sir arne's treasure 1919
directed by mauritz stiller
camera by julius jaenzon
i sought out this film because of the set design, but watching the location shooting took my breath away. julius jaenzon, the cinematographer, was largely responsible for moving outside of the studio to capture the natural beauty of the land. he eventually went into teaching- one student was ingmar bergman's cinematographer, sven nykvist.
as in the chess player, the camera movement is remarkable. i have no idea how such smooth movement of the camera over the rough terrain is even possible. the naturalistic acting, the close matching of film speed plus this camera movement make this film feel contemporary.
4 comments:
jesus, these are amazing stills, i just had to pick myself up off the ground.
i will surely have to get this dvd, looks like not the best quality though?
i wish criterion put out ALL good films (instead of facets, new yorker, kino and the other turkeys).
i keep wanting to see this movie south by frank hurley for its location footage of snow.
i wish you would do a list of all your favourite camera men, i hardly ever have heard of any of them. i can see the nykvist connection, bergman switched to him over gunnar fischer because of his dedication to on location photography (as i understand it).
Great images. They make me want to get deeper into silent film. I've seen quite a few silents, but I have not explored much beyond the more well know titles.
thanks, guys. this film just blew me away. i really think introducing sound set back the art of cinematography for quite a while.
aom: posts like lists of my favorite camera persons would take ages! but i'm inspired, i'll try something.
you would probably like the soundtrack too (this was the kino edition.) i loved it, that's why i listed the composer. i want to get it.
cineboy: i recommend digging deeper. i can't believe some of the films i found aren't more well known- they should be. we''l have to promote them.
i listed some good film books in an earlier post, "book aquisitions as of late." i get most of my leads that way.
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