The Phantom Carriage

Victor Sjostrom - 1921
There are some scenes of beauty beyond beauty here; the whole thing is a masterwork. What struck me so was the incredible slowness, the remarkable ability of Sjostrom to stay on a slow movement, of a person turning their head, or of the coach trundling through. They are often framed just feet-up. Sjostrom doesn't mind cutting in quite a lot, one feels this is because he is worried for the chracter. The lighting, the images, are superb. Using usually a single frontlight, seemingly, even for the supposedly outside scenes. This light is harsh, horror stuff lighting, and the lack of fill....
He frames against sides of rooms often, and we have various yellow, blue, or otherwise filters, for night or different effects. His film is hard, deep, oh and the sea, the sea.
This film is at its most sensational when we have the carriage, the slow movement, framed from either long or diagonally. It's superimposed presence, the impostions and slowness scene to scene, put me in mind of Von Sternberg. Quiet, creeping, dread, yes, but also great beauty.
The family drama is perhaps a little less than the incredible deathly carriage scene, but is necessary, perhaps; Sjostrom is not making just another silly horror tale. Horror resides in realism, he seems almost to be saying. The remarkable beauty, the slow crawl, the film.