Dunungen (1919)

This week we follow the 37th edition of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, the world’s leading international silent-film festival in Pordenone. Screened today will be Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919), part of the programme Scandinavian Cinema: The Swedish Challenge 2. The film is based on a short story and play by Selma Lagerlöf, and stars Renée Björling as Dunungen, director Ivan Hedqvist himself and Ragnar Widestedt.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/1. Photo: publicity still for Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919) with Ragnar Widestedt and Renée Björling.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/4. Photo: publicity still for Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919) with Renée Björling and Ivan Hedqvist.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/?. Photo: publicity still for Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919) with Ivan Hedqvist and Renée Björling. The lady on the left is Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson, who plays Teodor's mother.

A pack of worthless shares

The story of Dunungen (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919) is set in the 19th century. The star of the film is the pretty Swedish film and stage actress Renée Björling (1888-1975). She peaked in the Swedish silent cinema, but decades later, she also played small parts in the films of Ingmar Bergman.

In Dunungen, Björling plays the baker's daughter Anne-Marie Ehringer, called "Dunungen". Ragnar Widestedt plays the mayor's son Mauritz Fristedt, who has deeply fallen in love with Dunungen.

The mayor applauds the engagement of his son when Mauritz in exchange promises to try to foist on Uncle Theodore (Ivan Hedqvist) a pack of worthless shares that the father wants to get rid of. It is to the rich old bachelor uncle Theodore, Mauritz and Dunungen will go on their engagement trip.

Dunungen gets attached to old Uncle Theodore and when Mauritz brings out the worthless shares and proposes Theodore a purchase, Dunungen prevents the deal.

The film was Ivan Hedqvist's directorial debut and Renée Björling's film debut. Weyler Hildebrand made a remake of Dunungen in 1941 with cinematographer Julius Jaenzon who also filmed this version in 1919.


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/6. Photo: Renée Björling and Ivan Hedqvist in Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919).


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/8. Photo: Renée Björling in Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919).


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/10. Photo: publicity still for Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919).


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/11. Photo: Renée Björling and Ragnar Widestedt in Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919).


Swedish postcard by Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1091/12. Photo: publicity still for Dunungen/In Quest of Happiness (Ivan Hedqvist, 1919).

Source: Wikipedia (Swedish) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 14 July 2022.