It's probably the rarest book I've ever read, yet written by a Nobel-laureate and the basis of a famous film! I was able to access a digital reproduction from the Library of Congress. No copies are available for sale anywhere in the world, and only four copies are known to exist in research libraries: Washington DC, London, Amsterdam and Sweden. Today, the film version has become an influential classic while the English version of the novel has become nearly extinct. Lagerlof hardly paid attention to Sjöström's request to film an adaption of her book and she was not involved with the script. The passage of time has done strange things to both novel and film.Īt the time, film was considered a lesser art, or not even art at all, while literature was a well established high-art of prestige. The novel is called Körkarlen (1912) and it remained untranslated into English until the release of the film in 1922, when it was published under the English title They Soul Shall Bear Witness!. Yet few people know this famous film which influenced one of the greatest directors of all time was based on an obscure little Swedish novel by Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlof. The Phantom Carriage is today considered a classic among first generation films and is still widely watched, it was recently re-issued on DVD with a new soundtrack. Its influence can clearly be seen in his movies, in particular The Seventh Seal. He first saw it as a child, and watched it every year as an adult. When the famous Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman was asked what had influenced him the most, he did not hesitate about the 1922 silent film The Phantom Carriage directed by Victor Sjöström.
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