The Monastery of Sendomir
About The Monastery of Sendomir
In the seventeenth century two noblemen on the road to Warsaw spend the night at a monastery. A monk tells them how Count Starschensky ruled Sendomir until his wife Elga was unfaithful with her cousin. He spent what he had to build the monastery where they are sleeping. At the end the monk is Starschensky.
Cast & crew
More about The Monastery of Sendomir
Victor Sjöström wrote the screenplay and directed it from Franz Grillparzer's 1828 story. Henrik Jaenzon photographed it. Axel Esbensen was art director. Released in Sweden on January 20, 1920. Rudolf Meinert had directed a German version of the same story in 1919. The British release title is The Secret of the Monastery. Rudolf Sahlberg arranged the music.
Themes
Background
A Swedish silent drama of January 1920, following a German film of the Grillparzer story by one year.
Making
Sjöström keeps the count's marriage and the building of the monastery inside the monk's story, and holds the identification until the visitors are ready to leave.
Look
Henrik Jaenzon photographed the monastery and the flashback.
Music
Rudolf Sahlberg arranged the music.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Tore Svennberg plays Count Starschensky. Tora Teje plays Elga. Richard Lund plays Oginsky. Renée Björling plays Dortka.
- Gun Robertson plays Starschensky's daughter. Albrecht Schmidt plays the manager.
- Sendomir is Sandomierz.
- Josef Fenneker designed the German poster. Eric Rohman designed the Swedish one.
- The reveal is that the monk telling the story is the count.
Scenes
- The monk tells the two travelers how Starschensky built the house they are sleeping in.
- He is revealed as the count himself.
Influenced by
- The Monastery of Sendomir, an 1828 story by Franz Grillparzer
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheMonasteryOfSendomirvictorSjostrom1920)
