One of the strangest and most visually beautiful of Sjostrom’s films, The Monastery of Sendomir concerns the owner of a castle who, on discovering his wife’s infidelity, murders her and then converts his Gothic pile into a monastery so that he may undertake a lifetime of penance. Sjostrom turns this lurid tale of marital deceit and revenge into a superb chiaroscuro symphony as the betrayed husband and his vast castle sink simultaneously into the grip of dark despair. Sjostrom shoots almost every scene so that the action is sinisterly framed by archways, crenellations or angled doorways, with mirrors reflecting suspicion and flickering candles the frailty of hope. Sweden, 1919.
English titles.
Black and white.
Silent.
80 mins.