De landsflyktiga (1921)

One of the lost films of the Scandinavian silent cinema is the Swedish film De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants (1921), except for a few very short fragments. It was directed by the great Mauritz Stiller and produced by Charles Magnusson for Svensk Filmindustri. Jenny Hasselqvist and Lars Hanson were the stars. Ivo Blom found six vintage Swedish cards of the lost film, published by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, and reconstructed the film for this post.


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 293. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist in De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants/The Exiles (Mauritz Stiller, 1921).


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 294. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist in De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants/The Exiles (Mauritz Stiller, 1921).

Why Mauritz Stiller became a Swedish citizen

De landsflyktiga (Mauritz Stiller, 1921) can be translated as The Emigrants. The film was released in the USA as In Self Defense by George Hamilton, Incorporated in 1922 and was also known under the title Guarded Lips. The British title was The Exiles. De landsflyktiga was shot in the studios of Filmstaden Råsunda with exteriors at Steninge castle, Stadsgårdskajen and other locations in Stockholm. The cinematographer was Henrik Jaenzon.

The film script by Mauritz Stiller and Ragnar Hyltén-Cavallius was based on Runar Schildt's short story 'Zoja' from 1920, which was published in the short story collection 'Häxskogen'. It was during the filming of De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants/The Exiles that Mauritz Stiller, who had been a Russian citizen since his birth in Helsinki, applied to become a Swedish citizen.

The wealthy Barantscheff family lives on the stately Staraja-Selo estate in the heart of Russia. Prince Ivan Ivanovich (Carl Nissen), his wife Ivanovna Stefanovna (Karin Swanstrom), their daughter Sonja (Jenny Hasselqvist) and son Yuri (Nils Ohlin), a lieutenant in the Russian Navy who is recovering at home after being wounded in the war.

The First World War is in full swing and storm clouds are gathering everywhere. The wealthy banker Andrei Andreyevich Myasoyedoff (Ivan Hedqvist) approaches the prince and proposes to sell the estate because of the troubled times. The prince takes the offer as an insult and refuses.

Myasoyedoff has also set his eyes on Sonya, but she has already brusquely rejected him. One day, Sonya, while driving alone, rescues the young revolutionary student Vladimir Alexandrovich Mikhailoff (Lars Hanson), who is being chased by the gendarmes.


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 295. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist in De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants/The Exiles (Mauritz Stiller, 1921).


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 296. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Lars Hanson in De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants/The Exiles (Mauritz Stiller, 1921).

Out of the darkness that oppresses us, a new Russia will one day arise

When the revolution breaks out, it is Vladimir who helps Sonja and her parents to escape across the border. The family settles in a major international city, perhaps Paris, and continues their former, carefree life of luxury, waiting for the revolution to be crushed so they can return to their former lives at home. But their inherited wealth quickly dwindles, and it is Myasoyedoff, who has also come there as a refugee, who helps them financially.

He has managed to bring most of his fortune with him and is already involved in big business. The student Vladimir, a refugee from his former comrades, also arrives. One fine day, the Barantscheff family finds itself on the rocks. But Myasoyedoff is happy to oblige if only Sonya would be a little more accommodating to him. But Sonja stubbornly refuses. In an upset scene, she rips off all the family jewels she wore to the evening's charity party and gives them as collateral instead of herself for the family's debt.

Myasoyedoff takes the jewels and smilingly adds that the pledge is due at the end of the year. On New Year's Eve, Myasoyedoff is found dead in his villa, with Sonya lying unconscious outside. Vladimir, now a lawyer, defends Sonja in court. She admits that she shot Myasoyedoff when he tried to rape her. Afterwards, she threw the revolver from the balcony. But no revolver has been found.

In a break during the last day of the trial comes the explanation. Vladimir confesses to Sonja during a visit to her cell that it was he who shot Myasoyedoff on behalf of his comrades. Myasoyedoff was spying on the emigrants on behalf of the Bolshevik government, and many of their relatives remaining in Russia had already been shot. Myasoyedoff was an informer, Vladimir was the real killer, and Sonya now holds his fate in her hands.

But Vladimir's defence speech in court for Sonja leads to her acquittal. She and Vladimir are united, and Sonja utters the film's final line, which it was hoped at the time would have a prophetic meaning: "Out of the darkness that oppresses us, a new Russia will one day arise, a Russia that we can both love."


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 297. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Lars Hanson and Jenny Hasselqvist in De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants/The Exiles (Mauritz Stiller, 1921).


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 298. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Lars Hanson and Jenny Hasselqvist in De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants/The Exiles (Mauritz Stiller, 1921).

Sources: Svensk filmdatabas (Swedish), Silent Era, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Jenny Hasselqvist

Jenny Hasselqvist (1894-1978) was a Swedish ballet dancer and actress who starred in silent Swedish films by Mauritz Stiller and Victor Sjöström. She also worked in Germany with Ernst Lubitsch and became well-known all over Europe. With the rise of the sound film, she concluded her film career.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 143. Swedish actress Jenny Hasselqvist aka Jenny Hasselquist.


Vintage postcard. Photo: Henry B. Goodwin, 1918. Collection: Marlène Pilaete.


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 450. Photo: Ferd. Flodin. The crossed-out title seems to be 'En nate i Venedig' (A Night In Venice), which may refer to the ballet in 'Eine Nacht in Venedig' by Johan Strauss Jr.


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 451. Photo: Ferd. Flodin. The crossed-out title seems to be 'En nate i Venedig' (A Night In Venice), which may refer to the ballet in 'Eine Nacht in Venedig' by Johan Strauss Jr.


Swedish postcard by Förlag, Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1202. Photo: Ferd. Flodin, Stockholm.

Prima donna

Jenny Matilda Elisabet Hasselqvist (or Hasselquist) was born in 1894 in Stockholm, Sweden. Her father was a member of parliament. From 1906 on, Jenny attended the Swedish Opera's ballet school and from 1910, she performed with the Royal Ballet. In 1913, famous Russian choreographer Michel Fokine noticed her talents and ensured she obtained solo parts in La Sylphide and Cleopatra. She had a brilliant success and became a prima ballerina at the Royal Ballet in 1915.

In 1916, Hasselqvist made her film debut in Balettprimadonnan/Anjala the Dancer, directed by the legendary Mauritz Stiller. She got the title role because it required a professional dancer. At IMDb, ‘Herr Graf’ Ferdinand Von Galitzien highly recommends the film of which now only some fragments remain. ‘Genuine Stiller’, he calls the tale of a gypsy dancer (Hasselquist) who is discovered accidentally by a violin player (Lars Hanson). Von Galitzien about the film’s ending: "a thrilling sequence with our heroine running wild through a snowy landscape trying to avoid a calamity between the men that are fighting for her love (…), a lyrical and beautiful ending wherein Nature (Swedish style) is also an important dramatic character."

Hasselqvist continued to dance. In 1919, she retired from the Royal Ballet and became from 1919 till 1921 a star of Les ballets Anglais in Paris. Wikipedia: “A talented dancer, she had a flair for the modern idiom.” She also pursued a career in the silent cinema. With Mauritz Stiller, she made Johan/ Rapids of Life (Mauritz Stiller, 1921) with Mathias Taube and De landsflyktige/The Emigrants (Mauritz Stiller, 1921).

Then she worked with the other great director of the Swedish silent cinema, Victor Sjöström at Vem dömer/Love’s Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922) with Gösta Ekman, and Eld ombord/Fire on Board (Victor Sjöström, 1923) opposite British actor Matheson Lang and Victor Sjöström himself.

One of her best-known films is Gösta Berlings saga/The Atonement of Gosta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924) starring Lars Hanson and the young Greta Garbo. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The Atonement of Gosta Berling is an excellent representation of the Swedish silent cinema. Long, complex, and elaborately produced, the film nonetheless never loses sight of the human elements which motivate the story." Hasselqvist also worked with Gustaf Molander at the Selma Lagerlöf adaptations Ingmarsarvet/The Ingmar Inheritance (Gustaf Molander, 1925) and Till österland/To the Orient (Gustaf Molander, 1926), with Lars Hanson and Ivan Hedqvist.


Swedish postcard by Ed. Almquist. Photo: Goodwin, 1918.The dancers Jenny Hasselqvist and Oscar Tropp.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 832/1, 1919-1924. Union Film. Publicity still for Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 642/2,1919-1924. Union Film. Publicity still for Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) with Jenny Hasselqvist and Aud Egede Nissen. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 294. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist in De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants/The Exiles (Mauritz Stiller, 1921).


Swedish postcard by Ed. Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 298. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselquist and Lars Hanson in De landsflyktiga/The Emigrants (Mauritz Stiller, 1921). This is a lost film, except for a few very short fragments.


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 301. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist in Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922).

Sumurun

Jenny Hasselqvist also worked in Germany. In 1920, Ernst Lubitsch offered her the title role in his film version of Max Reinhardt's stage pantomime Sumurun/One Arabian Night (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920), opposite Ernst Lubitsch himself and Pola Negri. Hasselqvist played the favourite slave girl of a tyrannical sheikh (Paul Wegener), who fell in love with a cloth merchant (Harry Liedtke). The film was a huge international success and she became well-known in Europe.

In Germany she also played in Das brennende Geheimnis/The Burning Secret (Rochus Gliese, 1923) and Die Perücke/The Wig (Berthold Viertel, 1925) as the wife of Otto Gebühr. About the latter Gwynplaine writes on IMDb: “It's been ten years since I saw Berthold Viertel's compelling film Die Perucke (or the Wig) at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival back in 1997. But of all the films I have seen throughout that eventful week (including some impressive silents from China...) I would have to say that Die Perucke was the most impressive. The story concerns a man in the 1920s who, while visiting an antique shop, discovers an old powdered wig. While trying the wig on he is instantly whisked back to the 1700's & becomes the nobleman who originally wore the wig.”

Hasselqvist’s later German films include Brennende Grenze/Aftermath (Erich Waschneck, 1927) and Schuldig/Guilty (Johannes Meyer, 1928) with Suzy Vernon. With the rise of the sound film, she concluded her film career. Her final film was the Paramount production Den farliga leken (Gustaf Bergman, 1931), an alternative language version of The Laughing Lady (Victor Schertzinger, 1929) with Ruth Chatterton.

Hasselqvist had starred in 20 films, but the voice was not her medium. During her film career, she appeared as a guest dancer in many of Europe's leading theatres including the Coliseum in London, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. From the mid-1930s on, she had her own ballet school in Stockholm, and in the early 1950s, she also taught at the Stockholm Opera's ballet school. In between she incidentally returned to act on stage.

At the age of 83, Jenny Hasselqvist died in 1978 in Täby, near Stockholm. She was married to artist, painter and ceramist Wilhelm Kage (1918-1922) and to garden architect Gösta Reuterswärd (1923-1927).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 335. Photo: Svensk Filminspelning. Jenny Hasselqvist in Eld ombord/Fire on board/The Hell Ship (Victor Sjöström, 1923).


German postcard by Trianon-Film, 1924. Photo: Svenska-Film. Karin Swanström, Sixten Malmerfelt and Jenny Hasselqvist in Gösta Berlings saga/The Atonement of Gosta Berling (Mauritz Stiller, 1924).


Danish postcard by Alex. Vincent's Kunstforlag, Copenhagen, no. 101. Jenny Hasselqvist in Ingmarsarvet/The Ingmar Inheritance (Gustav Molander, 1925), based on Selma Lagerlöf's book 'Jerusalem'.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1260/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Deulig (Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft).


Short dance fragment of Jenny Hasselvuist performing 'Die weiße Rose' (The White Rose), from the German 'health and efficiency' film Wege Zu Kraft und Schonheit/Paths to the Power & Beauty (1925). Source: John Hall (YouTube).


Homage to Lars Hanson and Jenny Hasselqvist in 1924, with Cristal um tango sung by Francisco Alves. Source: Radio Santos (YouTube).

Sources: Ferdinand Von Galitzien (IMDb), Gwynplaine (IMDb), Bengt Forslund (The Swedish Film Database - Swedish), Wikipedia (English and Swedish) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 25 August 2024.

Vem Dömer (1922)

The Swedish silent film Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (1922) was a Skandia Film production directed by the great Viktor Sjöström. The film is a Renaissance drama where a young woman named Ursula (Jenny Hasselqvist), who is in love with Bertram (Gösta Ekman), the son of the mayor (Tore Svenberg), is accused of having poisoned her older husband, the sculptor Master Anton (Ivan Hedqvist). She has to prove her virginity through a fire test. The literal translation of the film's title reads: Who judges?


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 299. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist and Gösta Ekman in Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 300. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist and Gösta Ekman in Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922).



Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 301. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist and Ivan Hedqvist in Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922).

A film of extraordinary visual beauty

Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (1922) was Victor Sjöström’s follow up to Körkarlen/The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström, 1921). The lavish production premiered on New Year’s Day in 1922 accompanied by the Red Kvarn Orchestra and a publicity campaign including an illustrated book of Hjalmar Bergman’s story. Paul Joyce at his blog Ithankyou: "Sjöström co-wrote the screenplay and whilst this tale of illicit period romance may appear atypical it has much in common with its predecessor and the director’s earlier work."

The story of Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (1922) takes place in the Catholic south and is shot largely on (vast) studio sets, so it lacks the location shooting and Nordic settings of Sjöström’s more famous works. However, a connection to how nature takes an active part and interferes with the plot of several more famous 'Golden Age' films can be found in how the use of fire – one of the classical elements of nature – is essential to the film’s conclusion. Just as characters in Terje Vigen/A Man There Was (Victor Sjöström, 1917) and Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru/The Outlaw and His Wife (Victor Sjöström, 1918) must endure extremes in order to survive, so must Jenny Hasselqvist’s Ursula overcome not just a physical test but also a moral one: she has to judge herself.

Contemporary reviewers criticised Vem dömer/Love's Crucible for being "artificial" and "lacking in soul", and these complaints were repeated by some later historians of the Swedish silent cinema. The film’s critical and commercial failure was readily linked to its supposed lack of specifically Swedish authenticity and heart, the Italianate, distinctly Catholic milieu obscuring the many continuities with earlier successes. While the weeping crucifixes and Christ-visions of this film are just as much realisations of the characters’ legend-filled world-view as the peasant paradise of Ingmarssönerna/The Sons of Ingmar (Victor Sjöström, 1919) and the death-cart of Körkarlen/The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjöström, 1921), they may have sparked the uneasy suspicion in some critics that they were meant to preach rather than portray a superstitious religiosity.

In 1969, a duplicate negative of Vem dömer/Love's Crucible was made by the Svenska Filminstitutet from a nitrate positive source. A viewing print was struck from this negative the same year. In 2017, this print was presented at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto. The musical accompaniment in the Verdi Theatre in Pordenone was by Neil Brand and Frank Bockius. Valerio Greco made a series of photos of the event.

In the festival catalog, Magnus Rosborn and Casper Tybjerg wrote: "A film of extraordinary visual beauty, Love’s Crucible has never held the canonical status of Sjöström’s better-known films, despite being known as a film that brought his directorial skills to Hollywood’s attention, leading to his American career two years later, and also despite the similar way it presents an unsparing, psychologically profound examination of marital hatred, guilt, and atonement wrapped inside an atmosphere of legend, old tales, and supernatural visitation. (...)

The evident artistry of the film – every shot is exactingly composed – goes against the myth of Sjöström as an instinctive artist, a rough-hewn naïf similar to the good-hearted peasants he sometimes played on screen. With its sumptuous renaissance setting, its vast sets, and its exquisitely crafted visuals, realized through the efforts of master cinematographer Julius Jaenzon, Love’s Crucible is a self-consciously masterful display of cinematic art and technique."


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 303. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist and Ivan Hedqvist in Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 304. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist and Gösta Ekman in Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 305. Photo: Skandia Film, Stockholm. Jenny Hasselqvist, Ivan Hedqvist, Tore Svennberg and Gösta Ekman in Vem dömer/Love's Crucible (Victor Sjöström, 1922). Nils Asther had a small part in this film. On this postcard, he is the man just left of Hasselquist.

Sources: Magnus Rosborn and Casper Tybjerg (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto); Paul Joyce (ithankyouarthur), IMDb, and Wikipedia (Italian).