess' inheritance. Henrik soon returns from Italy with his supposed new wife, Elizabeth (Greta). Towards the end of the movie, which is chock full of flashbacks and intrigue from a number of participants, Elizabeth sours on Henrik, but not before she's in an exciting chase on a horse-drawn sled with Berling trying to outrun a pack of hungry wolves on a frozen lake.

It had been noted that since she was so new in front of the camera Greta needed a good dose of champagne before her big scenes. Most of "The Saga of Gosta Berling" production was without her. But her first appearance, 40 minutes into the three-hour plus film, and a reappearance in the last 15 minutes, changed forever the girl who grew up in relative poverty in a Stockholm slum.

"The Saga of Gosta Berling" pretty much marked the end of 'The Golden Age of Swedish Silent Cinema." With highly-regarded Sjostrom already in Hollywood and Stiller with Greta and actor Lars Hanson, who played Berling, soon departing for California, the leaders of Sweden's film industry were gone. With the exception of Garbo, the rest of Sweden's superstar directors had only a modest success in the states, unlike in their native country.

I have to change my previous review as I have watched the true version with a pretty darn good soundtrack that Kino released onto DVD and about time too. All I can say is that if you have seen the atrocious VHS version then do yourself a big favour and buy this one, there is simply no comparison, if you haven't seen the VHS version, well, do yourself a favour and get the DVD anyway. Garbo is very young in this and quite unrecognisable, but, she is very good as Elisabeth. You can see why Lars Hanson was later hand picked by Lillian Gish to star with her in "The Scarlet Letter" and "The Wind" and hopefully this will increase his fanbase. And you're left wondering why director Mauritz Stiller never became the success that another Swedish director Victor Sjostrom was.

Gösta Berling is a young and attractive minister. Because he is an alcoholic and his preaches are far too daring, he is finally defrocked. He leaves the town in disgrace and arrives at countess Marta's manor. His new job there is to be a tutor to countess' beautiful stepdaughter.

In 2006, the film was released for the first time on DVD by Kino International with the support of the Swedish Film Institute. The new release includes English subtitles, the new music score by Matti Bye, and restoration of the film to a length of 185 minutes. While it is somewhat imposing in length, it really is the only way to see it.

Garbo is a larger than life figure. She has achieved immortality, due in part to roles like this. Though not everyone can name a movie she is in, almost everyone has heard of her. That in itself is quite a feat, considering the great actors of the time who are now forgotten except by the biggest movie nerds.