How to film an author: Portrait films of authors in the silent age in Scandinavia and elsewhere

Authors and silent films were in many regards an odd couple, even when it came to portraying authors in film. This article explores the genre of the portrait film of an author, predominantly constituted in the 1910s and encompassing at least 32 films in the silent period in Scandinavia, in spite of the pronounced iconokinetophobia of many authors. The continuity and discontinuity in the enactment of authors in contrast to the photographic portrait of the author is investigated in relation to status marking through insignia of writing, spatialization and the topos of media competition.