I lifvets vår

Elämän keväänä / The Springtime of Life. FR / SE 1912. PC: Pathé Frères - Stockholm. D: Paul Garbagni. Based on the novel Första älskarinnan by August Blanche. Starring Victor Sjöström (Cyril Alm), Selma Wiklund af Klercker [Mrs. Georg af Klercker] (Gerda, von Seydling's daughter), Georg af Klercker (von Seydling, counsellor in commerce), Mauritz Stiller (von Plaein, lieutenant), Anna Norrie (Mrs. Alm, Cyril's mother), Astrid Engelbrecht (Sara Andersson), Victor Arfvidson (Brooms, a dubious individual). The nitrate negative was found at La Cinémathèque francaise in 2006, and this restored print with reconstructed Swedish intertitles and Desmet tinting was produced by Cinemateket / Svenska Filminstitutet in 2008. Presenta Jon Wengström. Grand piano: Matti Bye. Viewed in Bologna, Cinema Lumière 1, 5 July, 2008. - A sensational discovery starring the three major directors just before the beginning of the Swedish cinema's Golden Age. Klercker is the roguish counsellor who tries to get rid of his little daughter Gerda born to his ex-mistress, now dead. Sjöström is the considerate gentleman who saves the girl more than once. Stiller is the lieutenant who fights a duel with Sjöström over Gerda. The story is a routine melodrama, the direction is mediocre, the cinematography is professional. It is interesting to note that the acting style is already relatively sober, no longer based on the grand gestures of the histrionic school. There was the negative as the starting point of this well-made print, but the relentless heavy tinting takes much of the light away.