GOSTA BERLINGS SAGA

Stiller had aIready proved himself with a series of melodramas and comedies and, above all, with The Treasure of Arne, adapted from Selma Lagerlöf's novel. Then, in 1924 he made the film that would decisively mark the course of Swedish silent film, Gösta Berling's Saga, again adapted from a Lagerlöf's novel. This is the film that more than any other established the "archetypical" characteristics of early Swedish film its dialectic between the dramatic aspect with its psychological depth and the natural countryside that serves as its background. Originally, the film circulated in two parts that were projected separately. After Stiller's death, a shortened version was made, which was the one that circulated in the movie theaters. Stiller decided to change the name of the leading lady of this film, so Greta Gustavsson became Greta "Garbo". The just seventeenyearold Garbo was acting in her third and decisive film. When Louis B. Mayer of MGM saw Gösta Berling's Saga in the spring of 1925, he decided to bring Garbo and Stiller to Hollywood.

Director: Mauritz Stiller.
Plot: dal romanzo di Selma Lagerlöf.
Screenplay: Ragnor Hylten Cavallius.
Director of photography: Julius Jaenzon.
Cast: Lars Hanson (Gösta Berling), Gerda LundequvistDahlestrom (Margareta), Greta Garbo (Elisabeth), Jenny Hasselqvist (Marianne), Sixten Malmerfeldt (Melchior), Ellen Caderström (contessa Märtha), Mona Martensson (Lady Ebba), Torsten Hammaren (conte Henrik), Hilda Forslund (madre di Margareta), Karin Swanström (Gustava).
Production company: Svensk Filmindustri.

CONSERVAZIONE E RESTAURO / CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION

Copia conservata presso la CinemateketSvenska Filminstitutet, stampata da un controtipo tratto da materiale originale.