Enhörningen

It's a Nordic drama like a Greek tragedy, including all the classical ingredients, incest, suicide, betrayal, infidelity and all the Bergman necessities, like shame, guilt, sex and bottomless despair. The acting is perfect, especially by the older actors, like Inga Tidblad, Edvin Adolphson and Sture Lagerwall. Also the cinematography is classical in refined detail and perfection, and the music is all right, discreet but never interfering. Inga Tidblad was one of Sweden's most prominent actresses ever, actually better than both Ingrid Bergman and Greta Garbo, but she never went outside the Swedish limelight. Edvin Adolphson is the grand old man of Swedish cinema, always sympathetic and convincing, a true gentleman in every part, as outstanding in comedy as in tragedy. Sture Lagerwell is the knave, the Mephistopheles of the play, the seducer of souls who sees them through and pinpoints them, and he is perhaps the most interesting part. The novel is by Sigfrid Siwertz who was an outstanding Swedish novelist, probably rather underrated, with great insight in human nature and destiny. There is much of Eugene O 'Neill here but perhaps even more of Jean-Paul Sartre and other French dramatists, as Sigfrid Siwertz was a great francophile. Gustaf Molander made reliable and enduring classical Swedish films through four decades and is the great precursor of Alf Sjöberg and Ingmar Bergman. Bergman worked with him, admired him and learned a lot from him. He never should be obscured by the fames and careers of his moire illustrious followers.