'The Phantom Carriage'

Victor Sjöström directed and starred in The Phantom Carriage. He directed 50-60 films a majority of which were released during the infant years of cinema and was instrumental in making the country a cornerstone for filmdom.

He was taken by his family at an early age to Brooklyn and moved back at age seven when his mother died. A decade later, he'd join a touring theater group. How different would his life have been had he stayed in the United States? He probably would have been poor. Would he have the time and money to act? Is going to Sweden, where his native tongue is spoken, the lynchpin in him making it in acting?

Sjöström undertook adapting a number of novels from Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf. In fact, there was an agreement between Lagerlöf and a production company to adapt a novel per year. That was a pretty sweet agreement, although at the time I don't know, financially, how that might have helped the writer.

The Phantom Carriage (and Sjöström) was a huge influence on the greatest Swedish director of all time, Ingmar Bergman. Clearly, the concept of visualizing death was a big influence as Bergman would do the same for Seventh Seal. He would also caste Sjöström as the grandfatherly professor in The Wild Strawberries.