''The Saga of Gösta Berling'' () is a 1924 Swedish romantic drama film co-written and directed by

Mauritz Stiller Mauritz Stiller (born Moshe Stiller, 17 July 1883 – 8 November 1928) was a Finnish film director of Jewish origin, best known for discovering Greta Garbo and bringing her to America. Stiller was a pioneer of the Swedish film industry, writing ...

and released by Svensk Filmindustri (SF), starring

Lars Hanson Lars Mauritz Hanson (26 July 1886 – 8 April 1965) was a Swedish film and stage actor, internationally mostly remembered for his motion picture roles during the silent film era. Biography Born in Göteborg, Sweden, Hanson began his career on t ...

Gerda Lundequist Gerda Carola Cecilia Lundequist (; 14 February 1871 – 23 October 1959) was a Swedish stage actress, an Ibsen and Strindberg-thespian that in her time was known throughout Scandinavia as "The Swedish Sarah Bernhardt". Career Lundequist was ...

and

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's Silent film, silent and early Classical Hollywood cinema, golden eras. Regarded as one of the g ...

in her domestic film breakthrough, her first leading role. It is based on Swedish

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

-winning author

Selma Lagerlöf Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish writer. She published her first novel, ''Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was ...

's 1891

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

'' Gösta Berlings Saga''. The film is also known as ''Gösta Berling's Saga'', ''The Story of Gösta Berling'' and ''The Atonement of Gösta Berling''.

Plot

Värmland Värmland () is a ''Provinces of Sweden, landskap'' (historical province) in west-central Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Dalsland, Dalarna, Västmanland, and Närke, and is bounded by Norway in the west. Name Several Latinized version ...

, the (fictional) estate of "Ekeby" is home to a company of twelve "Cavaliers," former soldiers who often spend their time as drunk guests of Margaretha Samzelius, wife of a former army major. On Christmas Eve, Gösta Berling, a

defrocked Defrocking, unfrocking, degradation, or laicization of clergy is the removal of their rights to exercise the functions of the ordained ministry. It may be grounded on criminal convictions, disciplinary problems, or disagreements over doctrine or ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

minister, leads evening revels and tricks the company with an appearance of a "devil," played by household servant Sintram. Berling used to be a minister on the verge of being removed from his parish by the presiding bishop because of his habitual drunkenness. Berling gave a moving sermon, though, that made the parishioners and bishop ready to forgive him until he began to denounce their hypocrisy. Driven into exile, he becomes tutor to Ebba Dohna, stepdaughter of the mistress of Borg, an estate near Ekeby. The mother hopes to have Ebba marry Berling so that she will be disinherited for marrying a commoner, allowing the mother's natural son, Hendrik, to become heir to the estate. At that time, Hendrik returns from a trip to Italy with his new wife, Elizabeth. At dinner, Berling's past is exposed, devastating Ebba, who is in love with him, but rousing the sympathy of Elizabeth. Berling leaves Borg and is found half-frozen by Margaretha who brings him to Ekeby and makes him one of the Cavaliers. Berling eventually learns of Ebba's death, apparently from grief, and Margaretha reveals how she had left home under the curse of her mother because of her own love for a man. At a dinner party, Berling is one of several performers in

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

s and skits. In a scene with young neighbor woman Marianne Sinclaire, she kisses him, although the audience thinks it is part of the act. Marianne's father, however, is outraged and leaves the party, with Marianne walking in the snow to their house, where her father refuses to let her in. At the party, Margarethe's own past is exposed by a Cavalier, and her husband the Major throws her out of the house. Disgusted with life, the Major gives control of Ekeby to the Cavaliers, predicting that they will ruin the estate. Berling searches for Margaretha but finds Marianne collapsed in the snow by her family's front door. Berling takes her back to Ekeby but tries to keep her presence confidential since she has fallen ill. Margarethe returns to the cottage where her mother still lives, seeking forgiveness. As the old woman collapses and lies dying, there is a partial reconciliation but Margarethe realizes that she must atone for her past by driving the Cavaliers out of Ekeby. At Borg, Hendrik learns that his Italian marriage to Elizabeth will not be considered legal until they both sign certain documents. At Ekeby, Berling considers marriage to Marianne, who turns him away after revealing that her face was scarred by

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

. Margarethe, driven by her own guilt and rage, assembles a party to set fire to the wing of Ekeby housing the Cavaliers to exile them. However, the fire gets out of control and begins to burn the central mansion housing Marianne, whom Berling saves from the flames just as her father arrives, now relieved that she is safe. At Borg, seeing the fire, Elizabeth heads across the lake to Ekeby on foot, and is discovered by Berling, who was driving a sleigh across the ice. At first, in a fit of passion, Berling proposes eloping and taking Elizabeth away from Värmland and beyond. But he turns the sleigh back when he realizes that they are being pursued on the frozen lake by wolves, which they eventually outrun. Back at Borg, Hendrik offers Elizabeth the new documents to sign and legalize their marriage, but she has to confess that she has not given her heart to him, leading to the ultimate dashing of Hendrik's mother's hopes. Elizabeth goes to live with the Sinclaires, where she and Marianne become friends. On a visit to Margarethe in her mother's cottage, Elizabeth confesses her love for Berling, who had just entered the room without her noticing. Inspired by Marianne, Berling oversees the reconstruction of Ekeby. Margarathe returns to the newly built estate, which she now offers as a home to Berling and Elizabeth. The events are celebrated by the now-reformed Cavaliers.

Cast

as Gösta Berling *

as Elizabeth Dohna *

Sven Scholander Sven Scholander (21 April 1860–14 December 1936) was a Swedish musician, singer, composer and sculptor.:sv:Sven Scholander, Sven Scholander. ''sv.wikipedia.org''. Retrieved: August 21, 2012. His musical innovations led to a revival in Swedish l ...

as Sintram *

as Margaretha Samzelius *

Ellen Hartman-Cederström Ellen Hartman (born Helena Elisabeth Florentina Hedlund, 31 July 1860 in Stockholm – 4 January 1945 in Stockholm), was a Swedish actress. She was one of the greatest stars of the stage in Stockholm during the 1880s and 1890s. She was awarded t ...

as Märtha Dohna *

Mona Mårtenson Monica Ingeborg Elisabeth "Mona" Mårtenson (4 May 1902 – 8 July 1956) was a Swedish film actress. She appeared in 28 films between 1923 and 1949. She was born and died in Stockholm, Sweden. Early career Mona grew up in Helsingborg and s ...

as Ebba Dohna * Torsten Hammarén as Henrik Dohna *

Jenny Hasselqvist Jenny Matilda Elisabet Hasselquist, also spelled Hasselqvist (31 July 1894 – 8 June 1978), was a Swedish prima ballerina, film actress, and ballet teacher. Biography Jenny Matilda Elisabet Hasselquist was born in Stockholm on 31 July 1894 to ...

as Marianne Sinclaire * Sixten Malmerfelt as Melchior Sinclaire *

Karin Swanström Karin Swanström (June 13, 1873 – July 5, 1942) was a Swedish actress, producer and director. Early life Swanström was born in St. Olai congregation in Norrköping. Little is known of her life before she was accepted for the Royal Dram ...

as Gustafva Sinclaire * Oscar Byström as Patron Julius * Hugo Rönnblad as Beerencreutz *

Knut Lambert Knut ( Norwegian and Swedish), Knud ( Danish), or Knútur ( Icelandic) is a Scandinavian and German first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. In Germany both "Knut" and "Knud" are used. In Spanish and Portuguese Canuto is used which ...

as Örneclou *

Svend Kornbeck Svend Kornbeck (3 July 1869 – 30 October 1933) was a Danish stage and film actor. Early life and career Kornbeck was born in Copenhagen, the son of painter Johan Peter Kornbeck (1837–1894) and his wife Anna Nathalie Kornbeck (''née'' Trolle ...

as Christian Bergh * Otto Elg-Lundberg as Samzelius

Release

Restorations

Due to its length, the film was originally released in two parts in Sweden, ''Gösta Berlings saga del I'' on 10 March 1924, and ''Gösta Berlings saga del II'' seven days later. The two-part version was also released in Finland and Norway, but for the rest of the world a shorter, one-part export version was made. In 1927 the film was recut, almost halving its running time. This was the only version that was archived. In 1933 a sound version was released theatrically in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, with the intertitles removed, along with additional edits and some reordering of the scenes. Most of the missing material was discovered 20 years later and a restored version with new intertitles was released in theatres. The

Swedish Film Institute The Swedish Film Institute () (SFI) is a statutory body located in Stockholm, Sweden that supports the Swedish film industry. Founded in 1963, the institute is responsible for administering the annual Guldbagge Awards, and for managing the Swed ...

added newly found fragments throughout the years, but as of the 1975 restoration about 450 metres of film from the original cut remained missing. In February 2018, the completion of a new, comprehensive restoration was announced. The 2018 version is 16 minutes longer than the previous restoration and brings the film close to its original running time. It also restores the film's tinting scheme for the first time since its original release.

Home media

In 2008, a Swedish DVD was released by

AB Svensk Filmindustri SF Studios is Sweden’s largest film studio. It is involved in production, distribution, and movie theater market chains (both Swedish and international, including American) with headquarters in Stockholm and local offices in Oslo, Copenhagen ...

, with English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and German subtitles. The 192-minute restoration played at 184 minutes, due to

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

's 4% speed-up. It featured a specially commissioned 2005 score by pianist and silent film music composer

Matti Bye Matti Bye (born 25 July 1966) is a Swedish pianist and composer. He has composed music for over 30 films and TV series as well as additional scores for theatre and dance pieces. In 2014, he was nominated twice at Sweden's Guldbagge Awards in whic ...

. The same version was also released on US DVD in 2006, by

Kino International The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the Berlin Wall#The Fall, fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. T ...

. It also played at 184 minutes as the

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

DVD used the unconverted PAL transfer.

References

External links

* * * * ''Gösta Berling's Saga'
part I
an
part II
at the

Swedish Film Database The Swedish Film Database () is an Internet database about Swedish films, published by the Swedish Film Institute The Swedish Film Institute () (SFI) is a statutory body located in Stockholm, Sweden that supports the Swedish film industry. Fo ...

(in Swedish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Saga of Gosta Berling, The 1924 films 1924 romantic drama films Swedish silent feature films Swedish black-and-white films Films based on Swedish novels Films based on works by Selma Lagerlöf Films set in the 1820s Films directed by Mauritz Stiller Swedish romantic drama films Silent romantic drama films