Victor Sjöström Films

[myrnaloyisdope]

I re-watched The Phantom Carriage on the weekend, oddly enough on Sunday night, though I watched it on DVD rather than TCM. I have the KTL edition released in the UK by Tartan, and am very pleased with it. KTL refers to the band that composed the score, and as much as I've developed a distaste for modern scoring of silent films (I'm looking at you Kino), the KTL score is very good. It's suitably moody, restrained when it needs to be, and really enhances the atmosphere of the film. I don't remember what the score was the first time I watched the film, but the KTL version is certainly worthwhile.

As for the movie well it's simply devastating. A masterpiece if there ever were one, with excellent direction, and a knockout performance from Sjöström. His characterization of David Holm was astonishingly perfect, not a false note anywhere, and despite his piggishness and well his SOB-ishness, I found myself empathizing with him, and in some ways even liking him. The film looks stunning as well, the use of superimposition is marvelously done, whether it be the phantom carriage, or the souls of the dead being scooped up from their physical bodies. It's all very artful, and technically precise. Some of the work done in the silents, is awe-inspiring, and becomes even more so when you realize how limited the technology was back then.

The poisoning sequence at the films climax might be the most harrowing piece of film I've ever seen (well right up there with the climax of The Bridge on the River Kwai), it's so ingenius, with the ghost of David Holm forced to watch helplessly as his wife driven to despair by his own recklessness prepares poison for herself and her two young children. Talk about desperation, the scene is borderline sadistic, but about as powerful, and overwhelming as film can be.

[MikeBSG]

I had the great good fortune of seeing "The Phantom Carriage," and a few other Victor Sjostrom's silent films ("The Outlaw and his Wife" and "Terge Vigen") at the Cleveland Museum of Art back in the 80s. What a masterful talent he had.

[silentscreen]

I had the great good fortune of seeing "The Phantom Carriage," and a few other Victor Sjostrom's silent films ("The Outlaw and his Wife" and "Terge Vigen") at the Cleveland Museum of Art back in the 80s. What a masterful talent he had.

I've seen them on DVD. Very talented, naturalistic and elegant craftsman.