Gunnar Hede's Saga
About Gunnar Hede's Saga
At the manor Munkhyttan, Gunnar Hede wants the violin, not the mining studies his mother sets for him after his father dies and the estate faces seizure. He leaves with traveling performers and with Ingrid, an orphan who plays. On the road he hears that reindeer can still be driven south and sold, the trade that made his grandfather rich. A snowstorm turns the herd; a lead animal bolts and drags him. He wakes injured and out of his mind. Ingrid's playing brings him back.
Cast & crew
More about Gunnar Hede's Saga
Mauritz Stiller and Alma Söderhjelm wrote a free adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf's novel The Tale of a Manor. The opening titles say so. Lagerlöf disliked the changes, and Svensk Filmindustri had to talk her out of denouncing the film in public. Charles Magnusson produced. Principal photography ran from February to June 1922. Lars Hanson was cast as Gunnar and replaced by Einar Hanson just before shooting. It was Einar Hanson's first leading role.
Themes
Background
Stiller and Victor Sjöström were both adapting Lagerlöf for Svensk Filmindustri in these years. She kept a veto the company could not ignore.
Making
Stiller took the script to Lagerlöf for approval, as he had done with Sir Arne's Treasure. Exteriors for the reindeer drive were shot around Kallsjön in Jämtland.
Look
Julius Jaenzon shot the Filmstaden interiors and the Jämtland snow, including the runaway reindeer that drags Gunnar.
Music
Helmer Alexandersson wrote the score.
Preservation
Two thirds of the original film is known to survive.
Notes
- The Swedish title is Gunnar Hedes saga. English-language releases have used The Blizzard.
- Mary Johnson plays Ingrid. Pauline Brunius plays Mrs. Hede, Hugo Björne plays Gunnar's father, and Adolf Olschansky and Stina Berg play the performers Mr. and Mrs. Blomgren.
- Thecla Åhlander plays the servant Stava, who tells the boy the story of his grandfather the wandering fiddler.
- Svensk Filmindustri had tried to film the novel in 1915 from a Gustaf Molander screenplay and then cancelled it.
- The picture was sold to 17 foreign markets, fewer than Stiller's previous five films.
- AB Svensk Filminspelning, the subsidiary that made it, existed only from 1922 to 1923.
Scenes
- Mrs. Hede smashes a violin when she finds Gunnar and Ingrid playing.
- In the snowstorm a lead reindeer bolts and drags Gunnar across the ice.
- Ingrid's playing is what brings him back to himself.
Influenced by
- The Tale of a Manor (Selma Lagerlöf)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons
