Kärlek och journalistik

Mauritz Stiller's most well known comedy is Erotikon (1920). The comedies he made before that, Kärlek och journalistik (Love and Journalism), Tomas Graals bästa film (Thomas Graal's best film), and Thomas Graals bästa barn (Thomas Graal's best child), are usually described as lesser movies which show the promise of better things to come. It's all a matter of individual taste, since comedy is subjective, but I thought these little 1910's movies were much more enjoyable than Erotikon. They are less controlled, and more zany. And Karin Molander has bigger parts in them.

Love and Journalism is very light fare, of course. It will not stay in your memory long, or if it does, you won't remember what the story was about. You will remember Karin Molander's cheerfully mischievous face as she scrubs her love-interest's shoes clean, or when, clad in a pajamas and a night cap, she makes herself comfortable on the divan with a news paper - and a cigarette! Karin Molander seems to play modern, sassy young women in most of her comedies. This comedy persona works so well for her, that I think she must have been a bit like that in real life. She has a great screen presence, which is what makes this movie worthwhile.

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