Gosta Berling/Joyless Street...

[blondevenus]

Just watched these two films wanting to see what L.B. Mayer saw before signing Garbo and Stiller. GG definitely had "it" in both films. She was really busty in GB, but looked very good, I thought. Not "fat" at all. In JS she was more like the Garbo in Torrent. I looked for the Marlene Dietrich cameo in JS. Was that MD as the daughter who lived in the flat below, and who stood in line at the butcher's with GG? If it wasn't her, then she must have been one of the "Cabaret" girls.
If anyone has any comments on these films, I would love to read them.

[Marguerite]

I want to see Gosta Berling, you r so lucky.

[blondevenus]

I bought GB & JS both for $12.00 on Amazon. Here's a link for Gosta Berling for around $10.00.

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0007KQLKQ/qid=1130772965/sr=1-36/ref=sr_1_36/104-3546407-9952722?v=glance&s=video

[blondevenus]

Here's a review of the DVD version...

I personally liked Joyless Street better. Berling was really long and convoluted. It was fun to see GG though, as emoting on the screen she is much more impressive that the few clips and stills we've all seen.


A Star Is Conceived
by Donald Levit


Pin-drop silence, even the usual subway rumble absent or unnoticed. Darker- and curlier-haired, rounder of arms and chin, teeth less regular, and bigger and more awkward than memory holds, She is there in the horse-carriage well into one of the earlier of many adroitly integrated flashbacks, eating the remaining Italian food and intertitle-introduced as Greta Gustafsson -- Elisabeth Countess Dohna. The rest is history. Or legend.

“My talents fall within definite limitations. I am not as versatile an actress as some think.” Hindsight exaggerates, but, actress or Presence, how could Garbo ever not be the star? She is that indeed, the magnet for the Museum of Modern Art’s two-film-and-three-short-short Garbo Centenary selection. Fresh from department-store clerkship, an abbreviated publicity film for that employer and another for a bakery, then the 1922 slapstick comedy Peter the Tramp and a stint at Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic theater, the nineteen-year-old is actually “second lead” in 1924’s Gösta Berling’s Saga/Gösta Berlings saga aka The Legend, Atonement, Story or Saga of same.

Playing the title’s “defrocked” dipsomaniacal Evangelical Lutheran pastor, Lars Hanson has infinitely more screen time, but, assuming one can get that woman who would become the “Swedish Sphinx” out of mind for a while, the true attraction here is director Mauritz (Moshe) Stiller’s compelling if sprawling third adaptation from a Selma Lagerlöf epic. Not so curiously, that novelist, the first woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, hated this film from the earliest of her Värmland novels.

Pygmalion to Garbo’s Galatea, Beast or Svengali to Beauty or Trilby, over Louis B. Mayer’s “American men don’t like fat women,” Stiller insisted his discovery also be signed by MGM when Hollywood came calling only for him. Along with those of director-actor Victor Sjöström (Seastrom in the U.S.), Hanson and others, his defection ended his homeland’s great golden age of cinema preeminence. However, whereas the actress’ mythic success was electric from day one with The Torrent (1926), her homosexual mentor clashed violently with Mayer, was replaced on set, switched to a Paramount where he fared no better, and sailed home to die at forty-five, fruitlessly begging the later guilt-ridden protégé to accompany him.

Prints of Gösta Berling run ninety-one minutes on up to the three-hour partially tinted one scheduled for DVD release by Kino. To live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin and simultaneous voice translation for Swedish titles, MoMA’s hundred-sixty-five-minute, two-part showing is filled with memorable, usually location, scenes and techniques that with time would become imitated benchmarks. Among them are the early splendid night shots, back lighting as in the halo of Garbo’s hair, side lighting out of masters of Dutch painting, visible breath in the cold, the escape-rescue from and fire-gutting of Ekeby (amber-yellow toned in a few versions) which rivals the burning of Atlanta, and the furious sled pursued by wolves across snowy ice that no subsequent Eliza-crossing-the-Ohio ever matched.

Again, one reads back the legend into the film. Despite some moving pieces, there is no denying that the acting here is at times leaden, face powder and lipstick too heavy (note hero Hanson), and emotions and outcome melodramatically predictable. Worse, though simplified the plot is still confusing enough that viewers conferred afterwards to fill in and straighten out what they could.

[Marguerite]

oh that's so cool thanks

[samebirthday]

blondevenus said:

I looked for the Marlene Dietrich cameo in JS. Was that MD as the daughter who lived in the flat below, and who stood in line at the butcher's with GG? If it wasn't her, then she must have been one of the "Cabaret" girls.

I thought someone on this forum assuredly stated that MD was NOT in the film afterall, despite all the commonly reported information to the contrary.

{in other words, don't strain yourself too hard looking for her as she may be a phantom of our collective imagination}

[blondevenus]

I thought someone on this forum assuredly stated that MD was NOT in the film afterall, despite all the commonly reported information to the contrary.

{in other words, don't strain yourself too hard looking for her as she may be a phantom of our collective imagination}
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I did remember that, but it was stated on the back of the box, so I thought the poster here might have been wrong. After the film I read the external reviews on IMDB and one said that there are *many* edited versions available (they explained how and why this was so for various viewing venues). I realized then I had one of the edited versions, as they discussed scenes I didn't have in my copy. This, more or less, explains why some copies of JS cost $40.00 and some $10.00, and perhaps Marlene actually does have a cameo in the actual *full* version of the film.

[samebirthday]

I didn't realize that there was a dvd version of versions of these. Did you track down any dvd versions, and if so, did they have a range of lengths like the available VHS versions you encounterd (assuming I understood your prior comments in this thread)?

[nyifica]

Blondevenus, you've got a gorgeous photo in your signature, where is that from?

Greetings from another Marlene-too-fan.

[blondevenus]

I didn't realize that there was a dvd version of versions of these. Did you track down any dvd versions, and if so, did they have a range of lengths like the available VHS versions you encounterd (assuming I understood your prior comments in this thread)?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No, I didn't even look into DVD versions. I went for the cheapest I could get, $12+(total) for both films, on separate cassetts, packaged together in a box. I'm not going to spend the money for the DVD of Berling. I didn't really like the film much, and I was able to see GG, and that's enough for me. Also, she wasn't the starring female. I would be more interested in a DVD of Joyless St. if I were going to go the DVD route. It's too hard to know what exactly one is getting from the descriptions, though. The review didn't say JS was on DVD, and I didn't really look. Berling was featured in a film festival at the MOMA (I think) and the DVD release was for that occasion. I don't think it was a Garbo festival. More of a filmmaker thing. If your really interested just search the two films on IMDB and read all the External Reviews.

[samebirthday]

d**n, I'm typo-ing like crazy lately.

anyway.. thanks for the clarification, blondevenus.

[blondevenus]

Blondevenus, you've got a gorgeous photo in your signature, where is that from?
Greetings from another Marlene-too-fan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks! The photo is a cap from Wild Orchids, or it may be a studio still taken on the set. I love that particular scene where she sits with Prince de Gace and tries to be off-putting, while waiting for her white-haired husband! Do you like that film?
Greetings to you, too! I was just reading the Vieira book about Garbo, and he really has a lot to say about Marlene. Marlene and Acosta were "very close", too, so there's more of a connection than I thought. You need to pick up a Marlene screen name! There are so many good ones. I debated Blue Angel, Destry, Scarlet Empress, Shanghai Lily, Amy Jolly, Bijou, and (one of the best) Cherry Mallotte! Do you have a favorite Dietrich film?

[blondevenus]

anyway.. thanks for the clarification, blondevenus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can call me Venus....

[samebirthday]

blondevenus said:

The photo is a cap from Wild Orchids, or it may be a studio still taken on the set.

really? it struck me as an earlier Garbo incarnation. That is to say, the style of eyeshadow, hairstyle and darker hair color.

in any case, yea, I too dig.

[blondevenus]

...really? it struck me as an earlier Garbo incarnation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Actually, you may be right. I got it from some site and it was in with the WO pics. Unless the pic is a studio still and is reversed, the dance floor should be behind Garbo. Did borzage cap WO? I'd really have to check the dress, too.

[blondevenus]

BD, you were right! My siggy pic is not from Wild Orchids. It was the white dress with the light wrap, which she wore that evening. The wrap was on the chair back. And, yes, her hair was lighter and styled differently. The only similarities were the round table, and the same type of lampshade. There were flowers on the table, but a lower, wider arrangement. Good eye, mate! Now we have to figure out where it *is* from! #$@%&$@!#%$#@&!

[blondevenus]

PS ~ I'm really starting to dig the poofy jodhpur styles in a lot of these films. In Wild Orchids all three principals wore jodhpur outfits in the last scene. Jodhpurs come equipped with shiney knee-high boots, a belt (jauntily buckled off to the side), a jacket, shirt, and tie (for both sexes). The female tie being only slightly more showy than the male, and of course a hat of varying styles of those fit for the outdoors. The military jodhpur (in Anna K.) is similar, but a Uniform style. The Head-Honcho workingman's jodhpur, a la The Temptress, is often worn without a jacket or hat, depending on the sun and the temperature.
I just really have an urge to wear trousers like that. Trousers. Wearing trousers. Trousers. Trousers.....

[samebirthday]

Well, I'm at a loss to narrow this down any further. I'm gonna take a stab at it and say, circa 'Temptress' or 'Torrent'.. I get those two mixed up.

NYifica has the white dress w/ wrap head shot from Wild Orchids in her avatar, for comparison sake (and how I love that look). I liked it better when her face appeared a little rounder, such as these earlier Garbo manifestations.

[samebirthday]

'jauntily buckled'

yea.

[borzage]

blondevenus said:

Did borzage cap WO? I'd really have to check the dress, too.

yes venus, it's here :
garbolives.blogspot.com/2005/10/wild-orchids-1929-sidney-franklin.html
but i don't remember your cap in that movie, should be a photo session around that time.

[blondevenus]

Thanks. I had already looked at your caps, which are so beautiful, but they didn't show the full table. I don't know what I was thinking, because after I re-watched the film it's so obvious the photo is not from the film, and probably not even from that time period.

[garbogoblin]

I'm pretty sure that your signature picture is from Mauritz Stiller's version of The Temptress. I have a picture of her in the same costume with Antonio Moreno:

[blondevenus]

Yep, you're absolutely right. Great pic, by the way! samebirthday also said it was Temptress/Torrent period.
Thanks!

[david]

;D
I collect it all to make large pictures so you can see close up how beautiful eyes she had been in the silent film "The Joyless Street" I ever saw in the movie...very interested!

Click it!

[ddddyyyy]

I agree with blondevenus





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