Rågens rike (1929) / [The Kingdom of Rye]

Rågens rike (1929). Margit Manstad (Klara), Eric Laurent (Markus).

Viljan valtakunta.
    SE 1929. PC: Tellus Film. P: Maja Engelbrektson. D+SC: Ivar Johansson - based on the epic poem by Jarl Hemmer (1922) – in Finnish 1926 Huugo Jalkanen / Schildt. DP: Carl Halling. AD: Vilhelm Bryde. Make-up: Gustav Runsten. Text design: Alva Lundin.
    Cast: Mathias Taube (Mattias Spangar, big farmer), Eric Laurent (Markus, his farmhand), Märta Lindelöf (the widow of Gammelgården), Margit Manstad (Klara, her daughter), Artur Cederborgh (The "Prophet" of the Crossroads), Gustav Runsten (his farmhand), Axel Slangus (Pekka the Knife, boss of the lumberjacks), Gösta Ericsson (Ante, his confidante), Solveig Hedergran (Stina, the young maid servant of Spangarn), Lizzie Nyström (the old maid servant of Spangarn), Sven Bergvall (Gusten, the eldest son at Gammelgården), Wictor Hagman (Jan, the middle son of Gammelgården), Rune Engelbrektson (Lill-Matt, the youngest son).
    Restored version (Svenska Filminstitutet / Filmarkivet) 2625 m /18 fps/ 128 min viewed with e-subtitles in Finnish by Leena Virtanen at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 10 Nov 2010.

A favourite of Ingmar Bergman's, this late Swedish silent masterpiece was seen in Finland again after 80 years in a beautiful print from Filmarkivet / Svenska Filminstitutet.

Based on a Finnish poem and with the Finnish Axel Slangus as the boss of the lumberjacks it could be the stuff of a Finnish film, but the Swedish silent cinema was superior to the Finnish one.

Klara (Margit Manstad), the daughter of Gammelgården has been promised to Mattias (Mathias Taube), the old master of Spangarn, but she loves the young farmhand Markus (Eric Laurent) who has saved her from the rape attempt of Pekka the Knife, the lumberjack boss (Slangus). At the altar Klara faints (another instance of the cinema's obsession with the cancelled wedding).

Subsequently there is a strange arrangement where Klara who cannot return home moves to Spangarn but lives separately from Mattias. The whole year is strange. Mattias invites Markus to a night of heavy drinking, drinks him under the table and drags him to the pigsty to sleep with the sow. The humiliated Markus retreats to a winter lumber camp where he meets again Pekka who has been released from prison.

At night, Klara becomes a sleepwalker, shockingly to men and animals (she scares a horse on the road at night). The tormented Mattias cannot sleep either. The whole village suffers until the strange Prophet of the Crossroads advises Mattias to do the right thing.

Near the conclusion there is even a rapid-shooting sequence, as Markus returns to the village in his boat, à travers les rapides.

The tempo is assured, the performances are convincing, there is true feeling in the nature imagery, and the final image of the cornfield into which Klara and Markus vanish, is lovely.