Berg-Eyvind and his wife
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Berg-Eyvind and his wife The outlaw and his wife |
| Original title | Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru |
| Country of production | Sweden |
| original language | Swedish |
| Publishing year | 1918 |
| length | 136 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Victor Sjöström |
| script | Victor Sjöström Sam Ask based on the play of the same name by Jóhann Sigurjónsson |
| production | Charles Magnusson |
| camera | Julius Jaenzon |
| occupation | |
| |
Berg-Eyvind und seine Frau , also known under the German title Der Geächtete und seine Frau , is a Swedish silent film from 1918. The film is based on the play of the same name by Jóhann Sigurjónsson , which in turn tells the story of the historical outlaw Fjalla-Eyvindur and processed by his wife. It was directed by Victor Sjöström , who also played Berg-Eyvind.
action
The story takes place in Iceland in the mid-18th century, where bandits lived outside the law in the mountains. Arnes, a bandit from the mountains, steals two sheep from the rich landowner Björn and secretly shears them. Arnes uses a trick to deceive Björn's two workers so that they do not discover his theft. Kári observes the deed, but does not reveal it. Arnes then tells him that he can find work with the widow Halla. Then they go down from the mountains to Halla's estate. There Kári is accepted as a harvest worker. Björn is Halla's brother-in-law and makes her a proposal out of economic interest. Halla firmly refuses. Over time, Halla and Kári get closer. Björn is suspicious of this development during his Sunday visit to the church. Then a visitor from the south tells him that he recognizes the escaped bandit Berg-Ejvind in Kári. Björn confronts Kári and Halla on their farm. Kári denies what he did and Björn has to leave after a lost fight.
Halla confronts Kári again, who now confesses to her that he is the said mountain Ejvind. Berg-Ejvind was very poor and had great difficulty in getting his people through. When he asked for help from a wealthy priest, the latter refused him. He stole a sheep from him, but forgot his gloves in the stable. He was arrested the next day and sentenced to ten years in prison. However, he fled and lived as a bandit in the mountains for a year until he met Halla through Arnes. He confesses his love to Halla. She hides him from Björn and his men. Berg-Ejvind decides to flee and Halla follows him.
They live in the mountains for five years and even have a daughter named Tota together. Berg-Ejvind met his old friend Arnes by chance and brought him to his family. Arnes lived with them for a while until he fell in love with Halla too. After some struggle with himself and then with an indignant Halla, Arnes decides to leave her and face his fate. On his way he meets Björn and his men who have found traces of Berg-Ejvind on the lake. A fight breaks out, with Halla not wanting to leave her child to Björn and then throws him off a cliff.
Halla and Berg-Ejvind survive and flee even further into the mountains. Berg-Ejvinds and Halla's living conditions are rapidly deteriorating. More years move on and the lovers become estranged. Halla can no longer live with her guilt and, driven by a longing for death, runs out into the blizzard. Berg-Ejvind finds the hut empty and follows it into the snowstorm. He finds her more dead than alive and lies down with her. They're both freezing to death.
background
The film, shot in two sections in 1917 - spring and late summer - had its world premiere on January 1, 1918. In Germany, Mountain-Eyvind and his wife, first shown in October 1,922th
In addition to Sjöström's direction, the camera work by Julius Jaenzon , who established a new Swedish film school with his landscape photography , was praised . Axel Esbensen designed the film structures .
The film is considered to be one of the main works of Swedish naturalism cinema.
Reviews
The film received consistently outstanding reviews at the time of its premiere and decades later. Below is a small selection:
In Jerzy Toeplitz , we read: "Sjöström managed to show the great love of two people and concentrate all the attention of the viewer on the lives and the destruction of the lovers. Even if the film is poor in events and happenings, it leaves a very strong impression that has not lost much to this day [...]. There are few films that survive the time as great as Berg-Eyvind and his wife . "
Reclam's film guide wrote: “ Louis Delluc once called Berg-Eyvind och hans hustru 'the most beautiful film in the world'. He praised Sjöström's direction, the two main actors and "a third leading actor: the landscape". In fact, the “landscape painting” of Swedish film has already reached an early climax here. Sjöström shot his film in Iceland; and he did not use the mountains, the fog and the light as a random decoration, but as an essential part of the plot. "
In Sjöström's biography, Kay Wenigers The Large Person Encyclopedia of Film reminded us that his literary adaptations brought Swedish cinema world renown in the late 1910s.
Bucher's encyclopedia of the film wrote: The animistic element can be traced back to Terje Vigen “and even more to Berg-Eyvind och hans hustru (1917), the story of a persecuted thief and the woman who fled with him, the animistic element that is still an essential element of the Swedish film and that finds its clearest expression in the equation of summer with hope and happiness and winter with despair and death. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ History of the Film, Volume 1 1895–1928. East Berlin 1972. p. 242.
- ↑ Reclams Filmführer, by Dieter Krusche, collaboration: Jürgen Labenski. P. 36. Stuttgart 1973.
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 7: R - T. Robert Ryan - Lily Tomlin. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 348.
- ↑ Liz-Anne Bawden (ed.), German edition by Wolfram Tichy: Buchers Enzyklopädie des Films. Lucerne and Frankfurt / M. 1977, p. 716.