Cinema of Sweden - Early Swedish Cinema

Early Swedish Cinema

Swedish filmmaking rose to international prominence when Svenska Biografteatern moved from Kristianstad to Lidingö in 1911. During the next decade the company's two star directors, Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller, produced many outstanding silent films, some of the best being adaptations of stories by the Nobel prizewinning novelist Selma Lagerlöf. Sjöström's most impressive films often made poetic use of the Swedish landscape and developed powerful studies of character and emotion. Stiller was responsible for the early popularity of Greta Garbo, particularly through the film Gösta Berlings saga (1924). Many of the films made at the Biografteatern had a significant impact on German directors of the silent and early sound eras, largely because Germany was cut off from French, British, and American influences through World War I.

In the mid-twenties, both of these directors and Garbo moved to the United States to work for MGM, bringing Swedish influence to Hollywood. The departure left a vacuum in Swedish cinema, which went into a financial crisis consequently. Both directors later returned to Sweden but Stiller died soon after his return, while Sjöström returned to theatre work for most of the remainder of his career.

The advent of the talking movie at the beginning of the 1930s brought about a financial stabilization for Swedish cinema, but artistic and international ambitions were sacrificed for this financial success. Some provincial comedies were filmed that were created for the local market.