StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

jadavix "Korkarlen", or "The Phantom Carriage", is a milestone in Swedish cinema. It was a favourite film of Ingmar Bergman, and featured ground breaking special effects to represent the supernatural, and a plot filled with unprecedented complications. All movie goers are familiar with flashbacks; this 1921 work uses flashbacks within flashbacks.The film's superstition states that the last person to die on New Years Eve must spend the next year gathering souls for Death in a lonely carriage. Edit, a Salvation Army sister, lies on her death bed with one last wish: that David Holm, the man she prayed for, should come to see her so she can see if her prayers were answered. He is first visited by the ghost of Georges, a man who died last New Years Eve and is now gathering souls.Along with flashbacks, the film makes liberal use of transparency of characters - and their carriage - to represent the afterlife. At one point we see the Phantom Carriage gliding over water to collect the soul of a man who has just drowned.Death is represented by the "ghost", or transparent actor, rising from the prone body of the deceased, the same actor lying still and opaque. I'm not sure if this is the first movie to use this effect; if it is, it deserves recognition. It reminded me immediately of Patrick Swayze's "Ghost", made some 70 years later. This effect has served filmmakers well.If all of this sounds confusing, unfortunately, that is because it is. I was well on board for "Korkarlen" for its first half. However, in the second I lost interest, tired of keeping up with its constant doubling back on itself. "Korkarlen" is an example of the phrase that we only know what is enough when we know what is more than enough. It pointed the way for special effects and flashback scenes, and perhaps also demonstrated why the latter should not be overused.

Jamie Ward When it comes to silent cinema, it's often relayed by newcomers that getting past the sound (or lack thereof) barrier is one that is difficult or near-impossible to do. Indeed, I remember my first venture into the silent realm and well, let's just say I wasn't convinced and moved away for near-on a decade. It goes without saying that, now with more than a handful of silent films (many now among my all-time favourite movies) under my belt, it's probably best to appreciate that some of cinema's forgotten treasures are easier to digest in a modern world than others. Or, at least for the uninitiated. The Phantom Carriage, I'd like to think, is one of those that crosses the barrier with ease. Whether through its imaginative storytelling, compelling visual effects that even a CGI-laden teenager might decree as "impressive", or the mere pace at which the film moves along; Victor Sjöström's 1921 classic is surely a film with no limitations set merely by its year of production. Firstly there's the plot which, although has been beaten to death on screens for the past 90 or so years, is one that is readily engaging and compelling to this day. Echoing more famous films made later down the line such as It's A Wonderful Life or Scrooge among many others, Sjöström's adaptation of Nobel prize-winning author Selma Lagerlöf's 'Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!' (the fourth adaptation of Lagerlöf's novels by Sjöström and A-B Svenska Biografteatern) is a wonderfully- told moralistic epic that swoons, sways, crashes and burns as each of the film's characters play out their parts in what is, for the most part, a very grim and starkly depressing story. It's also a tale steeped in mysticism and fantasy, and while I'm usually rather prickly when it comes to such works, when done as well as it is here you can't help but be whisked along quite willingly for 100 minutes or so. It had some small hurdles in getting green-lit back in the day because of certain touchy belief-systems, but eventually the studio decided it would better served facing the wrath of an omniscient deity than Selma Lagerlöf. A wise choice indeed.As a direct result of the plot's reliance on the supernatural and occult, Phantom Carriage also boasts visual effects that far-exceeded anything else on screens at the time in terms of realism and clarity. Even on the newly-released Criterion blu-ray the scenes involving ghostly phantoms look stunning, even though the HD format has a tendency to do the exact opposite, often drawing attention to the primitive techniques used at certain points in history. On the flip side of the coin however, Lagerlöf's story isn't merely about ghosts in the literal sense; in fact, it probably spends more time developing and exposing the emotional phantoms that haunt its characters during their waking lives. Sjöström excels here also, blending powerful but natural performances from his more than capable cast (which includes himself in the lead role) with the detailed and strikingly-lit photography of Julius Jaenzon to cast light and shadows upon the characters' emotive faces, and most importantly, their conflicted hearts. Cinematographers were doing great work already across many studios at the time, and while The Phantom Carriage stands out as one of the very best, it's the realistic and very-seldom melodramatic performances led by Sjöström himself that break the standard for 1921 more than anything else.Rounding out the package on the restored Criterion release are two soundtracks, one of which I haven't heard at this time. The first is a fantastic chamber orchestra score penned by Matti Bye in 1998. It's not your typical silent-movie score by any means; often it will delve into bizarre interludes and stanzas that mirror the action well, but never distract from the film. The second, which I haven't gotten around to yet, is an experimental piece by KTL recorded for a Tartan DVD release in 2008. From what I've read elsewhere it's even better than Matti Bye's, and if it furthers Phantom Carriage's already strong ability to step out of its 95-year-old history and appeal to modern audiences, then by all means. Overall, I cannot recommend this one enough. Compelling and highly emotive character fantasy-drama, start to finish.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . were blanketed with Blondes playing volleyball in the buff, the Salvation Army invaded Stockholm with a strident Prohibition agenda. Carry A. Nation may have succeeded in setting America awash with bathtub gin for about 15 years, but Sweden did Ms. Nation one better. As shown by this documentary PHANTOM CARRIAGE, the Swedes were "scared straight" by the power of celluloid, which is why they remain a virtually abstinent country this far into the 21st Century. As PHANTOM CARRIAGE illustrates, the Swedish chicks recruited by the Army were at least as effective as the volleying Nature Girls in using their feminine charms to score points. Sister Edit sweet talks Death into giving her a "reprieve" long enough to ensure a drunk and his family of four do not suffer Eternal Damnation. No one could watch this flick from beginning to end, and touch another drop of the hard stuff. That's why all those holier-than-thou public "tea-totallers" drinking on the sly are afraid to even view PHANTOM CARRIAGE.

gavin6942 New Year's Eve. Three drunkards evoke a legend. The legend tells that the last person to die in a year, if he is a great sinner, will have to drive during the whole year the Phantom Chariot, the one that picks up the souls of the dead...Victor Sjöström directed this silent classic, and also stars as David Holm (who goes through various phases of respectability and homelessness). The film is notable for its special effects (double exposure), its advanced (for the time) narrative structure with flashbacks within flashbacks, and for having been a major influence on Ingmar Bergman.Bergman, easily Sweden's greatest filmmaker, was returning to this film his whole life, and the dark nature of Swedish cinema can probably be traced to "Phantom Carriage". For one example, Bergman cast Sjöström in the leading role for "Wild Strawberries", which also features references to the silent film.While presented as a horror film, this is not really fair. The horror elements can be found there, surely, but this is more of a take on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Story". We have alcoholism replacing greed and New Years replacing Christmas, but there are many parallels.