When Cinémathèque Frangaise sensationally announced in 2004 that the original negative of I lifvets vàr had been discovered in their collections, it meant not only the resurrection of one of the earliest Swedish feature length films, but also the incredible possibility of seeing the three leading figures of Swedish silent cinema – Sjòstròm, Stiller and Klercker – act in the same film.
Svenska Biografteatern’s move to Stockholm in 1911 and the building of their studio facilities in Lidingò marked the beginning of professional film-making in Sweden. Production manager Charles Magnusson hired three promising actor-directors from the theatre to make films – Victor Sjòstròm, Mauritz Stiller and Georg af Klercker, the latter also being appointed studio head. As part of the training,Sjòstròm was sent on a trip to the Pathé studios in France. In the meantime Magnusson also struck a joint production and distribution deal with the Pathé Frères branch in Stockholm, which was able to use Svenska Bio’s new studio facilities as it didn’t have its own. For the production of I lifvets vàr, Pathé hired Frenchman Paul Garbagni to direct the film, which was shot at the Lidingò studios and on location in and around Stockholm. For Magnusson, letting his three protégés act in the film was part of their cinematic training.
The film focuses on an orphan girl who later becomes a famous actress, and her relation with the three men in her life (at one point Sjòstròm and Stiller even fight a duel over the girl). A lot of the action takes place in front of the camera, and the characters communicate in writing rather than acting out inter-titles. However, the film has some interesting use of mirrors and an extraordinary close-up. It also provides a rare opportunity to see Stiller as an actor (the only other existing footage is his brief appearance in Sjòstròm’s Tradgàrdsmastaren). He excels in the part of a lewd army officer, degrading the uniform much in the same manner as Stroheim would do in Blind Husbands six years later. Significantly Stiller had only a few years earlier escaped from military service in the Russian army.

Jon Wengstròm