In summer 1916 Mauritz Stiller left cinema for the theatre (after Vingarne and Balettprimadonnan, both screened at Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2016) and returned to it a year later, with Thomas Graals bästa film.
After the success of Victor Sjöström’s Terje Vigen (A Man There Was), AB Svenska Biografteatern changed its production policy. Soon Stiller too would direct films shot in spectacular locations based on famous literary sources portraying the interaction between Man and Nature. But he also continued to make urban contemporary comedies, such as the Thomas Graal films and Erotikon (1920).
In Thomas Graals bästa film, the self-reflective traits of Vingarne are fully developed, becoming the subject of the film itself. The story centers around a scriptwriter – delightfully played by film director Victor Sjöström – struggling for an idea for his next film. The comedy delivers an exaggerated portrait of a studio mogul, a parody of a typical Swedish poverty-drama, allusions to Swedish censorship, and has intertitles addressing the spectators directly.
The female lead is played by brilliant comedienne Karin Molander, once again cast as an independent and strong-willed woman. Especially memorable are her tongue-in-cheek performances, practicing at home in front of the mirror, and her first screen tests.
Stiller directed a continuation in the following year (Thomas Graals Best Child), and scriptwriter Gustaf Molander made a sequel loosely based on the Stiller films in 1922 (Thomas Graals myndling).

Jon Wengström

Allegedly inspired by American animator Winsor McCay, illustrator Victor Bergdahl made Trolldrycken (The Magic Potion) in 1915, considered to be Sweden’s first animation: a three-minute film of a man smoking a cigar and emptying a bottle of alcohol, where fantastic figures emerge as he enters different stages of delirium. The following year, Bergdahl would make the first of three animations with a circus motif, Cirkus Fjollinski, and in the same year he also made the first of his thirteen films with the character Kapten Grogg, a short-tempered sea captain prone to drinking and having exceptional adventures.
The Kapten Grogg films are among the earliest examples of an animated series centering on a recurrent character, and they became instantly popular, not only in Sweden but also abroad, most notably in Germany. Often misogynistic and sometimes blatantly racist, the Grogg films remain visually delightful and full of brilliant ideas. His most elaborate film is the 1917 När Kapten Grogg skulle porträtteras, where the live-action Bergdahl himself interacts with the illustrated character, who comes to visit the artist’s studio to have his portrait taken.

Jon Wengström