The Gardener (1912)

A gardener runs a nursery. His son has fallen in love with the daughter of one of the workers at the nursery. The gardener, who has a good eye for daughter, runs furiously his son out of the house.

Director:

Victor Sjöström

Writer:

Mauritz Stiller

Stars:

Victor Sjöström, Gösta Ekman, Lili Beck

Cast

Credited cast:
Victor Sjöström	...	The Gardener
Gösta Ekman	...	The Gardener's son
Lili Beck	...	Young Woman (as Lili Bech)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gunnar Bohman
John Ekman	...	The General
Mauritz Stiller	...	Passenger

Storyline

A gardener runs a nursery. His son has fallen in love with the daughter of one of the workers at the nursery. The gardener, who has a good eye for daughter, runs furiously son out of the house. One day the gardener violates the girl. He then sends her and her father away, so that he will not be revealed.

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Plot Keywords:

banned film | prostitute | rape | formerly lost film | 

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Genres:

Short | Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The first film to be banned in Sweden. It was released in Sweden in 1980, then it was rated "barntillåten" - "approved for all ages".

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Alternate Versions

The original version featured a scene where the father rapes his daughter and was thus banned in Sweden. The film was considered lost until a censored American print was discovered in 1979.

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Connections

Featured in Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood: Art's Promised Land (1995)

User Reviews

class study

The Swedish landscape is heartrendingly beautiful in this light-toned silent film. Sjostrom creates a nice little piece, with clear political intent - often missed in commentary inside class-blind USA - sensitively carried by the well-worked plot of maiden's idyll betrayed. The same falls in love with her employer's son, whom his father then sends away, one infers - the audience of the time would at any rate - in order to end the socially inappropriate relationship, but in fact so that he may use his power to take advantage of her, by force. She and her aged father are summarily dismissed; taken in by a wealthy patron, when he dies his family casts her out, into the demimonde (note her cigarette!) of the overclass' student life. A final set piece has her body, strewn with thorn roses, accusing the cause of her ruin.

The plot is incomplete, and these short moral films are not in fashion now, to say the least; but well worth seeing, in the context of retrospectives of Sjostrom's excellent work.

Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

None

Release Date:

17 October 1912 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

The Gardener

Filming Locations:

Nacka, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company Credits

Production Co:

Svenska Biografteatern AB

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1