Arquivo

One of the first uses of the resource of a ‘film within a film’, this perverse comedy of manners tells of a scriptwriter who decides to set down on paper the fantasies he had about a secretary he was madly in love with. A complex network of flashbacks and of waking dreams include moments of pure fantasy, interwoven with the reality without specific limitations on screen. A good deal of the humor in the film is in the hilarious visual gags. Victor Sjöström, in the role of scriptwriter, proves to be an actor as talented as he would later be director - he also played the professor who is honored in Wild Strawberries (1957), by Ingmar Bergman. The film was the greatest success with the public in Stiller’s career.