Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

MartinHafer EROTIKON is a Swedish silent film that is supposed to be a sexy comedy, but much of it didn't seem all that funny nor did it especially titillate. Now this isn't saying it's a bad film, but it isn't exactly a must-see.The film is about a bored rich wife who runs about with a variety of men and her husband doesn't seem to mind or suspect that she might be cheating on him! At first, you just assume he's a moron. Later, when you see that he actually has strong romantic feelings towards his more domestically-oriented niece, you can see why he is ambivalent.There are lots of mistaken identities and situations in the film and it does have lovely camera work and costumes. As for the story, it all seems so ordinary and lacks spark. Still, as I am a lover of the silents, I did enjoy watching but I do think the film is a tad overrated.FYI--The DVD includes some bonus material that is delivered in such a dull and scholarly way that I found myself falling asleep repeatedly as I tried to watch.

Polaris_DiB Erotikon immediately reminded me of something I thought about when I saw Hindle's Wake, an important point that's worth looking into for social theorists and art history types: even in the 20s, feminist narratives were recognized and crafted with respect and open-mindedness. Although the norm to this very day still remains a male-centric viewpoint in cinema, Erotikon points to an open-mindedness even forty years before the titled Feminist Movement towards equality and self-ownership.Part of it has to deal with the more modernist Industrial stylings of this movie. It's a mostly upper-class comedy of manners where science and zoology help provide the seed of the idea that nature doesn't require a monogamous relationship helps provide in one woman the incentive to pursue a lover despite her marriage. But also it's a recognition of, basically, dating, the ability to decide individually who you want to be with without absolutes in love suturing two souls together.Hindle Wakes is a much more poetic, sensual allegory towards the matter. Erotikon is mostly a gorgeous pastiche of sets, character, and costume design. Hindle Wakes is a melodrama, whereas Erotikon is much more like a glamorous romantic comedy... in a way, Erotikon is the Sex and the City of the 1920s, if you'll forgive me my dated reference to a recent publicized movie in comparison to a lesser known Euro-art classic.It should also be noted that the KINO release of this movie on DVD comes with a fantastic score that really helps the experience. This is a good movie for fans of silent era cinema, but unfortunately it isn't exactly a well-known classic and it doesn't really have a huge audience, even for fans of foreign and classic films, so it might be a little difficult to find. I can't say it's worth a huge search, because there have definitely been better (and worse) silent movies out there. But it is a decently entertaining, quite beautiful movie in its own right.--PolarisDiB

Benoît A. Racine (benoit-3) This well-preserved Swedish classic available on DVD from Kino shows a remarkably adult comedy about marriage, infidelity, real or presumed, and leading to the re-matching of mismatched partners through divorce. It is well photographed, acted in a naturalistic manner not unlike the French films of the time (think "Judex") and has many action and outdoor scenes, including an outing in an airplane and a night at the opera.It is erotic in its subject matter - the sexual attractions extant in a group of young, wealthy and healthy people - and made even more so by the choice of attractive comedians who are all extremely "baisables" even by contemporary standards.The major failure of this DVD is in its musical accompaniment (piano, violin, tampura and percussion) which is as ponderous, depressing and dissonant as the comedy is lightly structured and frothy. The film has many distinct musical possibilities, including a pivotal romantic love song played on the piano by the wife to her would-be lover and a night at the opera featuring a Ballet Russe-type ballet along the lines of "Shéhérazade" and the Prologue to "I Pagliacci", none of which are rendered realistically - or even satisfactorily suggested. Instead, the viewer is treated to an unbearably caterwauling faux Indian raga - as revised by Arnold Schoënberg - from beginning to end, one that doesn't take any of the plot or acting subtleties into consideration, is highly anachronistic and will have you reaching for the Extra-Strength Aspirin.I survived viewing this DVD by doubling the speed at the times when the music became simply too much for my nerves, which allowed me to watch the film and its titles in silence and make up my own music as I went along.

FerdinandVonGalitzien Insects are very similar to people in their sexual lives, as the entomologist Herr Leo Charpentier ( Anders de Wohl ) knows; some insects, like some people, are bigamists, others monogamists, and the boldest are even polygamists, not to mention the "Ipstypographus" who has three females! Charpentier's niece Marthe ( Karin Molander ) secretly loves her uncle, and Charpentier's wife Irene ( Tora Teje ) loves Baron Felix ( Vilhem Bryde ), and as well the sculptor Preben Wells, a friend of the whole family ( Lars Hanson ) loves Irene, but that one is an unrequited love... so, that's what "Erotikon", directed by the great Swedish director Herr Mauritz Stiller, is: a film about love and insects. "Erotikon" is a film that can be divided in two different parts: in its first part it is a high comedy with a remarkable pace and very dynamic editing; the film characters live in villas, go to the city by taxi, fly in airplanes and go to the theater; in this last scene the performance of the ballet "Schaname" is used by Stiller as a metaphor or analogy to explain in a subtle way ( as with the sexual life of insects ) that such complicated relationships have always existed, in ancient Persia ( the ballet tells the story of the Shah's favorite who loves prince Torie, another unrequited love with a tragic ending ) as in modern Sweden ( the entwined relationships of the main characters of the film ). In the last part of "Erotikon" the pace is more slow and static ( focused to solve those complicated love affairs ), the film more romantic, but not forgetting the comedy anyway, emphasizing for this German Count the surprising ending, modern and very advantageous for the film heroes' love interests. "Erotikon", filmed in 1920, is another great example of the modernity of the silent Swedish cinema ( in editing, acting, and even the audacity to show non-conventional marital relationships ), Herr Mauritz Stiller being one of its more important exponents. And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must investigate the Ipstypographus' secrets. Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/