Motherhood Quote by Erich von Stroheim

Box-office success, then a flood of mail demanding he stop being sentimental: von Stroheim is staging a miniature culture war in one breath. The first clause is pure bragging rights, a cold ledger entry meant to establish authority. He can’t be dismissed as an elitist snob who hates popular taste; he’s already conquered it. That’s the setup for the twist: the audience that paid up is also, allegedly, pleading for something tougher.

The deliciously loaded phrase “swing over the shallow trash” frames “mother love, father love” and the rest as cheap scenery, the rickety bridge Hollywood uses to get viewers across a story without making them look down. Von Stroheim’s intent is not to deny family feeling, but to reject its prefabricated version: the ready-made close-up, the sanctified sacrifice, the emotional cue card that flatters the viewer for crying on schedule. Calling it “trash” is provocation with purpose. He’s arguing that mass entertainment is capable of appetite beyond the standard domestic halo, and that the industry keeps underfeeding it.

The subtext is also self-defense. Von Stroheim, the notorious realist and tyrannical perfectionist, is making a case for his own artistic severity by recruiting “hundreds” of voices as witnesses. “Literally” functions like a little courtroom oath: don’t doubt me, the people agree. In the 1920s studio system, where prestige and profit were in constant negotiation, this is a savvy move. He’s translating aesthetic ambition into market demand, implying that sentimentality isn’t just artistically lazy; it’s commercially unnecessary.