Outlaw His Wife Victor Sjostrom

Outlaw His Wife Victor Sjostrom Image

Outlaw His Wife Victor Sjostrom Image

Outlaw His Wife Victor Sjostrom Picture

Outlaw His Wife Victor Sjostrom Image

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14 of 17 persons found the following review helpful.
Beware! Only 70 min.
By Sevisan
Most silent films, damaged by the course of the time, subsist in dissimilar versions of dissimilar running time, but when a DVD is freed is supossed to be the most finish version existent (for instance, the Flicker Alley DVD of “La roue”).

Well, this is not the case with the Kino “The outlaw and his wife” (price: 27 $ !). This is a very truncated version and shouldn’t have been freed in such conditions. Its running time is only 70 min., when lately exists a version of 105 min. that I have seen four or five years ago in the Madrid Filmoteca and in the french TV channel Arte.

The truncated Kino DVD version is, I suppose, the existent in the Kino shelves and freed in VHS a lot of years ago. That’s very bad !

Not to speak of the nasty tinted of “Terje Vigen” in the associate DVD, that destroys the range of grey light and shadow of the original.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Sjostrom’s Classic Saga Finally on DVD.
By Chip Kaufmann
It has taken Kino International assorted years to make THE OUTLAW AND HIS WIFE available on DVD (the VHS version introductory appeared in 1989) but it has been worth the wait. Although it is basically the same source material (the Swedish Film Institute’s 1986 restoration) as the video, the picture is marginally sharper in detail and the contemporary modernistic score by Torbjorn Iwan Lindquist sounds a lot cleaner.

The 1918 film directed by and starring Victor Sjostrom (Seastrom in the U.S.) is a landmark not only of Swedish cinema but of world cinema as well. It tells the story of an ill fated couple forced to flee into the mountains to survive and of the disaster that ultimately befalls them. Joining Sjostrom is actress Edith Estrahof who matches him for strength of performance and who would later become his wife (they fell in love with each other for the duration of the making of the film altho both were already married). The use of natural locations, peculiarly the Scandinavian mountains and waterfalls, was outstanding and had already become a trademark of Sjostrom’s Swedish films. He would in the long run come to Hollywood where another outdoor drama THE WIND with Lillian Gish (1928) would become his American masterpiece.

Also on the disc is a 1981 documentary on Sjostrom and his films which is informative but rather arid altho it holds an consultation with Ingmar Bergman who was to a considerable degree influenced by Sjostrom and who repaid the debt by giving him the crucial role in WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957). Kino freed this jointly with the Sjostrom double bill A MAN THERE WAS/INGEBORG HOLM which is an even more important DVD.

2 of 2 persons found the following review helpful.
Stunning Scenery and Wonderful Atmosphere
By Barbara (Burkowsky) Underwood
This is the film that gave the Swedish film industry global acknowledgement in 1917, and after almost a century it’s still easy to see why. The main attraction of this film is surely the scenery – the tundra of northern Scandinavia – which gives rise to the rugged setting for this story with regards to life in 19th century Iceland. I found the strange colour tinting (often shades of pinkish-purple) in truth highlights the scenery and gives those images a haunting beauty and special atmosphere. Together with an strange orchestral score, which likewise includes some Scandinavian folk tunes, I found myself transported to the time and place that Victor Sjoestroem had in mind. Sjoestroem is probably best remembered for directing “The Wind” with Lillian Gish, which also places special importance and significance on the surroundings and it is effects on people. In this earlier film, Sjoestroem directed and played the lead role of a petty thief hiding from the law, at long last escaping with his new wife -who sacrifices wealth and ease for him – to live in the raw beauty of the wild mountains.

On a somewhat negative note however, “The Outlaw and His Wife” is not the easiest silent film to watch. Most intertitles are lengthy or involved and are shown a bit too briefly, so you have to read quickly! Some indoor scenes are rather dark, and a heap of parts appear jerky or disconnected, so it requires a little extra attention to follow and be grateful for the story more fully. It’s worth the effort though, in my opinion, for the overall atmosphere and the mood it leaves behind.

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