Background
Gustaf Molander was born on 18 November 1888 in Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland.
Gustaf Molander was born on 18 November 1888 in Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland.
Molander lasted longer than the two other founding figures of the Swedish industry, Stiller and Sjostrom. When nearly eighty, he returned to direct a Maupassant-based episode from Stimulantia starring Ingrid Bergman, his great discovery of the 1930s. He had directed the young Bergman in Pa Solsidan, Intermezzo, En Enda Natt, and En Kvinnnas Ansikte. When Bergman went to America, Selznick offered an invitation to Molander as well. But the Swede may have recollected the way Stiller was cut adrift so that Garbo should be made the studio’s property, and he elected to remain in Sweden. Little of his work is w'ell known, but Ordet, from a play by Kaj Munk, is a moving allegory about the raising from the dead of a young farm girl, starring Victor Sjostrom. (A decade later, it was remade by Carl Dreyer.)
However, it seems that the majority of Molander’s work is far lighter than this, with an emphasis on romantic comedy. As well as launching Ingrid Bergman, he was married to the actress Karin Molander from 1910 to 1918, and was Garbo’s first teacher at the Renal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm.
Molander had himself acted in Finland and Sweden, and he entered films originally as a writer: Millers Dokument (16, Konrad Tallroth);
Terje Vigen (17, Sjostrom), from an Ibsen poem; Thomas Graals Basta Film (17, Stiller), with Karin Molander in the cast; and then a few years later, Gunnar Hecles Saga (23, Stiller).