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Directed by and Starring Victor Sjostrom, this 1921 Swedish film is a true classic of silent cinema.
It's New Year's Eve and Salvation Army Sister Edit - on her deathbed - calls for David Holm (Victor Sjostrom).
David - a drunkard and bum - is spending his night in the local graveyard, drinking and telling tales. He tells his friends the legend of Death's Driver; the last person to die each year (if he is a sinner) must drive Death's carriage for the following year. "an hour is like 100 years..."
This legend was told to him by a man he knew, Georges (Tore Svennberg); this man, in part responsible for David's decline, was mortified by the idea of dying on New Year's himself. Ironically, that is what happened.
David's friends are worried but he laughs it all off as superstition and they continue carousing when one of the people sent by Sister Edit finds him..
When David is told of Sister Edit's request to see him, he refuses to go. His friends, already spooked by his telling of the legend, try to make him go see her. They get into a physical altercation that leaves David dead, just as the clock strikes midnight.
It is then that David meets Death's driver - his old friend Georges - and learns it is now his turn to drive.
What unfolds, through a series of flashbacks, is the story of David Holm's downfall and his relationship with Sister Edit over the past year - starting with their meeting last New Year's Eve when he came stumbling in to the newly built Salvation Army home looking for a bed to sleep off a drunk, her attempts to set him on the straight and narrow, and leading up to their estrangement and David's eventual death.
An amazing film that is well acted, beautifully directed, and influential. Ingmar Bergman was heavily influenced by this film and watched it at least once a year, often showing it to friends and those he worked with. Many elements of his style found their genesis in this film.
Though a silent film, a musical score has been added to the film. It is eerie, sparse, and lends a sense of foreboding and menace.
This movie is easily in my top 5 favorite silent films.
It also reminds us that silent films were a universal language. Through the arts of pantomime acting, directing, and cinematography stories could be told by anyone to anyone in the world. Though this is a Swedish film, it's themes are universal - the characters and their behaviors can be understood by anyone around the World.
I hope you enjoy it.
*******************
Any requests for movies you'd like to see on my channel are welcome and appreciated.
It's New Year's Eve and Salvation Army Sister Edit - on her deathbed - calls for David Holm (Victor Sjostrom).
David - a drunkard and bum - is spending his night in the local graveyard, drinking and telling tales. He tells his friends the legend of Death's Driver; the last person to die each year (if he is a sinner) must drive Death's carriage for the following year. "an hour is like 100 years..."
This legend was told to him by a man he knew, Georges (Tore Svennberg); this man, in part responsible for David's decline, was mortified by the idea of dying on New Year's himself. Ironically, that is what happened.
David's friends are worried but he laughs it all off as superstition and they continue carousing when one of the people sent by Sister Edit finds him..
When David is told of Sister Edit's request to see him, he refuses to go. His friends, already spooked by his telling of the legend, try to make him go see her. They get into a physical altercation that leaves David dead, just as the clock strikes midnight.
It is then that David meets Death's driver - his old friend Georges - and learns it is now his turn to drive.
What unfolds, through a series of flashbacks, is the story of David Holm's downfall and his relationship with Sister Edit over the past year - starting with their meeting last New Year's Eve when he came stumbling in to the newly built Salvation Army home looking for a bed to sleep off a drunk, her attempts to set him on the straight and narrow, and leading up to their estrangement and David's eventual death.
An amazing film that is well acted, beautifully directed, and influential. Ingmar Bergman was heavily influenced by this film and watched it at least once a year, often showing it to friends and those he worked with. Many elements of his style found their genesis in this film.
Though a silent film, a musical score has been added to the film. It is eerie, sparse, and lends a sense of foreboding and menace.
This movie is easily in my top 5 favorite silent films.
It also reminds us that silent films were a universal language. Through the arts of pantomime acting, directing, and cinematography stories could be told by anyone to anyone in the world. Though this is a Swedish film, it's themes are universal - the characters and their behaviors can be understood by anyone around the World.
I hope you enjoy it.
*******************
Any requests for movies you'd like to see on my channel are welcome and appreciated.