Dáma s malou nožkou / [The Lady with the Small Foot]

Gustav Machatý - Národní filmový archiv, Praha

DÁMA S MALOU NOŽKOU [La dama dal piedino / The Lady with the Small Foot] (Geem-Film, CZ 1920) D: Přemysl Pražský, Jan S. Kolár; SC: Jan S. Kolár, Gustav Machatý; DP: Svatopluk Innemann; C: Olga Augustová (la dama dal piedino/the lady with the small foot), Gustav Machatý (Tom Machata, detective), František Pelíšek (Archibald Pelich, assistente di Tom/Tom’s assistant), Přemysl Pražský (uomo di mondo/a man of the world), Svatopluk Innemann (uomo nell’auto/man in the car), Anny Ondráková (la ragazza dell’uomo di mondo/the man of the world’s girlfriend), Jan S. Kolár (uomo sul tetto/man on the roof), Máša Hermanová (assassino/murderer), Emilie Boková (vecchia spazzina/old street-sweeper), Bonda Szynglarski, František Herman; rel: 5.2.1920; 35 mm, 827 m, 40' (18 fps); print source: Národní filmový archiv, Praha. Czech intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in English and Italian, grand piano: John Sweeney, 6 Oct 2013

Jiří Horníček: "Dáma s malou nožkou (The Lady with the Small Foot) was the second film produced by Geem-Film, a company founded in 1919 by an 18-year-old film enthusiast, Gustav Machatý, later an internationally-known director. This was a boom period for cinema in the recently constituted Czechoslovak state, and witnessed the emergence of many new production companies, but under conditions far removed from the highly developed cinema industry in America, or other European countries."

"One of the film’s opening intertitles characterizes the story as a “comical piece about a detective, who discovered nothing, but found his true love”. Gustav Machatý plays the main character, young Tom Machata, on unemployment and daydreaming about a breakthrough in a criminal case. Exploiting the current popularity of film detective serials and their literary models, with cheap paperback heroes like Léon Clifton or Nick Carter, the film itself then oscillates between three genres – detective story, romance, and slapstick – connected by exaggeration, a quality usually associated only with comedy. In the slapstick scenes, Tom’s associate Archibald is the main character and the immediate cause for many of the film’s action sequences – a car chase, the destruction of a shoe-cleaner’s cart, and fistfights. Of the two other genres, the detective story is treated highly ironically, e.g., by emphasis on the primitive investigative methods or naïvety of Tom and Archibald’s disguises while following suspects. Similarly, the lightness of the case being developed and its being propelled by all-powerful coincidence works. The irony of the twists and turns in the love story is not as successful. But it is interesting in its timid suggestion of erotic motifs, which Gustav Machatý developed more seriously in his later melodramas."

"The importance of The Lady with the Small Foot in the history of Czech cinema also lies in introducing future film star Anny Ondráková, as the young girl having her shoes polished by Archibald disguised as a fake shoeshine-boy. Jana Machatá, Gustav Machatý’s mother, appears in another cameo, as a lady helping Tom into his overcoat."

"The surviving copy of the film is introduced by the “reconstruction” of Anny’s discovery for the silver screen. This was a promotional sequence shot in 1921 by the Kalos company, probably in connection with another Ondráková film, Otrávené světlo (The Poisoned Light, directed by Jan S. Kolár and Karel Lamač). Czech director Přemysl Pražský plays the filmmaker who discovers Anny, meeting her in a park and convincing her of the benefits of becoming a film star." Jiří Horníček

AA: I watched the prologue only. The funny and sunny personality of Anny Ondra becomes immediately apparent, unlike in the first four Czech feature films screened in Pordenone. Frustrated, I gave up and missed the best films of Pordenone's Anny Ondra series.

Chytte ho! / [Catch Him!] (1925)

CHYT’TE HO! with Anny Ondráková (Anny Ondra), Karel Lamač, photo: Národní filmový archiv.

Anny Ondráková (Anny Ondra) - Národní filmový archiv, Praha

CHYT’TE HO! (Lupič nešika) [Prendetelo! / Catch Him!; Il ladro maldestro / The Clumsy Burglar] (AB, CZ 1925). D: Karel Lamač; SC: Karel Lamač, Václav Wasserman; DP: Otto Heller; AD: Vilém Rittershaun; C: Karel Lamač (Johnny Miller, lo scultore/sculptor), Anny Ondráková (Lilly Ward, una ricca orfana/a rich orphan), Theodor Pištěk (Frank Sellins, il tutore/Lilly’s guardian), Antonie Nedošinská (la bambinaia/Lilly’s nanny), Martin Frič (l’amico di Johnny/Johhny’s friend); rel: 1.1.1925; 35 mm, 1015 m, 37' (24 fps); print source: Národní filmový archiv, Praha. Czech intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in English and Italian, grand piano: John Sweeney, 6 Oct 2013

Get Shorty shares the same Czech title with this Anny Ondra movie.

Michal Večeřa: "On his way home from a party, painter Johnny Miller bets his friends he can find his house blindfolded. But he stumbles into a bandits’ camp, and being mistaken for one of them, is sent to rob the villa of Frank Sellins, a banker, and his niece Lilly. During the robbery he is caught by Lilly."

"Chyťte ho! (Catch Him!) was made in 1924, when the creative trio of Ondráková, Lamač, and Heller was already experienced in making films. Karel Lamač and Anny Ondráková had appeared in a number of German and Austrian films – for example, Lamač played Patrocles in Helena (1924) and Ondráková acted in Sodom und Gomorrha (1922) and Zigeunerliebe (1922). Like their previous films, Chyťte ho! was inspired by foreign models. While Otrávené světlo (The Poisoned Light, 1921) was a mystery detective story, Chyťte ho! (Catch Him!) tried to imitate American slapstick comedies, and is generically very similar to Únos bankéře Fuxe (The Kidnapping of Fux the Banker, 1923), screened in Pordenone in 2009. Lamač acknowledged his source of inspiration on the invitation to the film’s premiere: “As majority of nations require productions of the American kind, we have framed our comedy accordingly.” Alongside directly copied American gags, the film features other elements otherwise scarce in Czech cinema: Western costumes, a black villain, and policemen dressed like those in American slapstick comedies. The film’s cosmopolitan ambitions are openly affirmed by its unidentified location and the rather English- sounding names of the characters."

"Anny Ondráková impersonates the type of character for which would be famous. We can see it crystallize before us. Compared to her previous work, she is certainly no longer the passive young girl of Setřelé písmo (The Missing Letters), smiling and blinking directly at the camera. In contrast, here she is a naughty and stubborn imp, with blonde hair and big eyes, definitely at the centre of the story. Even so, her biggest roles were still to come."

"The version of the film now available is probably incomplete. The Národní Filmový Archiv holds a copy approximately one-third the length of that described in the censorship entry. But no records of missing scenes survive, unless we count a contemporary review which mentions a dream sequence. According to the reviewer, in this sequence Johnny dreamed he was “chased by a policeman, and was being tormented by a mocking dance of legal paragraph signs”. (Note: “Legal paragraph signs” refers to § signs, used in Czech law texts.)"

"We know that the film received mixed reviews. Negative feedback criticized the film’s genre and sources of inspiration. One reviewer even wrote: “We will never catch up with the American genre. That lays in the disposition of different men, artists, and countries. It is silly and foolish then, when yet another Czech film tries to make an American ‘hit’ with convulsive stubbornness.” But enthusiastic voices also appeared, one of them even heading his article “The most significant Czech premiere of this season”." – Michal Večeřa (The GCM Catalogue)

AA: A wild chase farce full of disguises and misunderstandings. A masked reveller returns home with his eyes tied. There is an adventure while blindfolded, a chain of sausages sets the dogs to chase Johnny, the chase leads to the cemetery where the villains are having a meeting, leading the protagonist to rob a house. The leading robber is courteous to Anny. The bungling policemen manage to handcuff each other. Loose fake hands help the robbers. There are some funny jokes of metamorphoses and disguises, a bit like in an animation. There are cliffhangers towards the end, falling down a cliff, being tied on railroad tracks, being almost hanged by the neck, Anny getting stuck into a moose's horns. Uncle finally sets her free. Lightweight stuff in an incomplete print with low definition and joins. Yet a sense of humour shines through. Anny Ondra has not yet found her true star persona in this movie.

Felix the Cat, seven Otto Messmer cartoons in Pordenone, 2013 (and the Russell Merritt introduction)

Felix the Cat Trips thru Toyland. – George Eastman House Motion Picture Department Collection

Felix the Cat Trips thru Toyland. – George Eastman House Motion Picture Department Collection

Cinemazero (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in Italian, grand piano: John Sweeney, 12 Oct 2013.

FELIX THE CAT – introduction in the GCM Catalogue 2013

“To me a mouse is a repulsive thing.” – Otto Messmer, quoted by Donald Crafton
 
Russell Merritt: Felix the Irrepressible

"Felix the Cat was the most successful cartoon figure of the silent era. In his own time, he ruled animation as Chaplin ruled live-action comedy, Babe Ruth baseball, or Man o’ War horse racing. He was the mirthful personality kid, the effervescent trickster who could also play the lovesick Romeo, the lecherous sheik, or the doting uncle who still came across as a loner. For almost ten years, from 1919 to 1928, he seemed to be everywhere – in cartoons that appeared at least once a month, in syndicated comic strips, in songs, and on products you could eat, wear, and bring home with you. Newspapers and magazines published his letters and conducted interviews with him, while starlets in photo spreads taught him to dance the Charleston and the Black Bottom."

"But if he was a sensation, the public never knew or, for that matter, much cared how Felix films were made or who actually made them. The man who took the credit was Pat Sullivan (c.1885–1933), a former cartoonist who built the New York animation studio where Felix was created, and a businessman with feral sensibilities. The illusion was that, because he was the producer, Sullivan had created Felix himself. His name, and only his name, was on the films. But the true creative genius was a painfully self-effacing animator from New Jersey named Otto Messmer (1892–1983), who slaved for years in anonymity, indifferent to whether he received credit or not. The result: while Sullivan basked in Felix’s glory, touring Europe as a celebrity and inventing tales of Felix’s origins, Messmer and his staff quietly produced upward of 150 Felix cartoons in Sullivan’s New York studio at 47 W. 63rd St., at the rate of one and two per month."

"By the time the first cartoon in our program, Felix Loses Out, was released (January 1924), Felix was already five years old. He had grown from a comic insert for a series of 1919 Paramount newsreels into a full-blown celebrity, and the Messmer signatures are by now on full display: Felix the thinker who makes direct eye contact with the audience, pauses to think out his problem, and comes up with an ingenious Rube Goldberg-ish solution. Felix the jazz baby who sings and dances the latest Paul Whiteman novelty while stealing a riff from Keaton’s 1923 Our Hospitality (Keaton returned the favor two years later with a classic parody of Felix in Go West). And Felix the trickster, swindling a stereotypical Chinese store-owner out of cheese to shanghai a mouse."

"But the cartoon also shows important refinements in Messmer’s original design. Originally, Felix looked something like a cartoon fox, his face and body all angles and points, his nose at the tip of a snout. By 1924, however, that look had been replaced by the now familiar circular design with the rubbery body and wide eyes. It was the work of Bill Nolan, a celebrity guest animator who, with Messmer’s blessing, also devised the supple rubber-hose animation that gave Felix funnier, smoother movements."

"Meanwhile, Messmer had discovered fantasy kingdoms, and, as Felix reached the zenith of his popularity, he was flying through space to strange planets and magic underworlds. To enhance Felix’s travels, Messmer constructed whimsical settings inspired mainly by Sunday comic strips and nursery book illustrations. Even when the backdrops are little more than simple line drawings, they can startle with their strange juxtapositions. In Felix Trips Thru Toyland, Felix races past the silhouette of a lynched clown hovering over a chessboard. Toyland’s sky doesn’t simply feature stars and planets. A wooden duck floats past, followed by Japanese lanterns. Here and elsewhere, Felix is falling under the influence of Sunday comic strips like Frank King’s Gasoline Alley, George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, and Cliff Sterrett’s Polly and Her Pals, famous for their modish settings. Meanwhile, serious critics and artists like Gilbert Seldes and Béla Balázs began to see affinities between Felix and Cubism and Surrealism; in 1927, Paul Hindemith composed a piece “for mechanical organ” for him (Felix der Kater im Zirkus, alas reportedly lost)."

"Felix’s endless inventiveness and magical solutions continued to rule the cartoons. But, as John Canemaker points out in his classic 1991 book on Felix, the design of individual scenes continually surprises the eye with their elegant beauty. The flame-lit globes that float through the ice village in Eskimotive create a lovely futuristic scene. But even more impressive are Messmer’s kinetic effects in his fantastical battles. In Felix the Cat Flirts with Fate, Felix’s violent encounter with the Martian nightclub bouncer takes on intergalactic proportions, as Messmer pulls out all the stops. While Felix’s dance gets the moon, the forest, and even New York skyscrapers to shimmy, the fight triggers a full array of special effects: flash-frames, double exposures, lightning shifts in negative-positive polarities, step-printing, bursting captions, exploding abstract shapes. Eskimotive has a field day with Felix’s shifty eyes darting around in the dark, detached from the rest of his body, while Jungle Bungles brings Felix the self-reflexive Cat onto center stage. In a nod to the jungle pictures made popular by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack, Felix takes his camera to Africa so that Messmer can play games with the cartoon wild animals and the images Felix shoots of them."

"In the summer of 1928, as Jungle Bungles was released, Felix started his crash. The talkie revolution caught Sullivan unprepared, and, when the studio refused to invest in sound, Felix lost his distributor. Within months Felix was devoured by a mouse who proved a master of the new era. As a cartoon series, Felix fell almost as quickly as he had come into prominence. Jungle Bungles was one of the last Felix cartoons ever made. After that, the studio subsisted mainly on reissues released with crude music tracks, interspersed with occasional new titles. Felix faded into the backwash of the silent era, eclipsed by Mickey Mouse, and was finally relegated to a minor position as a comic strip and Dell comic book. There was a revival TV cartoon series of 1959, but he never enjoyed the popularity of the 1920s again."

"Today, most people have never seen Felix on a screen. His silent cartoons are rarely shown, and almost never in their original format (two exceptions: the 2006 Giornate, which showed five Felix cartoons in 35 mm, and the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival with their tribute). When the Sullivan studio collapsed, the Felix silents, so fiercely protected by copyright enforcers during their first run, scattered into the spin-off markets of non-theatrical and home distribution. So they survive almost entirely in the limbo of substandard gauges: condensed 9.5mm Pathé Kodascopes, reissued 16 mm and 8mm prints. With no studio archive to protect them, almost all the original negatives were lost or destroyed. But thanks to the sustained efforts of museums, public archives, and private collectors, we can catch a glimpse of what we’ve been missing. At last, Felix returns to the Giornate, belly laugh and all." – Russell Merritt (GCM Catalogue)

In 1977 John Canemaker, who was just starting his own career as an animator and animation historian, interviewed Otto Messmer and Al Eugster (who began his career as Felix’s blackener) for a short documentary, Otto Messmer and Felix the Cat. This delightful film marked one of the rare on-camera appearances of Messmer, who was notoriously shy (“Like the cartoons, I am silent,” he once told an audience). The film was a favourite of Angelo R. Humouda, founder of the Cineteca Griffith and the inspiration for the Cineteca del Friuli. An Italian version of the script appeared in the special Messmer-Felix issue of Griffithiana (no. 22-23, May 1985). Otto Messmer and Felix the Cat is included on the 2002 Milestone DVD collection of John Canemaker’s work, Marching to a Different Toon. (GCM Catalogue)

All films courtesy of Don Oriolo & Felix the Cat Creations, Inc. – All rights reserved & © 2013 FTCP, Inc.

FELIX LOSES OUT (Pat Sullivan, US 1924) D: Otto Messmer; AN: Bill Nolan, Hal Walker, Dana Parker, Burton Gillett; ink and paint: Jack Bogle; DP: Alfred Thurber; dist: Margaret J. Winkler; rel: 15.1.1924; 35 mm, 565 ft, 6' (24 fps); print source: Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, VA. English intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in Italian, grand piano: John Sweeney, 6 Oct 2013 – AA: "All chicks fall for a guy with a car". When the rival with the car gets the girl Felix conjures a vehicle for himself: "watch that flapper fall for this motor". The vehicle is driven by a mouse after a piece of cheese, but the rival lets the mouse loose. Speech bubbles convey dialogue. A look is conveyed via a dotted line. Black ink on white background.

FELIX THE CAT TRIPS THRU TOYLAND (Pat Sullivan, US 1925) D: Otto Messmer; AN: George [Vernon] Stallings, Hal Walker, Dana Parker, Burton Gillett; ink and paint: Al Eugster; dist: Educational Film Exchanges; rel: 20.9.1925; 35 mm, 723 ft, 8' (22 fps); print source: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY. Preserved and printed in 2004 from a 35 mm nitrate negative. English intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in Italian, grand piano: Stephen Horne, 7 Oct 2013 – AA: A mended girl doll takes an amorous Felix to Toyland, beyond the clouds. They face a mean white Auguste clown (see images above). Felix blows a soap balloon and himself into it. There is a dream-like chase with metamorphoses, kites, horns, tin soldiers, an all-out war, and fireworks. A good print.

FELIX THE CAT FLIRTS WITH FATE (Pat Sullivan, US 1926) D: Otto Messmer; AN: George [Vernon] Stallings, Hal Walker, Dana Parker, Burton Gillett; ink and paint: Al Eugster; dist: Educational Film Exchanges; rel: 24.1.1926; 35 mm, 716 ft, 8'30" (24 fps); print source: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY. Preserved and printed 2004 from a 35 mm nitrate negative. English intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in Italian, grand piano: Stephen Horne, 8 Oct 2013 – AA: A cosmic love adventure. The cats meet under the moonlight. A girl cat's look chills Felix's heart. There is a montage of all living creatures making love. Felix cultivates a camera look to us. He flies with a firecracker to the Moon. The musical notes of his whistle turn into wheels, and Felix lands into Mars Dance Hall. There is a wild Charleston, the whole street is rocking, even trees are dancing, as is the elephant. The professors agree: "you can't do no Charleston on Mars". A cosmic fight ensues, there is a flicker episode with rapidly changing black and white frames, and an extreme close-up of Felix through the telescope.

FELIX THE CAT IN BLUNDERLAND (Pat Sullivan, US 1926) D: Otto Messmer; AN: George [Vernon] Stallings, Hal Walker, Dana Parker, Burton Gillett; ink and paint: Al Eugster; dist: Educational Film Exchanges; rel: 7.2.1926; 35 mm, 758 ft, 9' (22 fps), col. (tinted amber); print source: UCLA Film & Television Archive, Los Angeles. English intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in Italian, grand piano: Stephen Horne, 9 Oct 2013 – AA: Bon voyage. Felix is reading Lewis Carroll and asks for the policeman for directions to Wonderland, hitting him on the head with a question mark. "Alice, where art thou going?" Musical notes come alive. The dragon is in the doghouse, and Beanstalk Jack is met - the fairy-tales have been messed up as the dragon saws the beanstalk with his jagged tail. Felix falls onto the giant and levitates with his heavy breath. "Little Bo Peep lost her sheep". Finally Felix has to ask the policeman for directions home.

FELIX THE CAT WEATHERS THE WEATHER (Pat Sullivan, US 1926) D: Otto Messmer; AN: George [Vernon] Stallings, Hal Walker, Dana Parker, Burton Gillett; ink and paint: Al Eugster; dist: Educational Film Exchanges; rel: 21.3.1926; 35 mm, 669 ft, 8'30" (21 fps), col. (tinted amber); print source: UCLA Film & Television Archive, Los Angeles. English intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in Italian, grand piano: Antonio Coppola, 10 Oct 2013 – AA: Felix is a family father with two kittens. In the morning they dress in their kitten wear. The sun is shining but as soon as they family is on its way it starts to rain. "Darn that Weather Man!" There is a battle in the clouds where Felix confronts the Weather Man (a man with a watering can), and there is a fascinating series of metamorphoses with Felix's tail turning into different functions, and heat and frost alternating. An inspired instance of the spirit of animation.

FELIX THE CAT IN ESKIMOTIVE (Pat Sullivan, US 1928) D: Otto Messmer; AN: Hal Walker, Dana Parker, Burton Gillett; ink and paint: Al Eugster; dist: Educational Film Exchanges; rel: 19.4.1928; reissue: Jacques Kopfstein, c.1929-30; 35 mm, c.715 ft, 8' (24 fps); print source: Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, VA. No intertitles. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), grand piano: Lillian Henley (masterclass participant), 11 Oct 2013 – AA: Playing with soap bubbles Felix flies to the North Pole. There are various gags about snow, ice, darkness, and northern lights, and confronting polar bears and seals. The polar bear pokes Felix to a hole in the ice, and there is an underwater adventure sequence. Felix reaps a catch of seals, takes the skins to a furrier, and receives a bag of money.

FELIX THE CAT IN JUNGLE BUNGLES (La extraña aventura de Felix) (Pat Sullivan, US 1928) D: Otto Messmer; AN: Hal Walker, Dana Parker, Burton Gillett; ink and paint: Al Eugster; dist: Educational Film Exchanges; rel: 22.7.1928; 35 mm, 551 ft, 6' (24 fps); print source: Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation, Culpeper, VA. Main title in Spanish, English intertitles. – AA: While Felix is photographing in the jungle and underwater, a monkey performs a musical production number, but the photographic objects start to interfere. A jungle beast jumps inside the camera, the camera turns into a chain of sausages, a giraffe eats up the sausages, an ostrich eats the film, and a jungle tribe chases Felix who escapes on the back of the ostrich. Finally there is a jungle film screening with the ostrich as a projector which screens images of wild beasts, chasing the tribesmen away.

Flickan i frack / [The Girl in Tails] (1926) (2013 SFI Filmarkivet print, Desmet colour)

FLICKAN I FRACK. En sommarlätt filmhistoria [Frakkipukuinen tyttö / La ragazza col frac / The Girl in Tails]
    AB Biografernas Filmdepôt, SE 1926. D: Karin Swanström; SC: Hjalmar  Bergman, Ivar Johansson - based on the novel (1925) by Hjalmar Bergman; DP: Ragnar Westfelt; title des: Alva Lundin;
    C: Einar Axelsson (Ludwig von Battwhyl), Magda Holm (Katja Kock), Nils Arehn (il vecchio/Old Kock), Georg Blomstedt (Starck, il preside/ the headmaster), Karin Swanström (Hyltenius, la vedova del pastore/ widow of the county priest), Erik Zetterström (Curry,il fratello di Katja/Katja’s brother), Carina May (Eva Björck, la ragazza di Curry/ Curry’s girlfriend)
    35 mm, 2473 m, 114' (19 fps), col. (tinted, Desmet method); print source: Filmarkivet vid Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm. Swedish intertitles.
    Remade as Flickan i frack (Arne Mattsson, 1956, starring Maj-Britt Nilsson)

    Viewed at Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), with e-titles in English and Italian, grand piano: Günter Buchwald, 5 Oct 2013

Jon Wengström: "Flickan i frack (literally, “The Girl in Tails”) is a comedy heavily relying on the dialogue conveyed in the intertitles, almost to the point where one could say that it works, despite being silent. The script was written by Hjalmar Bergman, a famous novelist and playwright, who first tried his luck at scriptwriting for the cinema in the late 1910s, mainly for Victor Sjöström (he even joined the director in Hollywood for a few months in 1924). Many of Bergman’s film scripts were adaptations of his own works, and they don’t always work very well for the screen, but that for Flickan i frack, based on his own novel published the previous year, is arguably his best."

"The story centres on life in a small town, where both children of an industrial inventor are graduating from college. The father takes more interest in the education of his son than his daughter, who takes matters into her own hands. The film contains one of the first instances of cross-dressing in Swedish cinema, when Katja steals the tail suit of her brother Curry in order to attend the graduation ball, where she creates further scandal by drinking brandy and smoking cigars."

"The film was directed by Karin Swanström (1873-1942), one of the few female filmmakers of the period. Flickan i frack is probably the best of the four silent films she directed (though it has to be said that of the remaining three, one is completely lost, and a second only survives as a fragment). The scene in which the daughter arrives at the ball dressed in her brother’s clothes is ingeniously and movingly staged. Swanström was also successful  as an actress in the 1920s, and has prominent parts in Gustaf Molander’s Hans engelska fru (Matrimony, 1927) and Förseglade läppar (Sealed Lips, 1927), both in this year’s Giornate. In Flickan i frack she plays the widow of the county priest, shown to be pulling all the strings in the life of the small town, and has a memorable scene with Georg Blomstedt, in which they contemplate the fact that they are both approaching the end of their lives. Swanström later became the most influential figure in Swedish cinema in her capacity as artistic head of production at the country’s major studio, AB Svensk Filmindustri, a post she held from 1933 to 1941."

THE RESTORATION

"A tinted nitrate print with English intertitles surfaced in the early 1970s. From this nitrate element a black-and-white duplicate  negative was made, downsized to Academy ratio. When this preservation project was reopened in 2008, the original Swedish intertitles were recreated from a complete list of intertitles submitted to the censorship  board, now housed in the collections of the National Archives of Sweden. The font and design of the titles were based on eight original title cards found in the non-film collections of the Swedish Film Institute. The new intertitles were inserted into the existing  negative, and the colours were recreated with the Desmet method, using the colours in the English nitrate print as a reference. The nitrate had however deteriorated to the point where no further duplication was possible, resulting in the fact that new viewing prints are still in the Academy aspect ratio." – Jon Wengström (GCM Catalogue)

AA: Karin Swanström directs smoothly in light comedy mode Hjalmar Bergman's story set among the well-to-do youth, with satirical barbs about the young count who surprises everybody by passing the student exam.

There is an element of gravity in the young Katja's ordeal. She is being terribly discriminated by her father who even makes the effort to cancel Katja's orders of a ball gown and its accessories. Remains no other alternative than to dress in her brother's dress coat.

The ball sequence is remarkable. The dancing stops, and Katja's friends retreat in horror.

During this year's GCM this movie invites comparison with The Freshman, with Harold Lloyd's equally shocking appearance at a ball.

Hjalmar Bergman's great theme was humiliation, with a profound resonance with both Victor Sjöström (Mästerman) and Ingmar Bergman (Gycklarnas afton). Flickan i frack is a smart story in a lighter key.

The restoration has been with loving care from the source material. I have my usual reservations about the application of the Desmet method.

Jon Wengström: Sealed Lips: Sweden’s Forgotten Years, 1925-1929 (Pordenone 2013 introduction)

Jon Wengström
Labbra sigillate: gli anni dimenticati del cinema svedese, 1925-1929
Sealed Lips: Sweden’s Forgotten Years, 1925-1929
The late 1910s and early 1920s are often referred to as the Golden Age of Swedish silent cinema, beginning in 1917 with Victor Sjöström’s Terje Vigen (A Man There Was), which set the production policy of major studio AB Svenska Biografteatern and its later incarnation AB Svensk Filmindustri for years to come. After the release of Mauritz Stiller’s Gösta Berlings saga (The Saga of Gosta Berling) in 1924, many of the biggest names, among them directors Sjöström and Stiller as well as actors Greta Garbo and Lars Hanson, left Sweden for pastures new in Europe and Hollywood, and the glory days of Swedish cinema were regarded as over. This version of film history has led to an unfortunate neglect of Swedish films produced in the latter half of the 1920s. Our programme “Sealed Lips” aims to give these traditionally overlooked films the chance to speak again.

The “Golden Age” label is problematic, since it can be said to refer to the films’ mode of production rather than necessarily their quality. In AB Svenska Biografteatern’s formative years – after moving from the rural town of Kristianstad in the south of Sweden to Stockholm, where their first studios were erected on the island of Lidingö in 1912 – they made around 20-25 films a year. The success of Terje Vigen, an adaptation of an Ibsen poem, led the studio to concentrate on fewer but more prestigious films, often based on famous literary sources, and annual output dropped to only a handful. And even though Terje Vigen was by no means the first Swedish film to be set in natural locations, its depiction of Man’s struggle against the elements set the model for films to come. Seen in this light, a post-1924 film like Gustaf Molander’s Ingmarsarvet (The Ingmar Inheritance, 1925; shown at the Giornate in 1999 as part of the “Nordic Explorations” retrospective) – a big-budget adaptation of a work by Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf, shot on location showing the characters’ interaction with nature – clearly belongs to the Golden Age, which is why it is not included in this programme, although it deserves reappraisal and far greater recognition. This recipe for success was eventually adopted, with more (and sometimes less) successful results, by other Swedish studios, such as Filmindustri AB Skandia’s adaptations of works by Norwegian writer Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Ett farligt frieri (A Dangerous Wooing, Rune Carlsten, 1919) and Synnöve Solbakken (A Norway Lass, John W. Brunius, 1919).

Though the local flavour of these rural dramas was part of the overseas appeal of Swedish films during the late 1910s and early 1920s, there were already ambitions before the end of the Golden Age to make films with a more international character, in urban settings. After the success of Stiller’s comedy Erotikon (1920), about a desperate housewife courted by several men, set in upper-class Stockholm milieux, the director and the studio contemplated a series of films in the same genre, although nothing came of it. Sjöström’s Klostret i Sendomir (The Secret of the Monastery, 1920; screened in Pordenone in 2011) was a similar case. Though set in the mid-17th century, it was clearly conceived for an international audience, with the action taking place on the Continent. The most emblematic film of this internationalist tendency was Karusellen (The Merry-Go-Round, Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1923; screened in Pordenone in 2010), entirely produced and financed by AB Svensk Filmindustri, but made with an international cast and crew (except for cinematographer Julius Jaenzon) at the Johannisthal studios outside Berlin, and featuring an anonymous modern metropolitan setting.

It is often argued that by deviating from the specific national style that emerged in the late 1910s in order to try to accommodate more international tastes Swedish cinema was responsible for its own demise. But just as it is far from true to claim that all films made during the Golden Age were great, it is equally unjust to discard all post-1924 films. The films included in “Sealed Lips” may not form a coherent body of films with similar themes, shared stylistic traits, or common production values, but taken as a whole they show us that Swedish cinema still produced highly interesting films even after Gösta Berlings saga.

The most prolific director of this period was Gustaf Molander, later to become the dean of Swedish directors, with a successful though uneven career that lasted well into the 1960s. Molander began as a scriptwriter in the 1910s, working with Sjöström (Terje Vigen, 1917) and Stiller (Herr Arnes pengar / Sir Arne’s Treasure, 1919), and when he turned to directing he continued partly in his colleagues’ vein. Ingmarsarvet (1925) has all the traits particular to Swedish films during the Golden Age, although the new trend is evident in its casting of German actor Conrad Veidt.

The four Molander films included in “Sealed Lips” all manifest this shift towards internationalism. Hans engelska fru (Matrimony, 1927) bears all the hallmarks: co- produced by AB Svensk Filmindustri’s international co-production subsidiary AB Isepa in tandem with a German company, it was partially set in a London high-society milieu, and starred German actress Lil Dagover. The film which gives our programme its title, Förseglade läppar (Sealed Lips, 1927), was a Swedish-German-French co- production, is set in Italy, and features Austrian-born Louis Lerch as its male lead. Synd (Sin, 1928), a Swedish-British-German co-production set in Paris, includes Elissa Landi and Gina Manès in the cast. All three are highly interesting films, obviously in the hands of a very skilful director, with some remarkable individual scenes aided by the expert cinematography of Julius Jaenzon, but apart from the rural sequences in Hans engelska fru there is absolutely nothing revealing their country of origin; they could have been made anywhere, which of course was the intention of the Swedish studio that produced them. Our fourth Molander film, Polis Paulus’ påskasmäll (The Smugglers, 1925) also has an international factor, as it was a “Pat and Patachon” vehicle for the Danish comedians Carl Schenstrøm and Harald Madsen.

Another co-production was Fången n:r 53 (Convict no. 53), the Swedish release version of Anthony Asquith’s British classic A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929). The film’s Swedish participation was minor, but included cinematographer Axel Lindblom and main actor Uno Henning, and was a way for AB Svensk Filmindustri to continue its involvement in co-productions even after AB Isepa folded. The Swedish version of Asquith’s film is significantly different from the British, most notably in changes in the story’s chronology, editing, and use of intertitles. Two other films made at the very end of the silent era, Rågens rike (The Kingdom of Rye, 1929) and Den starkaste (The Strongest, 1929), both share characteristics with earlier Swedish films, with action in rural settings and some spectacular location shooting; indeed, Den starkaste is even more exotic than films from the Golden Age, depicting a seal-hunt in the Arctic Ocean, with some of the most stunning sequences in all Swedish silent cinema. Although Rågens rike contains fights among farm-hands and heavy drinking in summer “white nights”, and a spectacular river-ride sequence harking back to Stiller’s Sången om den eldröda blomman (Song of the Scarlet Flower, 1919) and Johan (1921), it differs significantly in atmosphere and style from its more famous counterparts, displaying an aspect rarely seen in Swedish films, the influence of Soviet cinema. Flickan i frack (The Girl in Tails, 1926) is a film apart, neither representing the internationalist trend nor being a variation on familiar motifs, but particularly interesting in the way it is driven by the dialogue conveyed by the intertitles, even to the extent that one can say it works despite being silent. Based on a script by Hjalmar Bergman (a member of the exodus to Hollywood a few years earlier), Flickan i frack is the only film in our programme directed by a woman, Karin Swanström, who came to play a very significant part in Swedish film production in the 1930s.

To say that the films of the latter half of the 1920s have suffered academic neglect is not quite accurate, as some prominent scholars like Jan Olsson have taken an interest in this period, but the films from this era have received far less study at home and abroad than those of the Golden Age and the formative years of Swedish cinema in the early 1910s. One reason is that some films have long been unavailable either in their original versions or in any intelligible version, a situation arising from archival neglect but now happily being redressed. The Pat and Patachon film was not available at all until only very recently, when preservation was carried out by using source elements from three different archives. Flickan i frack surfaced in the form of a foreign nitrate print in the 1970s, when it was first duplicated, but for more than three decades it existed only with English flash-titles, which was devastating for this comedy of words. For various reasons, the films included in “Sealed Lips” for many years have not been able to talk to us in their full voice. This is particularly true of Konstgjorda Svensson (“Artificial Svensson”). For more than eight decades, this 1929 comedy featuring scenes of spoken dialogue and music, with sound originally on Vitaphone discs, was only available in its silent version, but its lips are no longer sealed, and it is again able to speak. – Jon Wengström

Setřelé písmo / [The Missing Letters]

Josef Rovenský: Setřelé písmo / [The Missing Letters] (CZ 1921).

SETŘELÉ PÍSMO (Tajemství staré knihy) [Le lettere mancanti / The Missing Letters; Il mistero dell’antico libro / The Mystery of the Old Book]

    (Globusfilm, CZ 1921). D: Josef Rovenský; SC: Joe Jenčík, Jan S. Kolár; DP: Otto Heller; C: Anny Ondráková (Enny, la fioraia/a flower-girl), Karel Lamač (Šalda, uno scultore/a sculptor), Josef Rovenský (Randa, uno scultore/a sculptor), Joe Jenčík (Greeman, il truffatore/an international crook), Hana Jenčíková (Olga, la modella/Šalda’s model), Karel Schleichert, Josef Šváb-Malostranský, Josef Košák (professori e membri del museo/professors and museum members), Josef Neuberg, František Tichý, Frank Rose-Růžička (membri della banda di Greeman/ members of Greeman’s gang)

    release date: 25.2.1921; 35 mm, 1507 m, 73' (18 fps)

    print source: Národní filmový archiv, Praha. Czech intertitles. E-subtitles in English and Italian. 

    Grand piano: Philip C. Carli.

    Viewed at Teatro Verdi (Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto), 5 Oct 2013.

Michal Večeřa: "Setřelé písmo (The Missing Letters) tells the story of a greedy sculptor, Šalda, who is searching for the second part of a medieval manuscript containing instructions for finding a treasure. He confides his plans to his lover Olga, who leaves him when he rejects her as the model for his next statue. To take revenge on Šalda, Olga gangs up with a crook called Greeman, and together they decide to get the manuscript for themselves. In the meanwhile, Šalda engages Randa, a starving sculptor, as his assistant. Randa brings Enny, a poor flower-girl,in as a new model for Šalda’s work. When Šalda finds out that Randa is in love with Enny, he blackmails him into stealing the manuscript."

"The most fascinating aspect of this film is its production history. It contains footage from Palimpsest, a now-lost film made the previous year, which had been financed by Karel Kahlenbacher, the owner of a Prague laundry house, directed by Joe Jenčík, and shot mostly on location. The film was later reworked  by a production company called Globusfilm, and new scenes were shot in studios in Berlin and Vienna. Unfortunately, no evidence about the contents of the first film has survived, so we cannot say exactly which scenes were shot for the second film. However, some clues might be given by the different sharpness  and contrast of certain shots, even within one scene. The cohesion of the film’s fictional world is further disturbed when characters are photographed in front of a black background."

"In general, we can follow two principal tendencies in Czech cinema of the 1910s and early 1920s: staging in a tableau style, and analytical editing inspired by American films of the period. While Setřelé písmo includes many tableaux, these are interrupted by cut-ins, where the camera moves from long shots or full-figure shots to medium shots. This often results in a disruption of continuity – the subsequent shots lack cohesion in the characters’ looks and movement, and violate the 180-degree rule."

"The circumstances of the film’s creation probably also affected the logic of the events depicted. Judging from the fragmentary references of the period, Palimpsest already appeared somewhat chaotic, and even the participation of several of the more progressive filmmakers of the period – Jan S. Kolár, Karel Lamač, and Josef Rovenský – in the reworking of the original could not save the logical coherence of the second picture. We can only guess why the group of villains set out for the country and then return to their hideaway in town, why the gang leader Greeman jumps from the bridge into the river, or how two of the characters find themselves on a rooftop."

"Anny Ondráková was at the very beginning of her career at the time of Setřelé písmo, and she only appears in a supporting role, as the flower-girl Enny. We cannot even be sure if she appeared in Palimpsest in the same role. Whatever the case, her character here is very different from her later roles. She remains entirely passive, controlled by surrounding events. Her passivity is most obvious in the love triangle involving her, Šalda, and Randa. The villain Šalda uses Randa’s feelings for Enny to force him to steal the manuscript. And although  Randa’s feelings affect the development of the action, Enny is not really involved; she stands apart, overshadowed by the other characters."

"While Setřelé písmo appears as a qualitatively very uneven work, we need to remember that it marks the very first collaboration of several remarkable  artists of the inter-war Czechoslovak cinema – Anny Ondráková, Karel Lamač, cinematographer Otto Heller, and director and actor Josef Rovenský." – Michal Večeřa (The GCM Catalog)

AA: Important in the context of Czech film history, mediocre as a work in its own right. Twice I thought about the Blackmail connection: when Anny stands model to the artist, and when we visit the museum and its dome. The palimpsest theme is interesting: the double text, where one text is visible, and the other one hidden. The scene at the café of the artists is funny. The revenge plot is not terribly compelling. Anny Ondra has not yet found herself. She is a bit stiff and absent-minded. The print is often very nice, and the colour is fine. Sometimes there is a duped look.

Gilly poprvé v Praze / [Gilly in Prague for the First Time]

Anny Ondráková (Anny Ondra), Karel Lamač. Národní filmový archiv, Praha

GILLY POPRVÉ V PRAZE [Gilly a Praga per la prima volta / Gilly in Prague for the First Time] (Karel Lamač, CZ 1920). D+SC: Karel Lamač; DP: Josef Brabec; AD: Gustav Machatý; C: Václav Pražský (Gilly), Anny Ondráková (la ragazza/the girl), Karel Lamač (lo zio/her uncle); released in: 1920; 35 mm, 248 m, 11' (20 fps); print source: Národní filmový archiv, Praha. Czech intertitles. E-subtitles in English and Italian. Grand piano: Philip C. Carli. Teatro Verdi (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone), 5 Oct 2013.

Jiří Horníček: "The names of Karel Lamač and Anny Ondráková were linked for the first time in Czech cinema in 1919, when they both appeared in Palimpsest, directed by Joe Jenčík. Now considered a lost film, it was remade in 1921 as Setřelé písmo (The Missing Letters).  This slapstick comedy, Gilly poprvé v Praze (Gilly in Prague for the First Time) was thus only their second collaboration, which Lamač also directed  and produced. Then 23 years old, Lamač belonged to a group of young Czech filmmakers (Gustav Machatý, Jan S. Kolár, Svatopluk Innemann) who regarded  cinema as a specific creative sphere that should avoid the uncritical adoption of theatrical methods. The slapstick genre seemed to be the perfect starting-point to fulfil those views."

"The film consists of a chain of only vaguely connected crazy situations. Gilly, an eccentric young man, is charmed by a girl whom he notices mailing; a letter inviting her friend to meet her in the park. Gilly steals the letter from the post-box and sets off for the park to meet the girl. But her jealous uncle is a severe and cautious guardian. This leads to a series of elaborate  jokes, intrigues, and chases, in which  a modest version of the popular Keystone Kops appears."

"The title’s reference to Gilly being in Prague “for the first time” is most probably evidence of Lamač’s plan for this to be the first in a series of slapstick films, modelled on similar American, French, and German productions. Actually, by styling the character of Gilly after Chaplin’s tramp (note his moustache, hat, and manner of walking), Lamač openly acknowledged the source of his inspiration. The obvious paraphrase of Charlie is even more interesting if we consider that Gilly poprvé v Praze was made shortly after the Prague premiere  in January 1920 of Caught in a Cabaret (1914), the first Chaplin film released in Czechoslovakia." – Jiří Horníček (GCM Catalogue)

AA: There is, indeed, a Keystone affinity in this primitive slapstick movie with gags about a painter, roller skates, a clothesline, and being showered with water. Václav Pražský's Chaplin imitation is on the weak side. There is perhaps an Edna Purviance influence in Anny Ondra's still rather nondescript and passive performance. The print has been struck from a battered source.

[Anny Ondra Sound Test for Blackmail]

Anny Ondráková (Anny Ondra). From Národní filmový archiv, Praha.

[ANNY ONDRA SOUND TEST FOR BLACKMAIL] [Provino sonoro a Anny Ondra per Blackmail] (British International Pictures, GB 1929) D: Alfred Hitchcock; C: Alfred Hitchcock, Anny Ondra; 35 mm, 63 ft., 42" (24 fps), sound; print  source: BFI National Archive, London. English dialogue. Viewed at Teatro Verdi (Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto), 5 Oct 2013.

David Robinson: "Blackmail was begun as a silent film, but partway through production the company decided to make a section with sound. Hitchcock responded by enthusiastically  using sound for almost the entire picture, which was eventually released in both silent and sound versions. Anny Ondra had previously worked  successfully with Hitchcock on The Manxman, but now her marked  accent presented  a problem,  as this sound test shows. Hitchcock’s  solution – in an era before post-synching – was to have  the English  actress  Joan Barry record the lines as  Ondra mouthed them. The test exposes Hitchcock’s notorious  technique of testing actresses with challenging and in this case somewhat suggestive dialogue." – David Robinson (The GCM Catalog)

AA: This Anny Ondra sound test was screened several times during the festival. Anny Ondra had already starred for Hitchcock in a soulful performance in The Manxman. In this sound test Hitchcock is in his practical joker mode, doing his best to chide, tease and provoke Anny Ondra, who reacts with a mixture of embarrassment and fun. In less than a minute we get a sense of something characteristic of the spirit and the sense of humour of both Hitch and Anny.

Briana Čechová: Anny Ondra, European Comedienne (Pordenone 2013 introduction)

LUCERNA (CS 1925) [THE LANTERN]. Director: Karel Lamač. Poster. Národní filmový archiv, Praha

Národní filmový archiv 70

Briana Čechová:
Anny Ondra, comedienne europea
Anny Ondra, European Comedienne

Frigo was the Czech distribution name for Buster Keaton’s character), “Woman-Gag”, or the “Czech Porcelain Doll” – which of these images is the most accurate description of Anny Ondra, the first European star with Czech roots? A supple, girlish figure, with cheery, restless eyes with blinking long lashes, distinctive heart-shaped lips, curly blonde hair, and – despite the comparison with Keaton (made by Rudolf Arnheim) – an essential, quizzical smile. An ingénue with an innocent expression, and an emancipated woman with a large dose of sex appeal. This modern, temperamental, and agreeably snappy woman probably was not swept to the heights of European popularity by her beauty or talents, but by an uncommon sense of humour and an inclination to practical jokes. Initially she was confined to child-woman roles by her directors, similar to Lucy Doraine, Mary Pickford, or Ossi Oswalda (indeed, for a short time she was even billed as “Ossia Valdová”). Only when she was emancipated from this persona did she become, at least for few years, the best European comic actress, who also excelled in dramatic roles.

The term “star” was never common in the world of early Czech cinema. In the first half of the 1920s, only Suzanne Marwille complied with the attributes of stardom, followed by Anny Ondráková. But for Ondráková, this was a condition of her work for foreign productions. Her success abroad strengthened her position at home, while always accenting her modesty and pride of her Czech roots. Only the comic actor Vlasta Burian in the sound period enjoyed a similar popularity. Coincidentally, Ondráková was Burian’s only equal female comic partner, working with him in the silent Milenky starého kriminálníka (The Lovers of an Old Criminal, 1927, directed by Svatopluk Innemann) and in her first Czech sound film, On a jeho sestra (Him and His Sister, 1931, directed by Karel Lamacˇ and Martin Fricˇ).

Anna Sofie Ondráková (15.5.1902, Tarnów, Poland – 28.2.1987, Hollenstedt, Germany) was born into a family of Czech officers in the Austro-Hungarian army; she spent her childhood in different garrison towns of the empire, Pula in Croatia or Terezín in Bohemia. After World War I her parents returned to Prague, where she soon verged towards an acting career. As a schoolgirl she had already appeared as an extra at the Švandovo Theatre, in the Prague quarter of Smíchov. By the age of 16 she had graduated to more important roles there, such as Hanicˇka in Alois Jirásek’s Lucerna (The Lantern). And in spite of the tales of her being discovered in the park or skating, it was probably when she was seen on stage by the future distinguished directors Gustav Machatý and Prˇemysl Pražský, who noted her talent and offered her a small part in their playful film sketch Dáma s malou nožkou (The Lady with the Small Foot, 1919).

In the following years she appeared in six films, but it was Karel Lamacˇ (1887-1952), a young actor, scriptwriter, and director, who discovered her as a real actress, devoted workmate, and lifelong friend. Lamacˇ who understood Ondráková’s true talents and underlined her charisma via tailor-made roles, in his films Otrávené sveˇtlo (The Poisoned Light, 1921), Bílý ráj (White Paradise, 1924), Chyt´te ho! (Catch Him!, 1924), Polská krev (Polish Blood, 1934), and their last joint (and Ondráková’s last Czech) project, Du°vod k rozvodu (Grounds for Divorce, 1937). Modelled on the American United Artists Fairbanks-Pickford-Griffith-Chaplin “Big Four”, Lamacˇ and Ondráková established their own production company, Ondra-Lamacˇ -Film, in collaboration with cinematographer Otto Heller (1896-1970) and scriptwriter Václav Wasserman (1898-1967). Their names also appeared together on films by other directors (e.g., Kantor Ideál / The Ideal Schoolmaster, 1932, directed by Martin Fricˇ). Ondráková’s name soon became famous in neighbouring Germany, where the three films she worked on with Jan Stanislav Kolár (1896-1973) between 1919 and 1921 were distributed: Dáma s malou nožkou (The Lady with the Small Foot), Zpeˇ v zlata (The Song of Gold), and Prˇíchozí z temnot (Arrival from the Darkness). Still at the beginning of her career, she was already a favourite of such directors as the German-American Sidney M. Goldin, performing in two of his Austrian films (Führe uns nicht in Versuchung and Hütet eure Töchter, both 1922). During the filming of Lamacˇ’s Czech-German production Dcery Eviny (Evas Töchter / Daughters of Eve, 1928) she received a surprise offer from London, to appear in Graham Cutts’ Glorious Youth (1928). The success of this film brought her to the attention of Alfred Hitchcock, who featured her in his last silent film, The Manxman (1929) and his first sound production, Blackmail (1929), in which she excelled, being the first in his series of attractive blondes with covertly provocative sex appeal. She also gained experience in Berlin, Vienna, and London theatres. Although she was dubbed by an English actress in the sound version of Blackmail, her language abilities did not limit her in the sound era, when she also worked in France, recording a few songs for gramophone discs in French, Czech, and German. A multi-talented artist, Ondra not only sang, but also danced, rode horses, and learned a number of acrobatic routines.

Her European career was later notably influenced by her marriage to the German boxing champion Max Schmeling (1905-2005) in 1933 (it lasted an impressive 54 years). It was probably due to Schmeling that she declined an offer from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and worked in Prague for the last time in 1943 (in Himmel, wir erben ein Schloss, directed by Peter Paul Brauer). Her final film was Helmut Käutner’s Die Zürcher Verlobung (The Affairs of Julie, 1957), in which she appeared as herself, wife of the controversial champion. In 1978 Robert Michael Lewis made an American television film entitled Ring of Passion, about the fights between Max Schmeling and Joe Louis between 1936 and 1938; Britt Ekland played Anny. Another television film dealing with the same subject was the 2002 American-German co-production Joe and Max, directed by Steve James; this time Anny was played by the Australian actress Peta Wilson. The most recent film about the famous couple was Uwe Boll’s Max Schmeling (Germany, 2010), in which Ondráková was played by Susanne Wuest.

Thus it seems that after all these decades Anny Ondra is now more famous for being a celebrated sportsman’s wife than a European star of the inter-war years. But her comic genius was unique, perfectly in keeping with the demand for an iconic type of her era. Her sensibility for the perfect punchline, combined with a talent for dramatic roles, her singing and dancing abilities and acrobatic proficiency, and the sense of humour she kept until old age, all remain enviable currency of one artist’s destiny and temperament. – Briana Čechová (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, catalogue, 2013)

DRVOŠTĚP (Zázračná léčba Dra. Jenkinse) (CS 1923), [THE LUMBERJACK; DR. JENKINS’ MIRACLE CURE], Director: Karel Lamač. Poster by Otto Ottmar. Národní filmový archiv, Praha

A Saturday morning walk in Pordenone (2013)

Cartolina of the 32d Pordenone Silent Film Festival. Image: Margit Manstad and Eric Laurent in Rågens rike [The Kingdom of Rye] (Ivar Johansson, 1929). Graphic processing by Giulio Calderini and Carmen Marchese. Photograph Credits: Svenska Filminstitutet, Stockholm / Le Giornate del Cinema Muto. Margit Manstad and Eric Laurent in the happy ending of Rågens rike / [The Kingdom of Rye] are the cover stars of this year's Pordenone catalogue.

Anny Ondra, the Czech actress, is on this year's Pordenone poster. We know her as the first great Hitchcock blonde in The Manxman and Blackmail, and now we'll see some of her Czech work.

During my morning walk I enjoy a breath of cool mountain air from the Dolomites. At the railway station's newsstand they already knew to expect me and remember the selection by heart: The New York Herald Tribune and Le Monde in glorious broadsheet. To be consumed, of course, at Bar alla Posta, opposite Teatro Verdi.

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto has always been a feast of friends, and somehow those friendships got closer during the Sacile diaspora. We have little time for anything else, so we remain strangers and tourists in Pordenone, but I have learned increasingly to appreciate the Pordenone quality of life, the sense of community, the innate taste and distinction. An expression of that is my favourite show, "Striking a New Note", where the schoolchildren of Cordenons and Pordenone play to silent comedies.

http://www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/default.html

Film concert Tukkijoella (1928) 2013 new score by Kimmo Hakola, performed by RSO at Helsinki Music Center, conductor: Santtu-Matias Rouvali)

Wilho Ilmari & Axel Slangus: Tukkijoella (1928) starring Urho Somersalmi as Turkka.

Again I'm on my way to Pordenone when the Radio Symphony Orchestra is giving a magnificent film concert. These are the program notes I wrote about the film for the concert.

Tukkijoella (1928)
Timmerflottare / Stockflötarna
Log River

Suomi 1928. Tuotantoyhtiö: Suomi-Filmi Oy. Tuottaja: Erkki Karu. Ohjaus: Wilho Ilmari, Axel Slangus. Käsikirjoitus: Erkki Karu ‒ Teuvo Pakkalan teoksesta Tukkijoella, nelinäytöksinen laulunsekainen huvinäytelmä (1899, viides, korjattu laitos 1922) ‒ jonka laulujen sanat: Otto Manninen, Larin Kyösti ja Kaarlo Halme ‒ ja laulujen säveltäjä: Oskar Merikanto. Kuvaus: Frans Ekebom. Kuvausapulainen: Armas Fredman. Lavastus: Carl Fager. Naamiointi: Hannes Kuokkanen. Naamiointiapulainen: Olavi Suominen. Musiikki elokuvateatteriorkesterille: Emil Kauppi ‒ Oskar Merikannon näytelmämusiikin (1899) pohjalta. Leikkaus: Axel Slangus, Frans Ekebom. Studiopäällikkö: Armas Fredman. Valokuvat: Kalle Havas, Kosti Lehtinen.

Pääosissa: Urho Somersalmi (Aaprami Turkka), Ellen Sylvin (Pietolan Katri), Mary Spennert-Hannikainen (Anni), Kirsti Suonio (Maija Rivakka), Litja Ilmari (Pahna-Maija), Olga Salo (Leena), Eino Salmela (rättäri Antti Huhtanen), Paavo Costiander (Huotari), Ossi Korhonen (Pölhö-Kustaa), Heikki Välisalmi (Heikki Tolari), Emil Lindh (talollinen J. Pietola), Agnes Lindh (rättärin äiti), Olga Leino (Pertun leski, Pölhö-Kustaan äiti), Mimmi Lähteenoja (Poro-Pirkko), Juho Pulssi (Korhonen), Helge Ranin (Kasuri), Kalle Grönfors [Kalle Viherpuu] (Renki-Pekka), Toivo Suonpää (tukkilainen), Virtanen II (tukilla laskeva tukkilainen), Emil Mikkola (lautamies Taurila), Sulo Räikkönen.

Kuvauspaikkoja: Iitti: Leinin talo (Pietola) ja Antti Lepän talo (Annin kotimökki) nykyisen Mankalan voimalaitoksen kohdalla, Mankalankosket, mm. Kaurakoski sekä Kirkkojärvi ympäristöineen ja Leininselkä. Studio: Vironkadun studio. Kuvausaika: Kesä‒syksy 1928.

Ensiesitys: 5.11.1928 Helsinki (Kino-Palatsi), Kuopio, Lahti, Tampere, Turku ja Viipuri, levitys: Suomen Biografi Osakeyhtiö ‒ tarkastusnumero: 15194 ‒ S (sallittu) ‒ tarkastuspituus 2852 m /20 fps/ 124 min. Alku- ja välitekstit suomeksi ja ruotsiksi.

Restauroitu, värisävytetty laitos (Suomen elokuva-arkisto 2004): 2745 m /20 fps/ 119 min
RSO Mykkää valoa 2013: digitaalinen HD-versio: nopeus vastaa 20 fps, kesto 1 h 59 min 48 sek

Muita filmatisointeja: Tukkijoella (Kalle Kaarna, 1937), Tukkijoella (Roland af Hällström, 1951, mukana Tauno Palo, Lasse Pöysti).
   
Teuvo Pakkalan laulunäytelmä Tukkijoella on tukkilaisromantiikan kantateos. Ensimmäinen sen kolmesta filmatisoinnista valmistui jo mykän elokuvan kaudella, toki tarkoitettuna esitettäväksi niin, että elokuvateatteriorkesteri soittaisi Emil Kaupin sovittamaa musiikkia, joka perustui Oskar Merikannon alkuperäissävelmiin. Menettely ei ollut tavaton. Muutamaa vuotta aikaisemmin oli valmistunut Erich von Stroheimin Iloinen leski. Richard Strauss itse teki elokuvamusiikkisovituksen Robert Wienen ohjaamaan Ruusuritariin. Carmenista tehtiin 1920-luvulla monta korkean profiilin filmatisointia. Kaikissa kajahti mahtava ison orkesterin musiikki elävinä tulkintoina maailman kinopalatseissa.

Tukkijoella-näytelmä oli Teuvo Pakkalan (1862‒1925) siunaus ja kirous. Se toi taloushuolien kanssa kamppailevalle taiteilijalle säännöllistä ja tervetullutta tuloa. Toisaalta tutkijat J. A. Hollosta Mervi Kantokorpeen ovat arvelleet näytelmän valtaisan suosion haitanneen tekijänsä mainetta vakavasti otettavana taiteilijana. Kantokorpi kiinnittää huomiota Pakkalan kirjailijakuvan kahtiajakoisuuteen modernin proosan mestarina ja suomalaisen huvinäytelmän suosikkina. Pakkalan suosikkikirjailija oli F. M. Dostojevski, ja opintomatkallaan Ranskaan hän perehtyi moderniin ranskalaiseen kirjallisuuteen. Pääteoksissaan Pakkala oli niin paljon aikaansa edellä, että hänen täysi arvonsa pystyttiin näkemään vasta 1960-luvulla.

Tukkijoella-näytelmä on romanttista, todellisuuspakoista lauluviihdettä, joka päättyy kolminkertaiseen onnelliseen loppuun viekkaan rättärin juonien paljastuttua. Kaarlo Bergbom, Otto Manninen ja Oskar Merikanto toivat panoksensa suosikkikappaleeseen, joka sai ainutlaatuisen yleisömenestyksen. Siitä tuli Suomen suosituin näytelmä (Nummisuutarit on esitetyin, Tukkijoella katsotuin ja toiseksi esitetyin), ja ensimmäisen filmatisoinnin valmistuessa se oli ollut lähes kolme vuosikymmentä kantaohjelmistossa kaikkialla maassa. Yksin Suomen Kansallisteatteri oli esittänyt sen 300 kertaa.

Dialogi- ja lauluvetoinen näytelmä loi pohjan tukkilaisromantiikan perinteelle ja perusti suomalaiseen populaariin fiktioon arkkityyppejä, joita voi verrata commedia dell'arten hahmoihin. Pakkalan monipuolisuutta osoittaa se, että nämä kansanomaiset arkkityypit loi lahjakas moderni kirjailija aikaansa edellä olevan kunnianhimoisen taiteellisen linjansa rinnalla. Juoni on luonnosmainen, kaavamainenkin, ja lähinnä kehys mehevää kansanhuumoria tarjoaville vuorosanoille. Näyttelijät totesivatkin, että se ˮelää repliikin varassaˮ (Heikki Välisalmi) ja ˮsiinähän on sana kaikki kaikessaˮ (Kirsti Suonio).

Eskapistisen näytelmän kirjailija oli perusolemukseltaan realisti. Pakkala oli kokenut lapsena nälkävuodet, joutunut kerjuulle, menettänyt merenkävijä-isoisän joka hukkui Hailuodon edustalla, seurannut uittopäällikkönä toimivaa isäänsä ja tullut tuntemaan tukkilaiselämän ja tervaveneiden todellisuutta. Hän tiesi, miten kansa eli ja taisi tietää senkin, millainen teatteri toisi sille kaivattua virkistystä.

Kun Erkki Karu otti tuottaakseen Tukkijoella, kyseessä oli uusi panos Suomi-Filmin kansallisten merkkiteosten sarjaan ja samalla sijoitus varmaan kaupalliseen suosikkinumeroon. Näyttelijöiksi palkattiin tunnettuja, mahdollisuuksien mukaan rooleissa jo teatterissa karaistuneita veteraaneja.

Urho Somersalmi (1888‒1962) oli aikansa suomalaisen teatterin johtava sankarinäyttelijä, monipuolinen lahjakkuus, joka kunnostautui niin Shakespearen kuin Tshehovinkin maailmoissa. Elokuvissa hän oli vilahtanut nimettömässä sivuosassa Sylvissä (1913), mutta pääosaan hänet veti koulutoveri Mauritz Stiller riikinruotsalaisen Juhan (1921) shemeikkamaiseksi tukkilaiseksi. Pitkän teatteriuran tehneen Somersalmen viimeinen elokuvarooli oli Väinämöinen elokuvassa Sampo (1959). Somersalmi oli mykän kauden ainoa suomalainen elokuvatähti. Somersalmi niitti parhaillaan suosiota maailmalla Gustaf Molanderin elokuvassa Hänen englantilainen rouvansa (1927), kun Erkki Karu sai hänet kiinnitetyksi ensimmäiseen suomalaiseen elokuvapäärooliinsa rehtinä tukkilaispomona. Turkka oli ollut Somersalmelle loistorooli näyttämöllä, ja sellainen siitä tuli myös elokuvassa. Vuonna 1996 Somersalmelle myönnettiin postuumi muisto-Jussi tästä roolistaan.

Luihuna rättärinä vakuutti ˮyhtä onnistuneesti kuin puhenäyttämölläkinˮ Eino Salmela, joka oli esittänyt roolia ˮpuolen ikäänsäˮ. Todellisia elokuvan naistähtiä Suomessa ei vielä ollut. Katria esitti Ellen Sylvin, ja häntä kohtaan tunnettiin myötätuntoa, koska ei ollut ˮensi kerta kun voi aavistaa ohjaajan jättityön, jotta neiti Sylvin saataisiin edustuskelpoiseksiˮ. Annin esittäjä Mary Spennert-Hannikainen taas herätti niin suurta ihastusta, että uumoiltiin jo, että hänessä on ˮelokuvataiteemme kaikesta päättäen saanut kauan kaipaamansa ʼsankarittarenʼˮ.

ˮOttiatuotaˮ-hokemastaan muistetun Tolarin teatterihahmon luoja Taavi Pesonen oli kuollut, mutta Heikki Välisalmi sai kiitosta humoristisesta tulkinnastaan. Uskonnollisen ja vehkeilevän Poro-Pirkon rooli uskottiin Mimmi Lähteenojalle (1865‒1937), joka oli Kansallisteatterin kantavia voimia kansannaisten ja vahvojen äitiroolien tulkkina. Hänestä tuli myös Suomi-Filmin luottonäyttelijä. Ossi Korhosen (1898‒1976) tulkinta Pölhö-Kustaasta oli ˮpersoonallisen, ilmehikkään ja uskottavan taiteen leimaamaˮ, lausui muuten hyvin kriittinen Ylioppilaslehden arvostelija. Korhosen pitkä elokuvaura jatkui 1960-luvulle, ja hän ehti näytellä televisiossakin.

Kirsti Suonio (1872‒1939) kuului Suomen rakastetuimpiin teatterikomedienneihin, ja hän oli tullut tutuksi myös monissa Suomi-Filmin elokuvissa. Maija kuului hänen suosituimpiin rooleihinsa teatterissa, ja yhtä mehevästi Suonio tulkitsi sen nyt valkokankaalla.

Yhtiön johtaja ja elokuvan tuottaja Erkki Karu laati Tukkijoella-elokuvan käsikirjoituksen. Vaikka hän muokkasi sitä, siihen jäi paljon ˮmykkää puhettaˮ, ja tarina pysyi rönsyilevänä. Ohjaajaksi Karu ei ehtinyt, sillä hänellä oli samaan aikaan valmisteilla sotilasaiheinen Meidän poikamme. Karu kiinnitti ohjaajiksi kaksi teatterin raskassarjalaista. Wilho Ilmari (1888‒1983) oli maineikas Kiven ja Shakespearen tulkitsija, sittemmin teatterineuvos ja Suomen teatterikoulun opetusohjelman suunnittelija ja rehtori. Tukkijoella oli hänen esikoistyönsä elokuvaohjaajana. Axel Slangus (1890‒1965) oli kantavia voimia Helsingin Svenska Teaternissa, jossa hän työskenteli ällistyttävän pitkän kauden 1918‒1962. Teatterissa hänet tunnettiin niin Nikolai Gogolin Reviisorista kuin Arthur Millerin Kauppamatkustajan kuolemastakin. Elokuvassa hänen jännevälinsä ylsi Erkki Karun Nummisuutareista Ingmar Bergmanin Neidonlähteeseen. Tukkijoella jäi Slangusin ainoaksi elokuvaohjaukseksi.

Riemukkaaseen ja vuolaaseen dialogiin perustuvan näytelmän muokkaaminen mykkäelokuvaksi oli äärimmäinen paradoksi. Toisaalta Tukkijoella perustuu luontoon ja maisemaan, jonka kuvaamisessa elokuvalla oli ylivoimainen etusija. Erkki Karu oli filmannut Koskenlaskijan morsiamen Iitissä, ja siellä, Mankalankoskien ympäristössä, toteutettiin myös Tukkijoella-elokuvan kuvaukset. Sittemmin myös Valentin Vaala, Teuvo Tulio ja Roland af Hällström kuvasivat legendaariset koskenlaskukohtauksensa siellä. Erkki Karu kiinnitti elokuvaan yhtiön luottokuvaajiin kuuluvan Frans Ekebomin (1889‒1965), jonka ura oli alkanut vuonna 1914 ja joka jatkoi alalla vuoteen 1958.

Kaikki riippui auringosta, mutta saatiin ˮsadetta, sadetta ja aina vaan sadetta!ˮ (Kirsti Suonio). Vieraileva toimittaja sai huomata, että Iitissä oleili suuri osa Helsingin teatteriväkeä aurinkoa odotellen. Rouva Spennert ja Ossi Korhonen hyppäsivät narua. ˮKun säät olivat epävakaiset, jouduttiin kuvaamaan äkkiarvaamattaˮ (Kirsti Suonio) aina, kun aurinko suvaitsi pilkistää. Pala palalta elokuva saatiin purkkiin, ja maisemat olivat tosiaankin mahtavia kuohuvine koskineen.

Vuonna 1928 elettiin mykän elokuvan timanttikautta, suurimman loiston vaihetta samalla kun äänielokuvan läpimurto jo toteutui. Joe Mayn Kotiinpaluu tuli Helsingin ensi-iltaan samana päivänä kuin Tukkijoella. Ohjelmassa jatkoi toista viikkoa Raoul Walshin Kilpakosijat, ja komedian kultasuoni avautui Buster Keatonin elokuvassa Steamboat Bill, Jr. F. W. Murnaun Auringonnousu, Fritz Langin Vakoilija, Josef von Sternbergin Viimeinen määräys ja Paul Lenin Nauruihminen olivat Suomen elokuvateattereiden ohjelmistoissa. Jokainen kriitikko näki, että teatteriväen Tukkijoella-filmatisointi oli kaukana siitä, missä maailmalla mentiin.

Valtalehtien arvostelut olivat kohteliaita ja yhtiön mainosaineistoa myötäileviä. Kansan Kuvalehti ja Suomen Kuvalehti tekivät elokuvasta kansijutun. Ylioppilaslehti myönsi, että elokuva oli ˮehdoton pettymysˮ, jota rasitti ˮväsyttävän tavanomaisuuden leimaˮ.

Helsingin ensi-ilta oli gaalanäytös, johon osallistuivat aitioissaan tasavallan presidentti Lauri Kristian Relander perheineen ja valtioneuvoston jäseniä. Kansansuosio oli tavaton. Kuopiossa kaupunkiin tuli jonoittain maaseudun väkeä varta vasten elokuvaa katsomaan. Ilo oli ylimmillään, ja salit täyttyivät. Tukkijoella oli kauden suurin kotimainen menestyselokuva ja yksi suurimman yleisömenestyksen saavuttaneista kotimaisista elokuvista siihen mennessä.

Antti Alanen

Mykkää valoa -faktatietojen lähde: Suomen kansallisfilmografia.

...

MY BLOG NOTES ON TUKKIJOELLA (1928)

Film concert Tukkijoella (1928) April 2005 in Turku Festival of Finnish Film (Sami Pirttilahti, Eerika Mylläri, Heikki Hämäläinen)

Film concert Tukkijoella (1928) September 2005 at Orion, Helsinki (original Oskar Merikanto, Emil Kauppi score arranged by Tuula Hällström)

Film concert Tukkijoella (1928) October 2013 at Helsinki Music Centre (new original Kimmo Hakola score played by the Radio Symphony Orchestra)

Programmes at Det Danske Filminstitut (Copenhagen): Cinemateket

Det Danske Filminstitut (Copenhagen): Cinemateket. Filmhuset, Gothersgade 55.

OCTOBER, NOVEMBER 2013
East by Southeast. New films from Middle Europe and Eastern Europe - Estonia, Poland, Serbia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Georgia
Jean Cocteau
Mix Copenhagen: Lesbiangaybitrans Film Festival
Jean-Luc Godard
Film Wishes
Visual Concert: an evening with Kubrick, Ligeti, Den Danske Strygekvartet and VJ Casper Øbro
European Film Days: LUX Prize 2013
The Film of the Month: October: Lemale et ha'halal (Fill the Void, Rama Burshtein, IL 2012)
The Film of the Month: November: Dom över död man (Jan Troell)
Soirée filles: The Graduate, Bright Star
Bio 12:30: film in the middle of the day
Four films from Senegal
The Night of Culture, 11 October
Børnebiffen: films for little children
The best children's film of the world
Jørgen Leth 50th Anniversary
CPH:DOX: Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival
The Documentary of the Month: October: Lunarcy! (Simon Ennis, 2012)
The Documentary of the Month: November: L'Image manquante (The Missing Picture, Rithy Panh, 2013)
Silent film: Die Nibelungen
Silent film concert: Von morgens bis mitternachts
Psych-Out! Films from the Underground (Deep Throat Double, Jodorowsky's Dune)
Still moving: Classics in context
D.A.F.F.: Danish Adventure Film Festival
Per Kirkevy 75th Anniversary
Sculpting the Past / Fortid fortolket. An exhibition, a website, a new look into the film archive
Indonesia - The Troubled Victory (NBC News, 1967)
Danish on Sunday. Danish hits, English subtitles
Funny Bones: Living in Oblivion, State and Main
Utopia tur / retur: Fahrenheit 451 + debate
The Flight over Øresund (the rescue operation of the Jews of Denmark in 1943): - Oktoberdage / The Only Way (Bent Christensen) + debate - En dag i oktober (Kenneth Madsen) + debate
Kierkegaard in the Argentinian way
Runge and Romanticism - Cosmos Runge
Friday Late Night: Under African Skies - The Stone Roses: Made of Stone

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER, 2013
Julian Schnabel
Jean-Luc Godard
The Documentary of the Month: This Ain't California (Marten Persiel, 2012)
Nicolas Winding Refn
New South Korean Cinema
Exhibition: Sculpting the Past / Fortid fortolket
Denmark's black conscience. Aspects of the occupation we'd rather forget
The Enemy Among Us: the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s
Luchino Visconti
The New Documentarists
The Animal in You (M. Wainsztein, 2011)
The Film of the Month: August: Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012)
The Film of the Month: September: Pietà (Kim Ki-duk, 2012)
The Doppelgänger Evening
Niels Rønsholdt - a film portrait with live music
The Misfits - 30 Years of Fluxus
Hamlet (Branagh) on 70 mm
Wish films
Børnebiffen: films for little children
The world's best children's film
Bio 12:30: films in the middle of the day
Still moving: classics in context
Non/acting: the knife's edge of reality
Latin American Film Festival: Chile, Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Mexico
Edda Dell'Orso, singer for Ennio Morricone
Funny Bones: Dr. Strangelove, Best in Show
Bloody Weekend
Psych-Out!
Danish on Sunday
FilmKunstFilm: Eden's Ark
Soirée filles
Friday Late Night

Programmes at Cinemateket / Norsk Filminstitutt (Oslo)

Jan Troell: Dom över död man / The Last Sentence (SE 2012). " Från 1917 till 1945 var Torgny Segerstedt huvudredaktör för Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning (GHT). Han utmanade Tredje rikets ledare med sina kontroversiella åsikter. Vissa artiklar blev upplästa i engelsk radio samma dag som de publicerats och i Norge betraktade man honom som en hjälte. Den svenska kungen och regeringen blev oroliga för konsekvenserna. Sverige var neutralt och de ville till varje pris hålla landet utanför kriget. Men med pennan som enda vapen, tog Segerstedt upp striden. Hans kärleksliv var tumultartat. Han är i ständig konflikt med sig själv, och involverad samtidigt med tre olika kvinnor. Till sist tvingas han ta konsekvenserna av sina handlingar både politiskt och privat. " / "From 1917 to 1945, Torgny Segerstedt was editor-in-chief of Gothenburg's Handels- och Sjöfartstidning (GHT). He challenged the leaders of the Third Reich with his controversial views. Some articles were read out on British radio the same day they were published, and in Norway he was regarded as a hero. The Swedish king and the government became worried about the consequences. Sweden was neutral and they wanted to keep the country out of the war at all costs. But with the pen as his only weapon, Segerstedt took up the battle. His love life was tumultuous. He is in constant conflict with himself, and involved with three different women at the same time. In the end, he is forced to accept the consequences of his actions both politically and privately" (Svensk Filmdatabas)

Cinemateket (Oslo). Norsk Filminstitutt (NFI) screenings take place at Cinemateket, Filmens Hus, Dronningens gate 16, in three cinemas: Tancred, Lillebil, and Barnas Filmrom.
http://www.nfi.no/kalender

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2013
The Film of the Month: Upstream Color (Shane Carruth), Lovelace (Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman)
The Classic and the Documentary of the Month: Le joli mai, Sweet Smell of Success
Arne Skouen centenary
Margarethe von Trotta
Koji Wakamatsu & Masao Adachi
Zachary Oberzan
Norwegian animation centenary
Filmsalongen med Per Haddal: Escapade in Japan, Det brenner i natt!, Alexis Zorbas
Rock Noir: The Exorcist, Ed Wood, Plan 9 from Outer Space
Film fra Sør / Films from the South
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Silent film concert: Pas si dong / Edderkoppene (Dan Duyu, CN 1927)
Burt Lancaster
Cinemateket Ung (young viewers): Brazil, Iron Sky, 1984
Bike Film Night
Fokus: North Korea
Populærkulturell kompetense: American tv series
Arkitektur og design på stort lerret / Norsk Form
Four times Pan (1995, 1962, 1937, 1922)
Good as new: Barn av solen
Film and Psychoanalysis: A Clockwork Orange
The Dream That Kicks (experimental) (Greg Pope) (Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo): Vivienne Dick: Guerillère Talks, Stephanie Beroes: Debt Begins at 20. - Ed Atkins presents...
Norsk kort: new Norwegian short films
Fokus Chris Marker: Le joli mai
Aisthesis (Filosofisk supplement): My Dinner with André
Ragnarockfilmen 40th annniversary
Nordisk fimlhelg
Hungarian Film: Szindbad (Zoltan Huszarik)
Råfilm (documentary): Magnus - en vårdag
Favourites of the audience
Troll i eske (sneak preview)

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2013
Censorship at the Film Museum: the Norwegian cinema law 1913-2013
The Film of the Month: Antiviral (Brandon Cronenberg), Dom över död man (Jan Troell)
The Classic and the Documentary of the Month: Safety Last, Hotel St. Pauli, Sing Me the Songs That Say I Love You - A Concert for Kate McGarrigle
Jan Troell
Sarah Polley
Populærkulturell kompetense: The Transformers: The Movie
Robert Bresson
Silent Film Concert: He Who Gets Slapped
Filmsalongen med Per Haddal: Pappa tar gull, Ingenjör Andrées luftfärd
Skeive Filmer (queer)
John Ford
Arkitektur og design på stort lerret / Norsk For: The Human Scale - The Hill
The Dream That Kicks (experimental): Sarah Pucill: Magic Mirror - Grayson Cooke, Mike Cooper
Cinemateket Ung (young viewers): The Squid and the Whale, The Matrix, Dark City, Blade Runner
Rock Noir: The Lost Boys, National Lampoon's Animal House
Olaf Dalgard: Gryr i Norden
Good as New: Flukt fra paradiset
Favourites of the audience
Troll i eske (sneak preview)
Aisthesis (Filosofisk supplement): Joachim Trier: Oslo, 31. august

MAY-JUNE 2013
The Film of the Month: Tabu (Miguel Gomes)
The Classic and the Documentary of the Month: Runaway Train, More Than Honey
Film noir
Filmsalongen med Per Haddal: Exit, Kind Hearts and Coronets
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva
Silent Film Concert: The Gold Rush
Stanley Kramer
Rock Noir: Freaks, Desperate Living
Curated by Cindy Sherman: From film noir to horror
Three Times Victoria (Knut Hamsun's novel Victoria)
Skeiv weekend (queer)
Comedy from beyond the iron curtain
François Ozon
The Dream That Kicks (experimental): Ritual in Transfigured Time, La Coquille et le clergyman, On Venom and Eternity
Audience favourites
Cinemateket Ung (young viewers): Die Hard, First Blood, The Road Warrior, Terminator 2
Baltic Film Day
Troll i eske (sneak preview)

MARCH-APRIL 2013
The Film of the Month: Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan), Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan)
The Classic and the Documentary of the Month: Aelita, The Shining extended version, Room 237, The Imposter (Bart Layton)
Leos Carax
Eurodok 2013
Luchino Visconti
Silent Film Concert: Pan (Harald Schwenzen, NO 1924)
Arkitektur og design på stort lerret / Norsk Form: The Fountainhead, Mon oncle
New Russian film, from Tromsø International Film Festival
Johannes Nyholm
Arabic Film Days
Filmsalongen med Per Haddal: La Môme vert-de-gris, Sønner av Norge
Harry Dean Stanton
Rock Noir: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Roadracers (Robert Rodriquez)
The Dream That Kicks (experimental): Birgit & Wilhelm Hein: Kali-Filme, Erwin van't Hart: Surface Noise
Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo: Winter project
Inferno Metal Festival Norway
Audience favourites
Women's Day
Råfilm: documentary
Gutter+jenter = Boys and Girls, Japanese pop
Troll i eske (sneak preview)
Film and psychoanalysis: Hamlet (Kozintsev)
Good as new: Bobbys krig

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2013
The Film of the Month: Cosmopolis (Cronenberg), Hors satan (Dumont)
The Classic of the Month: The Lady Vanishes, Heaven's Gate
70 mm Festival: Playtime, Året gjennom Børfjord, Anna Karenina, Povest plamennyh let, Voina i mir, Sekret uspeha, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Airport, Sound of Music, Baraka, Earthquake, Cleopatra, Le Mans, The King and I, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, Battle of the Bulge, Where Eagles Dare, Around the World in Eighty Days
Bruno Dumont
Film and music, with Jon-Roar Bjørkvold: Out of Rosenheim
Alfred Hitchcock in black and white
Filmsalongen med Per Haddal: Sofie (Liv Ullmann), Le petit monde de Don Camillo
Aisthesis (Filosofisk supplement): Starship Troopers
Rock Noir: Beetlejuice, Rocky Horror Picture Show
Cristian Mungiu
Masahiro Kobayashi
Barnas Cinematek (children)
Cinemateket Ung (young viewers)
Silent Film Concert: The Lodger - José Manuel Moneta: Entre los hielos de las Islas Orcadas (AR 1928)
A propos Downton Abbey
Arkitektur og design på stort lerret / Norsk Form: Jason Cohn & Bill Jersey: Eames: The Painter & the Architect (US 2011) - Miu-ming Tsai: Design & Thinking (US 2012) 
The Dream That Kicks (experimental) (Greg Pope, curator): Pattern recognition - Ben Rivers
Human Rights Human Wrongs, Documentary Film Festival
Audience favourites
Film and psychoanalysis: Edipo re
Good as new: Psychedelica Blues
Troll i eske (sneak preview)
Special screenings: Cinema Jenin, Fokus: Harris Savides - Jonathar Glazer: Birth

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2012
The Film of the Month: Faust (Sokurov), Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari)
The Classic of the Month: Rear Window, Windjammer, Gilda
The American Hitchcock
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Nikkatsu centenary
Film fra Sør: smakebiter - tasting
New Austrian cinema
Silent Film Concert: Aelita - Chuji tabi nikki (A Diary of Chuji's Travels, Daisuke Ito, JP 1927)
Lene Berg: nine revolutionizing moments
The Dream That Kicks (experimental) (Greg Pope, curator)
Alexander Sokurov
Dreileben marathon
Indiana Jones
Rock Noir: Dracula (1931), Rumble Fish, The Crow
Thursday films - each Thursday at 18.00 all Norwegian cinematheques (Bergen, Kristiansand, Lillehammer, Oslo, Stavanger, Trondheim, Tromsø) show the same movies: 2001 A Space Odyssey, Die Blechtrommel, Bonjour tristesse, High Noon, If... , Horí ma panenko, It's a Wonderful Life
István Szábo visiting
Leris Colombaioni and I Clowns (Fellini)
Globaliseringskonferansen / Oslo Dokumentarkino: Detropia, ChasingIce, Ascamcat, Four Horsemen, Made in China
Holocaust: - I slik en natt (Sigval Maartmann-Moe, NO 1958), Raoul Wallenberg - Buried Alive, Train de vie, La Rafle, Hoppets hamn (Magnus Gertten, SE 2011)
Filmsalongen med Per Haddal: Un homme et une femme, Far til fire, Line
Cinemateket Ung (young viewers): Lost Highway, Le Locataire, 12 Angry Men, The Birds
Barnas Cinematek (children)
Troll i eske (sneak preview)
Thomas Hylland Eriksen presents Safariland (NO 1952)

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2012
The Film of the Month: A Torinói ló (The Turin Horse, Béla Tarr, HU 2011)
The Classic of the Month: Raging Bull, Funny Face
Audrey Hepburn
The "New" Hollywood
Crispin Glover - What Is It?
22. Oslo Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
Filmsalongen med Per Haddal: Støv på hjernen (Øyvind Vennerød, NO 1959) - The Adventures of Robin Hood
Rock Noir: Rockabilly 514 (Patricia Chica & Mike Wafer, CA 2008) - American Graffiti
Music films
Expedition films
Marcell Jankovics: a human tragedy (Hungarian culture)
The Dream That Kicks (experimental) (Greg Pope, curator): John Smith - L'Ange (Patrick Bokanowski, FR 1982)
Cinemateket Ung (young viewers): En kärlekshistoria, Paris, Texas, Skeive filmer, Pulp Fiction
Barnas Cinematek (children)
Silent Film Concert: Der letzte Mann - Kjetil Schjander-Larsen
Thursday film: Popióly i diament
Justice for Sale (Femke van Velzen & Ilse van Velzen, NL/CD 2011)
Aisthesis (Filosofisk supplement):  L'eclisse
Troll i eske (sneak preview)
Film and psychoanalysis: Another Year
On request: Douglas (Pål Bang-Hansen, NO 1970), Farinelli