Silent Films Illustrated With Commentaries By:

About Mauritz Stiller's "Erotikon" (1920)

Guest silent stars: Damen Frederica, Herr Mike Gebert, Herr Randy Byers & Herr Rodney Sauer.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien wrote: "And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must investigate the Ipstypographus' secrets."

Damen Frederica wrote: "Be very careful, Count. Some female insects like to bite their mate's head off."

Herr Mike Gebert added: "By the way, the company I am sworn to destroy, Kino, is now offering its upcoming DVDs of Erotikon, The Saga of Gosta Berling (who is, incidentally, a man played by Lars Hanson-- I always assumed Gosta was Garbo's role) and Sir Arne's Treasure, street date 6/6/06 (AHA!), at 30% off on their site"

Herr Randy Byers asked: "So if a person were going to start with one of these three, which would be the one to start with? (The love life of insects sounds pretty good, admittedly.)"

Herr Gebert replied: "I have seen none, so I feel uniquely qualified to answer... I guess it depends on what type of story appeals to you, they're totally different genres, as different as, say, The Marriage Circle, The Wind and Die Nibelungen. I'm most interested in Erotikon as a sexual comedy that inspired Lubitsch, and also because I think someone here (Chaneyfan?) raved about it... but hey, I ordered all three. "
And this German Count added: "If that person, besides a dangerous longhaired youngster, don't know at all Herr Stiller's films, this German Count would recommend to start with the love life of insects, that is to say, "Erotikon", then continue with the beautiful and obscure "Herr Arnes Pengar" and end with Damen Garbo and her particulr Swedish atonement in "Gosta Berling Saga", by the way those "Kino" DVD editions sounds terrific even in Germany.

This Herr Graf will be very careful, Damen Frederika, it will be a great disaster to lose my German noble head thrpugh the negligence of some female insects habits, overall because if that happens this aristocrat could not put on his top hat anymore, a great loss, certainly.

Herr Bauer wrote: "Wielen dank, Herr Graf. I shave my head, but then again, I'm not as young as I once was, probably needless to say. In any event, perhaps I will start with two and save the mysterious lady for another day."

And last but not least, Herr Rodney Sauer wrote: "There are actually two silent films called "Erotikon." The later Gustav Machaty version seems to be completely different from the Stiller version rather than a remake (Mont Alto scored it for the Telluride Film Festival a couple of years back). It features a woman seduced and left by a travelling salesman -- she later tracks him down to the city and finds she doesn't need him after all. Unfortunately the print we used required live translation from Czech, which reduces the impact of live music, and it had several scenes out of order that ruined some of the cleverness of the original"

Published in "alt.movies.silent"