A Restoration which ,except for the very last pictures, does the great director's work justice.
It could have been a mushy melodrama, for the mother's fate is really awful .But Sjöstrom transcends his subject with his stunning directing and his principal, Hilda Borgstrom .
Remarkable scenes: the first scenes,with the whole family,full of joie de vivre,and the father,proud of having provided part of the capital of the shop he is about to open; the clerk, seducing the girls with his boss's stuff ; the mother/son separation,when the boy cannot bring himself to leave her, desperately hangs on to her , comes back to her ten times; the little girl who doesn't know her estranged mom anymore; the insane asylum where,with an incredible economy of means (a repetition close to horror movies) , the director creates a crazy atmosphere ;the mom rocking a plank in a cloth ; the return of the son and the face of the actress whose eyes reflect insanity before beaming with happiness.
Impressive and deeply moving,at a time the actresses had to make do with expression.
It could have been a mushy melodrama, for the mother's fate is really awful .But Sjöstrom transcends his subject with his stunning directing and his principal, Hilda Borgstrom .
Remarkable scenes: the first scenes,with the whole family,full of joie de vivre,and the father,proud of having provided part of the capital of the shop he is about to open; the clerk, seducing the girls with his boss's stuff ; the mother/son separation,when the boy cannot bring himself to leave her, desperately hangs on to her , comes back to her ten times; the little girl who doesn't know her estranged mom anymore; the insane asylum where,with an incredible economy of means (a repetition close to horror movies) , the director creates a crazy atmosphere ;the mom rocking a plank in a cloth ; the return of the son and the face of the actress whose eyes reflect insanity before beaming with happiness.
Impressive and deeply moving,at a time the actresses had to make do with expression.