Introduction

Introduction | Appreciation | Reflection of the Phantom of the Ghost Car

1920 black and white movie (silent) 68 minutes.

Produced by Swedish AB Film Industry Company

Choreographer: Victor Sjstrom (based on Selma Lagoff's novel) Photography: Julius Jenson Main actors: Victor Sjstrom (as David Homer) Thor Swinberg (as George) astrid Homer (as my sister Edith)

abstract

One night is different. It was New Year's Eve.

Sister Edith of the Salvation Army suffers from lung disease and is terminally ill. She can't continue to serve God, so she can only go back to her mother and wait for her final destination. When Eddie was dying, he was lying in his hospital bed calling David's name to go home.

David came home drunk, and now he is lying in the cemetery, cursing the ghost carriage.

The owner of the ghost carriage is death, and wherever he goes, he is welcomed by sadness and despair, and he can't shirk his heavy obligations. The driver of the carriage is shared by the god of death, and one person is selected by the god of death every New Year's Eve, who is destined to drive for the god of death the next year. That night, death chose David's home.

David saw the carriage of death coming slowly, and George was the driver. He was chosen by death to drive it on New Year's Eve last year. George said to David, "although I talk to you, I don't actually exist." You have fallen because of me ... "

David once had a warm family, wife, children and brothers. Although the family is not rich, they are very happy. But David got into the bad habit of drinking at George's instigation. Beating and cursing his wife after drinking, the family went from bad to worse. Soon, he went to prison for drinking. In prison, he met his brother who committed murder. The warden thinks that David should go to prison instead of his younger brother, because his younger brother has fallen and killed people because of him.

David realized the pain he had caused his family and felt very guilty, so he wanted to turn over a new leaf. After he got out of prison, David came home only to find that the building was empty. He angrily vowed to travel around the world to find a wife to untie the knot in his heart.

From then on, David became a tramp. Instead of making up for it, he made it worse. No matter where you go, the bar is a place to live. He is down and out, and his temper is getting worse. On New Year's Eve a year ago, he met Sister Edith. Edith warmly received David, provided him with room and board, sewed clothes for him, and invited David to visit again next New Year's Eve, because she prayed to God to make the first guest on New Year's Eve happy. But David sneered at Eddie's kindness

Death took David to Eddie's bed. Eddie recognized death and said to him, "I'm not afraid of you, but you must let me go tomorrow." I want to enlighten the guilty man. He is someone I admire and love. " David asked Edith inexplicably, "How can you think of a bad person like me?"

On the night of his death, David finally found his wife. Seeing that his bad habits had not changed, his wife was disappointed, and the husband and wife met in a quarrel. David's wife is very angry She wants to leave this miserable world.

Eddie has been ill since he met David last New Year's Eve. David and his wife are worried about her. She misses David. What worries her more is that she has dedicated herself to God, and she can't explain the curse of this disease. Her soul will go to heaven. Before that, she will sacrifice her life to save David's soul.

Death said to David, "I want to pay New Year greetings to people-God, let my soul mature before harvesting."

David is lying in the cemetery waiting for the New Year. He told the drinkers the legend of the dead coachman. They got drunk one by one and then got into a fight. David was knocked down by George and was unconscious.

Edith died smiling. Death took David to see his wife. Somehow, David saw that his wife was preparing to poison herself and a pair of children to end her painful life. David rushed to his wife's side in time, and his tears made him forgive by her and saved his soul.

David shouted excitedly, "God, let my soul mature before harvesting."

Distinguish and appreciate

The phantom car shows that my sister Eddie is in love with an alcoholic. She could neither get nor forget this sudden and unfortunate love, and finally she could not afford to get sick. The only thing she can do is to save this man's soul and make him happy. David Homer was seduced by George, an alcoholic, and became addicted to alcohol. His fall destroyed his family, his younger brother and almost himself. It was God who saved the sinner and brought him back to life.

This film is based on the novel of Selma Lagoff, a famous Swedish woman writer. This theme has certain social significance for Sweden, which was addicted to alcohol at that time. When Sjstrom adapted this work, he showed deep concern for social and moral issues and a strong sense of participation. It is worth noting that Sjstrom's films are also integrated into his own life experience from time to time. Astrid Homer, the hero who plays Eddie, is reminiscent of Ingeboholm, the heroine in Ingeboholm. According to the historian Bengert Adastam-Almkvist, The House of Ingebo is a film made by director Sjstrom to commemorate his mother, and the protagonist is his mother's prototype. The Phantom of the Ghost Car is based on the director's father and starred by Sjstrom himself.

Since playing David Homer, many of Lagrov's novels have been adapted into movies without any makeup, among which Phantom of the Ghost Car is the most impressive. Sjstrom expressed his attack on moral decay through his characters, and also expressed his protest against Lagrov's assertion in the original that life must be bound by strict creed. The director's rich imagination and creative exploration of the psychological level of the characters in the work make the film have a strong social criticism color, and it is the most influential work directed by Sjstrom.

The story of the film is told through a series of complicated flashbacks: before the start of the new year, time is at a standstill; The future, past and present are intertwined. The film adopts many new technical means, such as special lighting, overprint, etc., which makes the difference between current events and flashback shots, reality and dreams, sobriety and trance, declarative tone and conditional language particularly clear. These differences are more prominent because of the sharp contrast between naturalism and violent scenes and mysterious ghost scenes from Protestant and folk literature traditions.

The photography of Ghost Car is excellent, which not only benefits from the director's ingenious idea, but also benefits from the rich imagination and outstanding creativity of photographer Julius Jenson. The film took the lead in using the method of overprint: David was lying in the cemetery, his soul was shelled, and there was a superposition of soul and body on the screen. Jenson used the double exposure technique here. Then, the soul saw the carriage coming slowly, and the images of body, soul and carriage overlapped. In this painting, Jenson used the technique of three exposures. There is also the image of the illusory ghost carriage marching on the foggy waves, and so on. In the film, the director not only chose a special angle to express the deep psychology of the characters, but also found the strangest and most appropriate means to express this angle with the photographer, which had a strong artistic appeal. Its significance lies not only in improving the appreciation value of the film, but also in its contribution to enriching the film language and film expression means. It had a strong influence on later poetry films, including The Blood of the Poet by French Jean Cocqueteaux. These techniques used in Ghost Car are still widely used in contemporary movies. The picture showing classical beauty, ingenious narrative skills and the sincerity of the film author make Ghost Car one of the most outstanding silent films, keeping pace with Chaplin's The Gold Rush and Eisenstein's Battleship potemkin.

The film director Victor Sjstrom (1879— 1960) is one of the founders of the Swedish School and has the reputation of "the father of Swedish films". He worked as a dramatic actor, stage supervisor and actor in his early years. 19 12 started signing contracts with Swedish Biot Film Studio. I worked in Hollywood from 1923 to 1930. 1943- 1949, artistic director of Swedish film company.

Like Moritz Stiehler, another founder of the Swedish School, Sjstrom's early films imitated the Danish style of sensationalism and farce. However, his works show a strong sense of participation in social issues, and he regards movies as a moral propaganda tool of "hiding evil and promoting good", which can be seen from Ingebo Homer (19 13), who is one of the few outstanding early Swedish works preserved so far. Through the fate of an ordinary woman, the film exposes the evil of bourgeois "charity" institutions. Shortly after the premiere of the film, it aroused a strong response from Swedish society at that time, which eventually led to some reforms in the charity system. This film, known as the "pioneer of Swedish school", is still regarded as a classic of "social criticism line" by the Swedish film industry. 19 16 after experiencing a major crisis in his artistic career and private life, Sjstrom began to shoot fewer films with higher quality, which influenced his producer Charles magnuson's later production policy. Serge Wigan (19 16) adapted from Ibsen's Norwegian Poetry, and The Fugitive and His Wife (19 17) adapted from John Sigur's Zhuang Sen's Drama in Iceland, and

Serge Wigan is set in the Napoleonic Wars. At that time, Britain blocked the European continent. Although Norway has close trade ties with Britain, because the food source was cut off and the people were on the verge of starvation, Norway sided with Napoleon. In order to save his wife and daughter from hunger, Serge Wigan took a small sailboat to Denmark to get food. On my way home, I was intercepted by a British cruise ship. Despite Sergey's pleading, the captain put him in prison. Five years later, Serge was released and returned home to find that his house had been occupied by strangers, and his wife and daughter had already passed away. A few years later, the talented first mate Serge rescued the passengers on the yacht in a storm. He recognized the owner of the yacht as the officer who starved his family to death. Now the life and death of the officer and his family are in his hands. Contradictory feelings-the desire for revenge and the sense of obligation to rescue colleagues constitute the * * * nature of this film. Finally, Serge generously rewarded the British nobleman, and the yacht sailed away, raising the Norwegian flag as a farewell salute. Serge Wigan became a turning point in Swedish film production and the beginning of a series of Scandinavian literary masterpieces. It is also the first film to consciously use the dramatic effect and poetic value of Nordic nature. Location began to participate in the plot as a factor that determines the fate of the characters. Sjstrom does not pursue any artificial visual effect, but only shows the simplicity and internal tension contained in the theme.

The fugitive and his wife are the stories of Iceland in the19th century. A rich widow named Hala fell in love with her employee Cary. Hala's brother-in-law Jon wants to own her property. He found out that this Cary was actually a fugitive and had been imprisoned for stealing sheep. In order to escape the trial, Carly fled into the mountains with Hala. They spent five happy years in the harsh nature and gave birth to their daughter. Jon finally found them. In the fierce struggle with Jon's servant, they lost their daughter and fled to a higher mountain. Many years later, they died in a snowstorm with eternal love and longing for freedom. The Fugitive and his wife (and Serge Wigan) made Swedish films international. Before this, people have never seen such a severe realistic scene on the screen, showing the natural scenery on such a large scale, and depicting the conflict between ordinary people so cruelly and convincingly that all audiences can agree. Compared with the world-wide and secluded Danish and Italian films at that time, Swedish film art brought a fresh wind of truth, which had a perfect artistic form.

In his films, Sjstrom shows that he is good at revealing the primitive beauty of nature and transforming nature into a real dramatic element, not just as the background of plot events. This has played a great role in showing the inner world of the characters, and also greatly enhanced the dramatic effect and lyricism of the film. As early as the 1920s, Lionel Mosena, a famous French film critic, pointed out that Sjstrom's works "generally have a lyrical artistic conception, which was rare at that time". Sjstrom's qualities were brought into full play in the adaptation of Selma Lagoff's novels. He is very faithful and meticulous in this adaptation, skillfully combining literary tradition with the powerful impact of exterior shots.

Sjstrom's Hollywood career is more successful than Stiehler's, and people can still distinguish his previous style from his masterpiece The Wind (1928) filmed there. Sjstrom directed only three talking films, and in the next few years, he devoted himself to a new acting career. His last performance practice-his achievement in ingmar bergman's Wild Strawberry (1957) constitutes a vivid link between two great moments in Swedish film art.