Nils Krok’s social pathos and Paul Garbagni’s style – Ingeborg Holm as object lesson

This essay examines Victor Sjöström’s Ingeborg Holm in terms of its exhibition and preservation history. Produced by Swedish Biograph in 1913, the film survives today in a truncated copy derived from a 1915 reissue. Key stylistic elements identified in the scholarly reception of Sjöström’s film are discussed in relation to its influential predecessor, Paul Garbagni’s I lifvets vår/Första älskarinnan (In the Springtime of Life, Swedish Biograph, 1912). Sjöström was a featured actor in Garbagni’s film. A sketch of the institutional background of Swedish cinema in 1912, when Garbagni arrived at the brand new SB studio at Lidingö, introduces the discussion of Garbagni and Sjöström’s work.