Here is a 1913 feature with a true dramatic arc, one that holds the attention and shows a spatial awareness of the celluloid frame. The plot, which concerns a long-suffering mother whose children are taken from her, is its weakest feature -- there were plenty of these manipulative stories, up through "Sarah and Son" and "Stella Dallas," and you have to accept the archaic, treacly nature of the material to enjoy the film. It benefits greatly from a clear print, in which all the faces and settings are in good focus (outside of some intermittent nitrate decay.) The lead actress, Hilda Borgstrom, is a honey blonde with a convincing technique and lovely features -- she looks something like Blanche Sweet. Victor Sjostrom tells the story in extended medium and long shots, as you would expect in a 1913 film -- most film makers were still thinking of their sets as theater stages, and the power of cinematic story-telling through editing was still being theorized. But Sjostrom's use of foreground and background compensate for the static camera placement. In his most dramatic use of foreground/background, early in the film, we see Ingeborg's husband thrash and die in his sickbed, while, through an open door in the back of the room, we can see Ingeborg bustling happily around her house. Thus, while the shot lingers at one setting, we know before she does that her husband is dead and that she will soon face life's troubles without him. This film is far more coherent and structured than most films of the early feature era -- if you have a liking for silent melodrama, this is out on a Kino disc which pairs it with "A Man There Was", directed 4 years later by Sjostrom with a more flexible technique. Both are important early films if not masterworks.
Review of Ingeborg Holm
