A Man There Was– or Terje Vigen (Victor Sjöström’s character’s name in the film) is the earliest film from the silent Swedish master I could lay my hands on. But at this point, Sjöström (best known as the lead actor in Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (1957) or as the director of The Wind (1928)) had already been directing for a handful of years
It is a short work, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen (19th century Scandinavian playwright—known as the “father of realism”) broken into four acts
Sjöström uses color shading brilliantly- and orange hue for the sunny exteriors, blue for night, stark black and white for the interiors.
Like The Wind– the elements are extremely important to Sjöström. The waves, the wind, the “billowing sea”
A great frame at the 9-minute mark- a sort of Sermon on the Mount shot, using extras and natural elevation as the group of sufferers gather—profound sadness and “affliction”
Magnificently shot outside- Sjöström’s camera often overlooking the waves crashing on the rocks
Sjöström throws the camera in the boat with him- wonderful choice. There’s a great chase of the English soldiers/rowers chasing him and Sjöström cross cuts between the two—maybe a very early version of Fincher’s Regatta sequence in The Social Network.
The title cards are not overused- and when they are employed- the writing is brilliant. I’m not enough of an Ibsen scholar to discuss the adaptation and whether or not the credit is to him- I assume it is. “On a barren, remote islet, there lived an odd, grizzled man.” “The crops failed, there was great want. The poor starve, the rich mourned.” “All is lost”—- it plays like a parable.
At the 35-minute mark- the orange hill with the carefully arranged crosses on the graves overlooking the water- masterful. A shot that is an older cousin to the same shot in Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922)
The rolling waves are genuine- and it pays off in the realism and immediacy- compare and contrast this with John Sturges’ The Old Man and the Sea from 1958—some forty+ years after this film. In one of the work’s best scenes, Terje Vigen shouts “Now the hour of retribution is at hand” shaking in anger with waves crashing upon the rocks behind him—it’ll give you cinematic goosebumps—one of the decade’s great moments and one of the great moments of the art form to that point in 1917- a dedication to foreground and background.
Sjöström comes back to the shot at the 35-minute mark- the orange sky and arrangement of crosses with a slight variation- great form.
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