The Phantom Carriage (1921)
Directed by Victor Sjöström

Film Review

After the great Ingmar Bergman, Victor Sjöström is unquestionably the second most important figure in Swedish cinema. Not only was he an accomplished actor, appearing in over forty films, but he was also one of the world's greatest cineastes, achieving success both in Hollywood and his native Sweden.  Sadly, much of his early work is lost, but what remains more than bears testament to his genius for cinematic art.  Of Sjöström's Swedish films, his finest is The Phantom Carriage, a powerful morality tale that also serves as a haunting meditation on the transience and profound ironies of human existence, metaphysical themes that have a distinct Bergmanesque ring to them.

The Phantom Carriage is a rare example of a silent film which effectively combines social realism and expressionism, and in a way that does not appear contrived or wilfully arty.  Its special effects - which are pretty limited to the oft-used in-camera device of double exposure - are simple but immensely effective, creating a real sense of ghostly otherworldliness which even today's best visual effects would be hard pressed to beat.   The film has something of the rich visual asthetic of the great German expressionist films, but also a dogged earthy realism that transcends melodrama and makes it easy for an audience to sympathise with the plight of its very believable characters.  For a film of its time, its narrative construction is very sophisticated, using flashback to skilfully achieve a similar plot structure to that of Dickens's A Christmas Carol, with past and future visions impinging dramatically on a precarious present reality.

The film's restrained yet highly atmospheric photography is the work of cinematographer Julius Jaenzon, who would later mentor Sven Nykvist, a frequent collaborator of Ingmar Bergman.   Victor Sjöström coached Bergman on his first film, Crisis (1946).  Bergman repaid him by casting him in two of his films, To Joy (1950) and Wild Strawberries (1959).  That Bergman was greatly influenced by Sjöström's work is apparent in many of his films, most notably Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal (1957), which both pay homage to The Phantom Carriage.  There have been other adaptations of the famous novel by Selma Lagerlöf, including one by French director Julien Divivier, but this is by far the best, one of the true masterpieces of Scandinavian cinema.

Film Synopsis

As she lies on her deathbed one New Year's eve, salvation army worker Edit insists that a man named David Holm be brought to her.   The previous year, David, an ill-humoured down-and-out, fell on her charity, but Edit's intervention in his life had a far from happy outcome.  Unaware of Edit's interest in him, David is drinking with his friends, preparing to toast the new year.  David recounts a story told to him by his friend Georges.  The last person to die on the last day of the year is compelled to collect the souls of all who die in the following year and take them in a phantom carriage to their place of rest.  Ironically, this fate befell Georges last year and David is about to go the same way.  After a violent brawl with his friends, David is greeted by the spectre of Georges, who tells him that he must replace him as the driver of the phantom carriage...