Gunnar Hedes Saga

Reckless Gunnar adventures forth to make his fortune only to be concussed by stampeding reindeer. He returns home zombiefied but is finally restored to health and wealth by the love of a beautiful fiddle player from a travelling show. One way of approaching this odd but rewarding movie, from Selma Lagerlöf's novel, is to imagine a prologue in which a child announces 'Once upon a time...' The tale which follows, with its sinister/comforting mother and vigorous/passive hero, would play quite smoothly if the copious inter-titles were rendered in Daisy Ashford-ese. Freudians will find the film specially congenial, particularly the heroine's dream, in which Gunnar is carried into her bedroom on a sledge driven by an old woman and pulled by four enormous black bears. Hmm.