Gösta Berlings Saga was Greta Garbos first full lenght feature film. Gösta Berlings saga is Swedish for "Gösta Berlings story". Stiller was a perfectionist to a neuroticdegree, and gave young Greta many pains during the filming. Stiller had started reconstructing Garbos "soul" at the time of the filming. He was very much her metor. The movie ran almost four hour, but was considered a success. But some Swedish reviews betrayed a slight sense of irritaition with Garbo's "still life-acting". Garbo and Lars Hanson also starred in "Flesh and the devil" together This is what Garbo told the Swedish press: "please don't write down everything that slips out of my mouth. I am one of thos people who don't think- I talk first and think later......Stiller shapes peopleaccording to his will...... I am one of those nice, ordinary people who suffer terribly if one is mean to them. |
Greta Garbo:
Countess Elizabeth Dohna Lars Hanson: Gösta Berling Gerda Lundequist: Margaretha Samzelius Otto- Elg-Lundberg: Major Samzelius |
Directed by: Mauritz Stiller Written by: Ragnar Hyltèn Cavallius Mauritz Stiller Selma Lagerlöf (novel) SF 1924 |
Based on the book by Selma Lagerlof, it is the story of Gösta Berling, defrocked
priest and his love for a married woman, Countess Elizabeth Dohna |
In "Gösta Berlings saga" there's little sign of the Garbo the world was to know some
years later. She's pleaseantly plump, more a child than a woman, and seems
abit insecure in her acting. There is however sparks of brilliance and magic in
her performance. And she is, if not a striking beauty, an odd beauty in this,
her debut movie. |