Gustaf Molander

Gustaf Harald August Molander (18 November 1888 – 19 June 1973) was a Swedish actor and film director.^[1] His parents were writer and director Harald Molander, Sr. (1858–1900) and singer and actress Lydia Molander, née Wessler, and his brother was the director Olof Molander (1892–1966). He was the father of director and producer Harald Molander from his first marriage, from 1910-1918, with actress Karin Molander and father to actor Jan Molander from his second marriage to Elsa Fahlberg (1892–1977).^[2]

Gustaf Molander was born in Helsingfors (Helsinki) in the Grand Duchy of Finland (in the Russian Empire), where his father was working at the Swedish Theatre. He studied in the school of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm 1907–1909, acted at the Swedish Theatre in Helsingfors 1909–1913, and then at the Royal Dramatic Theatre from 1913 to 1926. The last years there he headed the school and was also a teacher, being Greta Garbo one of his students.^[3] He was also one of the founders of the Swedish Film Society in 1933 and received an honorary award from the organization in 1953.^[4]

Molander wrote several screenplays for Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller, and it was the latter who helped him secure employment as a director at Svensk Filmindustri. He wrote the screenplay for A Man There Was (Victor Sjöström, 1917), a film often regarded as marking the beginning of the golden age of Swedish silent cinema, and later directed its epilogue, Ingmar's Inheritance (1925).^[4]

He directed (and scripted) his first film in 1920, King of Boda, with Victor Sjöström in the lead. After the golden age of Swedish silent cinema (1917–1924), Molander directed several successful international co-productions during the late 1920s, often featuring foreign actors. Among these films were the August Strindberg adaptation Sin and The Triumph of the Heart (1929).^{[4][5] [6]}

Molander worked in a wide range of film genres. He directed comedies, including farces and salon comedies, as well as dramas, historical costume films, and films for children and young audiences. In the early 1930s, while working as a studio director, he was also commissioned to make short documentary films.^[4]

Some of Molander’s most important films were based on literary works. These include adaptations of plays by the Danish writer and priest Kaj Munk, such as The Word and Love (1952). He is especially known for his adaptations of works by Selma Lagerlöf and directed six films based on her books.^[4]

Molander is often described as a director known for working closely with actors, particularly actresses. He often worked with Gösta Ekman, and his films include Intermezzo (1936), which became Ingrid Bergman's breakthrough and paved her way to America, where she starred in the 1939 Hollywood remake of the film.

In 1943 he directed Ordet, the first film version of the play of the same name written by the Protestant pastor Kaj Munk, not to be confused with the second and more famous version of the film brought to the big screen by Carl Theodor Dreyer. The Danish master's film was shot twelve years later and won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival.

He worked in several films with Ingmar Bergman, who wrote the script for Molander's Woman Without a Face, Eva and Divorced.^[6]

Molander's last film was The Necklace, the most successful contribution to the episodic film Stimulantia (1967).^[4]

All in all, he directed almost 70 films. Over a career that lasted more than sixty years, Molander produced a large and varied body of work. His long and continuous career is comparable to that of a small number of internationally prominent directors, including Fritz Lang and Alfred Hitchcock.^[4]

• Forslund, Bengt: "Molander, Gustaf", Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, Vol. 25, pp. 619–622.

• Gustaf Molander at IMDb
• Gustaf Molander at the Swedish Film Database
• Gustaf Molander at the TCM Movie Database