Painter Johan Borg (Max von Sydow) and his wife (Liv Ullmann) are living on a small island; he’s had a crisis and suffers from nightmares that begin to have a physical presence in their lives… Regarded sometimes as part of a trilogy consisting of Shame and The Passion of Anna, this oddly fascinating drama that … Continue reading Hour of the Wolf
Halloween is coming, and the dead shall rise from their graves. At least on a TV screen near you. We are awash in lists of the greatest horror movies ever made, and everybody’s trying to come up with a twist of their own. Well, I decided to just list my 12 favorites, a bunch of … Continue reading My 12 Favorite Horror Movies
It’s the year of Ingmar Bergman. The master filmmaker would have been 100 years old and his legacy has been celebrated all year, far beyond Sweden’s borders. He remains one of my favorite directors – few others have been able to penetrate our deepest and darkest emotions in such frequently powerful ways. Bergman’s films have … Continue reading My 12 Favorite Ingmar Bergman Movies
As every fan of Ingmar Bergman knows, the filmmaker had a complicated relationship with his father. But when he decided to write a screenplay about a priest and his spiritual doubts, Bergman asked his father to read it. Erik Bergman, a retired chaplain to the Swedish royal court, read it three times, according to his … Continue reading Winter Light: Doubting Tomas
Ingmar Bergman was dead set on shooting this film on the Orkney Islands. He knew what he wanted; the dramatic, stony look of that place. The studio were not equally thrilled and wanted him to shoot somewhere closer to Stockholm. Reluctantly, Bergman agreed to take the boat out to Gotland to visit its northern part, … Continue reading Through a Glass Darkly: Behind the Wallpaper
Compiling a list of what you believe are the greatest films ever made is a daunting task. Every critic and movie buff has a more or less available list hidden somewhere in their minds (or plainly written down, carefully cultivated). I have resisted to do the latter for many years, even though my list really … Continue reading My 12 Favorite Films
ADVENTURE IS MAN’S GREATEST LOVE. AND LOVE IS MAN’S GREATEST ADVENTURE. Director Jan Troell had adapted several novels in the past and became interested in Per Olof Sundman’s account of the ill-fated Swedish expedition to the North Pole that took place in 1897. But he knew that it wouldn’t be a cheap project and the … Continue reading Flight of the Eagle: Northern Misery
In 1914, 14-year-old Olof (Eddie Axberg) leaves his home in northern Sweden to find a job and faces all the tumult of growing up fast. After a few shorts, director Jan Troell made his feature debut adapting a series of novels by a Nobel Prize-winning author. Easily seen as a predecessor to Troell’s The Emigrants … Continue reading Here is Your Life
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SIMPLE MIRACLE. In 1969, physician Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) arrives at a Bronx hospital; after successfully using a different drug for catatonic patients, he sees them miraculously ”wake up”. This adaptation of Oliver Sacks’s experiences depicts the obvious anxiety and joy of coming back to life after being … Continue reading Awakenings
Even Ingmar Bergman made a war movie once. Not that he was particularly happy about it. In one of his biographies, he writes about how poorly structured the first half of the script is and explains how he was trying to capture not the physical violence of war, but what happens to people who are … Continue reading Shame: In the Shadow of Vietnam
BE READY TO BELIEVE US. Five years after the events in the first film, the Ghostbusters have been forced out of business… but a new supernatural threat against New York City catches their attention. The charm from Ghostbusters (1984) is still intact in this sequel thanks to the wonderful cast, with Peter MacNicol adding fun … Continue reading Ghostbusters II
Going back to my original review of The Seventh Seal (1957), I was a little surprised at not even having mentioned Wild Strawberries. I described The Seventh Seal as a film that changed Sweden as a moviemaking country, and I still consider it one of the top ten greatest movies ever made. But it’s pretty … Continue reading Wild Strawberries: Down Memory Lane
Perhaps the most controversial of Ingmar Bergman’s films, The Virgin Spring was banned in Fort Worth, Texas because of its infamous rape scene, a decision that was later upheld by the Texas Supreme Court. The film was hotly debated among academics in Sweden as well, some of them questioning its artistic merits. At the time, … Continue reading Virgin Spring: Faith and Fury
