Rune Carlsten

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Swedish director and actor. Born as Rune Wilhelm Carlsten in Stockholm.

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Filmindustri AB Skandia was formed in 1918, and John W. Brunius was contracted as its main director from the start. Carl Barcklind occupied for a time the second-tier director spot at the studio, but when his August Strindberg-adaptation Hemsöborna (Natives of Hemsö, 1919) turned out less than successful, this film's lead actor Rune Carlsten was contracted to direct Skandia’s next feature, the Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson-adaptation Ett farligt frieri (A Dangerous Wooing), in Barcklind’s stead. Carlsten's first directorial effort was shot during summer 1919 in the Långängen studios and on location at the Hardangerfjord in Norway. The film premiered in Stockholm and Gothenburg on Boxing Day the same year.

Skandia ceased to be as an independent company on the very day after this première. At the initiative of Svenska Biografteatern the two studios merged into AB Svensk Filmindustri, and both Brunius and Carlsten continued to work for the new company. Carlsten directed a number of films for Svensk Filmindustri before he returned to the stage. During the 1930s and 1940s he appeared more as actor than as director in films, but his Hjalmar Söderberg-adaptations Doktor Glas (Doctor Glas, 1942) and Den allvarsamma leken (The Serious Game, 1945) stand up well for themselves even today.

Jon Wengström (2010)