The Emigrants / The New Land

Though it has rarely been screened or cited in the decades since its initial release, director Jan Troell's two-film narrative about immigration-"The Emigrants" and "The New Land," which have been collected together for a Blu-ray and DVD release from the Criterion Collection-may represent one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of the American commercial cinema. The films, adapted from a multi-volume series of literature written by Vilhelm Moburg, are suitably novelistic in their structure: both of the features (which each exceed three hours in length) are broken up into two chapters (which are separated by an intermission.) Expanse is the primary quality of this viewing experience; Troell's work stretching across far more space than one canvas might contain.

The journey starts in Smaland in Sweden, where life has reached a complete stop. Troell's primary subjects are Karl Oskar Nilsson (Max Von Sydow) and his wife Kristina (Liv Ullmann,) but his eye is preoccupied with the land that has betrayed them: the soil on the territory, dry and lifeless, gives no purchase to their attempts for harvest. Much of "The Emigrants" quietly documents this and the other hardships faced by the Nilsson clan (including trials of hunger and conflicts of religion,) with Troell displaying his uncannily observational aesthetics-he's a multihyphenate (he directs, edits, co-writes, and even photographs the films himself) whose voice is imprinted on much of the film's compositions. He does so with instinctual movement: he often starts by filming dramatic scenes in a typical manner, before allowing his camera to pan and zoom in search of the details (a trembling hand or a wandering eye) that allow the greatest insight into the given scene.

"The Emigrants" ends with the family arriving in Minnesota, after a soujourn across both the ocean and the states. More challenges face the clan throughout: they're joined by uncle Danjel and his second Ulrika, three of their own children, and later by brother Robert and his friend Arvid, who unwisely head west in search of gold and fortune. This is not to mention some of the members lost preceding and during the journey itself; "The New Land" is a more directly tragic affair, even including flashbacks and cross-country edits (not apparent in the first film) to further emphasize the distance and traumas that beset the travelers. Illness and poverty continue to reign while stateside, but Troell doesn't waver in the face of melodrama. He mantains a committment to a humanist vision, as well as to his interest in the nuances and vagaries of human behavior: even when we're beside a deathbed, his camera is searching for physical and behavorial insights during every sequence.

Criterion's release of the saga offers an individual disc for each film, with extra features included on both. With "Emigrants," there's an introduction from film critic John Simon, as well as "To Paint with Pictures," an hour-long documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew (including Ullmann and Troell) as well as footage of the production itself (displaying Troell's halfway-improvisational directing methods.) "The New Land" comes accompanied by an interview with Ullmann, who speaks with great detail about her working relationship with the director (for instance, comparing and contrasting Troell's working methods with those of Bergman.) A few other extras come with it: there's an interview with Troell himself (it clocks in at over 30 minutes, and features the artist in conversation with film scholar Peter Cowie,) as well as trailers for each release (included on the corresponding disc.)

Also included is a booklet featuring a critical and contextual essay by critic Terrence Rafferty. It's a dense piece of writing, where the author considers the two primary subjects of these film's texts-immigration and marriage-while ruminating on the various ways Troell's filmmaking connects the two topics. In short, he claims that the film posits both experiences as ones that demand a literal lifetime of physical and emotional malleability-they demand constant personal recalibration. It stands as a testament to Troell's eye for sensual detail, and to his interest in the minutia of the human experience, even in the face of melodrama. For all its scope and ambition, this epic is down-to-Earth-low enough to document the soil.

"The Emigrants" and "The New Land"
Blu-ray (Two Discs)
Criterion.com
$39.95