The Outlaw and his Wife (1918)

At the Sodankylä Midnight sun film festival Victor Sjöström's The Outlaw and his Wife (Berg-Eyvind och hans hustru) was screened with a live performance by Matti Bye's ensemble. I must say that the music really enhanced the experience and Matti Bye's melancholy score was on the spot. Some chose to see Sjöström's film as an early forerunner of what later grows into a formidable tradition of outlaw movies. And sure, outlaws abound; the tale is drawn from Iceland and the big, revolutionary message is that love is greater than society and societal bonds. Eyvind is the guy who stole from others to survive and who runs away from the people who want to punish him; he takes on a new identity and hides in the ranch of a widow, Hella. The two fall in love but soon enough, Eyvind's identity is disclosed. They run away to the mountains where they are joined by another outlaw. The scenery is brilliant and majestic (it's pretty funny to think about the process of dragging very heavy camera equipment up those hills...). The moemtns of suspense root in your gut and it's hard to know one which level these moments feel so riveting: the good thing is perhaps that there are a multitude of levels but the landscape is never reduced to a mere psychological metaphor or a romantic-sublime backdrop for the romance. Berg-Eyvind is a heart-wrenching film about love in a harsh world. During the screening, I was mystified (and a bit annoyed) by many people's inclination to laugh at the hardships shown in the film. To me, there was very little overwrought melodrama or camp in the film and I wonder what it was the people reacted to (did they come there with a steadfast conviction that all silent movies contain funny gags?). So is calling this film an outlaw movie correct? Yes, maybe, but one needs to acknowledge that Sjöström does not romanticize the world of the outlaw; he shows how the vastness of the mountains  for these two people is at the same time synonymous with a shrinking of world, as they are expelled from communities.