The Phantom Carriage

The Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman House is great because of its wide variety of films they screen. I considered myself lucky to get to see a silent film for the first time on a big screen this week. The movie was called The Phantom Carriage, a Swedish film by some director whose name I can't pronounce.

I have always loved silent movies and I don't understand why they have been forgotten by so many people. What's great will always be great, and that includes movies that aren't talkies. Usually my tastes in silent movies end up in the comedies of people like Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin. This time however I found myself enjoying something a little darker than gymnasts putting their bodies at risk for a good laugh. A serious drama, that's even scary at parts, about death and redemption. What I would call the Swedish Christmas Carol.

In the film, the legend goes like this - The last person to die on New Year's Eve has to drive the ghostly carriage and collect the souls of the dead for the next whole year. Each day feels like a hundred for that poor person who is forced to work for Death himself. The main character, a man named David Holm, was the last person to die that New Year's. When the previous carriage driver confronts David, instead of passing the black cloak and scythe onto him, he shows David all the mistakes he has made in the past and allows him the chance to be forgiven. By the close he even gives David another chance to live and carry on a better life.

There were many reasons I found this thoughtful movie to be good. One thing I really enjoyed was that in the actual theatre the music was being played live, the sombre piano rolls in the front of the room helped set the tone of the movie exceptionally.

One thing I was surprised by was the acting in the movie. The Swedes were apparently a bit more Brando than the Keystone Cops or some other group of people you're used to seeing from the silent screen. There was one very climactic scene that looks almost like the movie The Shining directly re-created it. The character David, in a flashback, takes an axe to the door of the room where his wife and children are hiding. Emotions run high in the scene and the acting is really marvelous and captivating.

The direction of the movie fascinated me. At that time film making wasn't really centralized around direction, but the director actually seemed to have a unique vision at parts. The special effects of the time still hold up for me. The spirit-like qualities that were given to the souls of the dead were really... Scary. Yeah, at times it almost seemed like a horror movie. I think if I was a viewer of the film in 1921 when it came out, I would have had trouble sleeping.

Now, not to make the movie sound cheap, but my favorite moment of the night at the Dryden's screening of The Phantom Carriage was the end of the movie. Not because I hated the movie and I was happy to see it be finished, but because of the Swedish word for "End" which consequently is "Slut." Yes, some of the other audience members and I got a good chuckle from that.

I would recommend The Phantom Carriage but there's not going to be a lot of chances for you to see it. So, I fervently recommend you to keep up with what is showing at The Dryden Theatre. Take a chance too, see a movie you wouldn't usually take the time to. You may end up having a pleasant experience with a real "Slut" finish.