JAENZON, Julius

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Cinematographer and Director. Pseudonym: Also used the pseudonym J. Julius. Nationality: Swedish. Born: Gothenborg, 1885. Family: Brother of the cinematographer Henryk Jaenzon. Career: Documentary photographer; 1910—joined Svenska Biografteatern as photographer for Charles Magnusson; from 1912—associated with the directors Stiller and Sjöström; instructor at Svensk Filmindustri for several decades. Died: In 1961.

Films as Cinematographer:

1907

Report from the United States on President Theodore Roosevelt

1908

Fiskelivets favor

1910

Regina von Emmertiz och Gustav II Adolf (Linden)

1911

Bröllopet på Ulfåsa (The Wedding at Ulfåsa); Järnbäraren (Iron-Carrier) (Linden); Opiumhalan (Opium Den) (+ d)

1912

Två Svenska emigranters aventyr i Amerika (The Adventures of Two Swedish Emigrants in America) (+ d); Fabror Johannes ankomst till Stockholm (Uncle John's Arrival in Stockholm) (+ d); Mor och dotter (Mother and Daughter) (Stiller); Laban Petterqvist tränär för Olympiska spelen (Laban Peterqvist Training for the Olympic Games); Samhallets dom (The Justice of Society) (+ d); Kolingens galoscher (The Vagabond's Galoshes) (+ co-d); De svarta makerna (The Black Masks) (Stiller); Vampyren (Vampire) (Stiller); Barnet (The Child) (Stiller); Branningar, eller Stulen lycka (Breakers, or Stolen Happiness) (+ d); Detgröna halsbandet (The Green Necklace) (Magnusson); Trädgårdsmästaren (The Gardener) (Sjöström); I livets var, eller Forsta alskarinnan (In the Spring of Life, or His First Love) (Garbagny); Agaton och Fina (Agaton and Fina) (+ d)

1913

Aktenskapsbrydån (The Marriage Agency) (Sjöström); Livets konflikter (Conflicts of Life) (Stiller and Sjöström); Gransfolken (The Border Feud) (Stiller); Löjen och tårar (Ridicule and Tears) (Sjöström); När kärleken dödar (When Love Kills) (Stiller); När larmklockan ljuder (When the Alarm Bell Rings) (Stiller); Lady Marions Sommarflirt (Lady Marion's Summer Flirt) (Sjöström); Mannekängen (The Model) (Stiller); Blodets röst (Voice of the Blood) (Sjöström); På livets ödesvägar (The Smugglers) (Stiller); Bröderna (Brothers) (Stiller); Miraklet (The Miracle) (Sjöström)

1914

Prästen (The Priest) (Sjöström); Kammarjunkaren (The Chamberlain) (Stiller); Högfjällets dotter (Daughter of the Mountains) (Sjöström); När konstnärer älska (When Artists Love) (Stiller); Det röda tornet (The Master) (Stiller); Stormfågeln (The Stormy Petrel) (Stiller); Skottet (The Shot) (Stiller); Kärlek starkare än hat (Love Stronger Than Hatred) (Sjöström)

1915

Hans hustrus förflutna (His Wife's Past) (Stiller); Dolken (The Dagger) (Stiller); Strejken (Strike) (Sjöström); Högsta vinsten (The First Prize); Judaspengar (Judas Money) (Sjöström); Mästerjuven (The Son of Fate) (Stiller); Madame de Thèbes (Stiller)

1916

Kärlek och journalistik (Love and the Journalist) (Stiller); Vingarne (The Wings) (Stiller); Balettprimadonnan (Anjuta, the Dancer) (Stiller); Landshövdingens döttrar (The Governor's Daughters) (Sjöström); Rosen på Tistelön (The Rose of Thistle Island) (Sjöström); Therese (Sjöström)

1917

Terje vigen (A Man There Was) (Sjöström); Alexander den Store (Alexander the Great) (Stiller); Dodskyssen (Kiss of Death) (Sjöström)

1918

Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru (The Outlaw and His Wife) (Sjöström); Sången om den eldröda blomman (Song of the Scarlet Flower) (Stiller)

1919

Ingmarsönerna (Sons of Ingmar) (Sjöström—2 parts); Herr Arnes pengar (Sir Arne's Treasure) (Stiller)

1920

Dunungen (The Downey Girl) (Hedqvist); Mästerman (Master Samuel) (Sjöström)

1921

Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage) (Sjöström)

1922

Vem dömer (Love's Crucible) (Sjöström); Gunnar Hedes saga (Gunnar Hede's Saga) (Stiller)

1923

Gösta Berlings saga (The Story of Gösta Berling) (Stiller); Karusellen (Buchowetzki); Eld ombord (The Tragic Ship) (Sjöström)

1924

Livet på landet (Life in the Country); Två konungar (Two Kings)

1925

Ingmarsarvet (The Ingmar Inheritance) (Molander); Till Osterland (To the Orient) (Molander)

1926

Hon den enda (She's the Only One) (Molander); Hans engelska fru (His English Wife) (Molander)

1927

Förseglade läppar (Sealed Lips) (Molander)

1928

Parisiskor (Women of Paris) (Molander); Synd (Sin) (Molander)

1929

Hjärtats triumpf (Triumph of the Heart) (Molander); Säg det i toner (Say It with Music) (+ co-d)

1930

Ulla, min Ulla (Ulla, My Ulla) (+ d); För hennes skull (For Her Sake); Charlotte Löwenskjöld (Molander); Fridas visor (Frida's Songs) (Molander); Markurells i Wadköping (Sjöström); Svärmor kommer (Mother-in-Law Is Coming); Sten Stensson Stéen fran Eslöv på nya äventyr (Sten Stensson Stéen from Eslöv on New Adventures)

1932

Kärlek och kassabrist (Love and Deficit) (Molander)

1933

Vad veta val männen? (What Do Men Know?) (Adolphson); Giftasvuxnar döttrar (Marriageable Daughters) (Wallén); Tva man om en änka (Two Men and a Widow); Kungliga Johansson (Royal Johansson)

1934

Sången om den eldröda blomman (Song of the Scarlet Flower) (Molander)

1935

Smålänningar (People of Småland) (Rodin); Brannigar (Ocean Breakers) (Johansson); Aktenskapsleken (The Marriage Game); Bröllopsresan (The Honeymoon Trip) (Molander)

1936

Johan Ulfstjerna (Edgren); Samvetsomma Adolf (Conscientious Adolf) (Wallén); Aventyret (Adventure) (Branner)

1937

Sara lär sig folkvett (Sara Learns Manners) (Molander); Klart till drabbning (Clear the Decks for Action) (Adolphson); Vi går landsvagen (Walking along the Main Road) (Wallén); Pappas pojke (A Rich Man's Son) (Martin)

1939

Emilie Högqvist (Molander); Stora famnen (A Big Hug) (Henrikson); Valfångare (Whalers) (Henrikson) (co)

1940

Den ljusnande frantis (Bright Prospects) (Molander); En, men ett lejon (One, But a Lion) (Molander)

1941

Göranssons pojke (Göransson's Boy) (Hildebrand); Löjtnantshjärtan (Hearts of Lieutenants)

1943

Katrina (Edgren)

1945

Jolanta—den gäckande suggan (Jolanta—the Elusive Sow) (Molander)

1948

Life at Forsbyholm

Publications

On JAENZON: articles—

Chaplin (Stockholm), vol. 15, no. 5, 1973.

* * *

The English film critic Caroline Lejeune, in an assessment of the early Swedish cinema, noted the sense of reality given by the feeling of texture in objects and clothing and the awareness of landscape. It is obvious that Sjöström and Stiller, the masters of this great period of Scandinavian cinema, owed much to the technical and artistic skills of their cameramen, the principal of whom was Julius Jaenzon.

Jaenzon had joined Svenska Biograf in 1910 and had photographed many films before he met Sjöström and Stiller. As Sjöström acted in many of his own films, he must have relied a great deal on the collaboration of his cameraman. Jaenzon's association with Sjöström goes back to 1912 when he filmed The Gardener, and he worked with Stiller on Mother and Daughter and The Black Masks in the same year. These proved to be fruitful collaborations. Jaenzon's work on Sjöström's A Man There Was and his The Outlaw and His Wife are characteristic of his work which created an identifiable Scandinavian film style, and won for it a universal appreciation in its time. The brilliant sequence of the capture of Terje by the British gunboat in the former, with its unforgettable image of the sinking rowboat, laden with grain for the starving people, and, in The Outlaw and His Wife, the stark landscapes, contrasting with the frozen clothing of the doomed lovers, are some of the screen's great achievements. The sombre feeling of these films owed much to Jaenzon. In Stiller's Sir Arne's Treasure the primitive mediaeval ambience is superbly conveyed. The mercenary soldiers move through snowy landscapes, and one can almost feel their clothing touching the skin. The perception of the viewer is conditioned by the sensitive lens of a great cameraman. The visual virtuosity of Sjöström's The Phantom Carriage represents Jaenzon's most spectacular use of the camera with its ghostly images and superimpositions. In the same director's Love's Crucible, the pictorial quality of this mediaeval tale is very striking. Stiller used him to film his epic The Story of Gösta Berling, originally a two-part film. The range of Jaenzon's work is remarkable. In the exciting sequence of the sled chased across the frozen lake by wolves, or the lovely visions of Garbo in her first great success, and the cavaliers of Ekeby in their revels, the beauty of Jaenzon's work is unmistakable. One remembers the blazing eyes of Lars Hanson as he denounces his parishoners from the pulpit or the two lonely figures of Margarita Samzelius and her old mother pushing the great wooden levers of the old mill while no words pass between them.

He continued to serve these two directors until their departure for Hollywood in the mid-1920s, thereby presenting an image of Sweden to the world. With the coming of sound, he was codirector with Edvin Adolphson of the first popular Swedish musical film Say It with Music. He was to film his old Master Sjöström in Markurells i Wadköping and photograph for Gustav Molander the second version of Song of the Scarlet Flower which he had already brilliantly filmed for Stiller in 1918.

—Liam O'Leary