We enter Ingeborg Holm in idyllic fashion, with a happily married couple and their numerous children playing in the garden and eating meals together in peace, tranquility and love. But just as the husband receives credit to open a store, everything falls apart, and we exit the film in the pit of despair. Ingeborg Holm is the unlucky heroine to walk into a Victor Sjostrom film, and this one is as sad and heavy as any he made. The husband falls ill and dies, the shop goes bankrupt, and Ingeborg must become a housemaid, living in shared quarters with other maids - the only one given any screen time being a nasty one at that. Her children are fostered out, and suddenly she finds herself in an environment as loveless and empty as her past was lovely and full. But Sjostrom doesn't stop there, as her kids fall ill, lose memory of her, and cause such despair that Ingeborg loses her mind and becomes mentally ill.
It is not pleasant viewing, but effectively communicates the power of cherished family connections, and the unpredictable ways fate can turn our lives on their head. I can't help but feel a modern film would spoil subject matter like this - lingering too long, and too close to the tears, wringing out every last drop of drama - but being 1913, with scenes generally shot in one wide take, and no sense of urgency in the editing, the film is allowed to breathe, and we always stay distant enough from the tears so as not to get overly sentimental. It doesn't work for every film, but it works for this one. With such subject matter, one does not need close ups to feel the pain.
It is not pleasant viewing, but effectively communicates the power of cherished family connections, and the unpredictable ways fate can turn our lives on their head. I can't help but feel a modern film would spoil subject matter like this - lingering too long, and too close to the tears, wringing out every last drop of drama - but being 1913, with scenes generally shot in one wide take, and no sense of urgency in the editing, the film is allowed to breathe, and we always stay distant enough from the tears so as not to get overly sentimental. It doesn't work for every film, but it works for this one. With such subject matter, one does not need close ups to feel the pain.