Allan Edwall
A tribute to Swedish film, which was made to celebrate the 100th anniversary of film in 1995 and consists of about a hundred clips from Swedish film history with many of its stars.
When a ship sinks during a storm, a slave from the industrial island of Plutonia is washed up on the beaches of paradise island Melonia, where the "all-powerful" wizard Prospero and his strange friends reside.
It is the first day of the summer vacation. Jojje, Jerker and Fabian wants to borrow a sailing boat to take a boat trip so they steal it. They plan to examine all of Lake Maelaren, but a storm breaks out and the boat sinks. They go ashore, steal food and a new boat. While everybody else believes them to be dead, they have a wonderful time. They meet a crazy Count and find a dead body.
Alexander, a journalist, philosopher and retired actor, celebrates a birthday with friends and family when it is announced that nuclear war has begun.
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden.
Åke and his world is a long, lyrical study of a Swedish country doctor of the 1930s. Åke is the doctor's six-year-old son, from whose point of view the film is told. His best friend is Kalle Nubb. Åke is very frightened of the janitor Bergström as well as the lunatic Anne-Marie.
Ronya lives happily in her father's castle until she comes across a new playmate, Birk, in the nearby dark forest. The two explore the wilderness, braving dangerous Witchbirds and Rump-Gnomes. But when their families find out Birk and Ronja have been playing together, they forbid them to see each other again. Indeed, their fathers are competing robber chieftains and bitter enemies. Now the two spunky children must try to tear down the barriers that have kept their families apart for so long.
Limpan is an alcoholic who has been put into a caretaking home for alcoholics. He's promised a job on the 'outside', but he's not released from the home, so he runs away. He misses the job and gets caught and is brought back, but they won't accept him, since it's after closing time. During a couple of days, he wanders back and forth between the home and the world, meeting several different people who all have their different problems, which Limpan confronts and all the time, there's the question of alcohol; to drink or not to drink.
The elderly Arnolphe has decided to marry a young woman, Agnes, whom he has fallen in love with. She is too young and innocent to realize what plans he has for her. But Agnes and Arnolphe's young friend, the dandy Horace, have fallen in love with each other. Their love is a threat to Arnolphe's attempt at getting married. Can the cunning Arnolphe stop them?
As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.
9-year old orphan called Rasmus runs away from the orphanage. He meets a vagabond they call Paradise Oskar who likes to sing and play his accordion. Oskar makes the Rasmus world seem like a better place.
One Monday morning a thousand children leave the suburb Farsta and goes to Stockholm to occupy the Royal Castle. The children have formed a group called S.O.P.O.R. as a protest against the way adults treat children and how the adults have destroyed the future for their children. They demand that the robots in the industry are replaced by humans to create job opportunities. They take the royal family as hostages.
In 1944, Cederqvist comes to a small cloth factory to see how the all-women employees can work more efficiently. At the beginning he is greeted with suspicion and his efforts at courting the young ladies are futile. But as soon as he buys himself a car it becomes much easier, especially since he has the power to relocate people to an easier line of work. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.
A second movie based on Astrid Lindgren's novel "Madicken och Junibackens pims", which is about two sisters and their adventures in 1910s Sweden.
The terrorist Fors arrested after an attack on a OPEC meeting. Shortly afterwards town minister's daughter gets kidnapped by two men who require Fors be released and that he will flight phase to Albania. SÄPO agent Olsson will handle the case.
This farce cocerns Sweden's King Gustav (Per Oscarsson who plays all the lead roles). The royal monarchs of three major European countries are patiently or not-so-patiently hovering on the sidelines while watching the future King Gustav closely. No single king appears to possess the brains he was born with, so history seems to be made by default, as it were. Gustav does blunder around, but not enough to miss being crowned king. As a result, France, England, and Germany invade Sweden hoping to take by force what they could not gain by incompetence.
Madicken is a Swedish girl from the upper level family, growing up during the time of first world war which did not include Sweden. She lives happily with her family, experiencing the world and making brave and crazy things.
This co-production between Norway and Sweden is the first film that Anja Breien has made since Wives. She has adapted a novel by Hjalmar Soderberg. who also wrote 'Gertrud' from which Carl Dreyer's last film was made, and Doctor Glas' (made into a film by Mai Zetterhng) Games of Love and Loneliness, concerns the manners and mores of Scandinavian society between the years 1897 and 1912. A young journalist, Arvid, falls in love with a girl but won't commit himself to marrying her. She marries an older and richer man and he's pushed into marrying the girl he's been sleeping with. He meets his first love again, and she leaves her husband to have an affair with him, but he still cannot bring himself to leave his wife. Although Anja Breien has changed the character of the girl to make her less of a femme fatale and more of an emancipated woman, the film's central concern is the young man who cannot make up his mind what to do with his life.
9-year old Karl Lejon, 'Skorpan' is suffering from tuberculosis and knows that he will die soon. But his older brother Jonathan tries to comfort him by promising that they one day will meet in Nangijala, a magic country beyond the stars. Jonathan dies soon after in a house fire and Skorpan also passes away not long after. They meet in Nangijala, a country divided into the Cherry Blossom Valley and the Briar-Bush Valley. The people in the later are oppressed by the black knight Tengil and his dragon Katla. The two brothers, who now call themselves Jonathan and Karl Lion Heart, decide to help the freedom fighters against the oppression.
Robert works at a warehouse and as a cinema usher and lives in a strained marriage. Every monday, he visits his ill father at the hospital. There he meets the orderly Fanny.
Emil i Lönneberga is a Swedish television adaptation of Astrid Lindgren's Emil i Lönneberga books
Nisse and Greta, a middle-aged married couple, sit and watch TV. To their surprise they get to experience their own life's in a TV show being broadcasted.
When Nisse's son breaks his arm, Johan has to pull into the club team in shot put. In a competition he hits 32.47 meters, a world record. Only two remaining officials witness the incident, which is so incredible that the officials and Johan remain seated, unaware of how to deal with the incident.
Nursing a piglet back to life because it´s the runt of the litter earns Emil a friend for life.
A tragicomic story about rural extinction and the meeting between the local shoemaker Gustafsson and Pettersson from Stockholm.
Emil's reputation for being a troublemaker makes the Svensson family's neighbours take up a collection for sending the boy off to America. But even if he among other unfortunate mishaps causes his father to get stuck in the outhouse window and get bitten by crawfish, all is forgotten when he skillfully wins the family a free horse. And when Alfred the farmhand gets seriously ill, Emil puts his own life on the line, venturing into a snow storm to get his best friend to a doctor before it is too late.
The Ghost Sonata relates the adventures of a young student, who idealizes the lives of the inhabitants of a stylish apartment building in Stockholm. He makes the acquaintance of the mysterious Jacob Hummel, who helps him to find his way into the apartment, only to find that it is a nest of betrayal and sickness. The world, the student learns, is hell and human beings must suffer to achieve salvation. The play centers on a family of strangers who meet for the sake of meeting. They exchange no dialogue, nor gestures, they simply sit and bask in their own misfortune.
A Swedish immigrant family struggles to adapt to their new life on the American frontier during the second half of the 19th century amidst civil war, native uprising and the lure of gold in California.
A Swedish peasant family, ravaged by poverty, privation and misery in mid-19th century Sweden, set out on a perilous journey to America in hope of a better life.
Emil Svensson lives with his mother and father, little sister Ida, farmhand Alfred, and maid Lina on a picturesque farm in Småland. He is an unusually lively little boy, who just can't resist trying out every whim that enters into his white-haired head. Always with the best intentions in mind, because he is a good-hearted child, but often with catastrophic results, especially for his short-tempered father. As a result, Emil spends a lot of quality time in the wood shed carving wood figurines and waiting for Anton's temper to cool down. And the father's patience is certainly tried, as Emil gets his head stuck in the family's only soup bowl, hoists little Ida up the flag pole, and arranges a lavish Christmas party for the poor.
A film that questions the right of parents to force their children into the adult world's rational behavior. A 6-year-old revolt by going to a lawyer and ask for a divorce from their parents.
A veteran sea captain abducts his niece for what he believes is his last chance at love. As the sad demon of the ocean Klabautermanden watches the passing of doomed ships, the niece awakens in her uncle's cabin. She makes him marry her but never allows the tyrannical captain to ever touch her. For eight years, the ship never docks as the malnourished crew wishes for death.
A sleepy village around 1910. Jacob, the owner of a book store in a small town is a member of a club who baths together every Sunday. He is uninterested in women until Amelie Arbel moves into the town. She is both rich and seductive and he marries her. After the marriage he discovers that she can be very troublesome.
People on a train get murdered. Who is the murderer? Everybody on the train is a suspect. One of them is the homosexual dope fiend played by Heinz Hopf. Things might get out of hand in this exciting thriller in true Hitchcockian style.
The plot revolves around a sadistic doctor, a macabre gravedigger, an innocent girl, sabotage, sex and violent death. The beautiful Vivi Sander is living a rough life and is deeply in debt. She tries to force her family to sell the house to make ends meet. Vivi's car crash after a sabotage. She is injured and brought to a medical center where she meets the perverted Dr. Wester.
A working class teenager comes of age in 1910s rural Sweden, moving through a series of jobs and romances that gradually shape his future.
A young girl is a confidante to four men who regularly visit her in her apartment.
Homeless children in the slums of Rio are driven out of their temporary shelters by ruthless gangsters in this somber drama. The kids survive by shining shoes, stealing, and cutting the strings of the kites to sell them later to others. Tired of life on the streets, one boy turns himself over to the police in hopes he will be sent to reform school in a last desperate attempt to survive. This feature from acclaimed Swedish director Arne Sucksdorff appeared at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival.
One of the four short films comprising the omnibus titled 4X4, each from a different Nordic country. This is the Swedish entry and is based on a story by Evyind Johnson.
A jazz bassist who surveys a beautiful girl at a gig decides to try to get her home. But the devil is getting into the game too.
The pretentious critic Cornelius is writing a biography on a famous cellist and to do some research he goes to stay in his house for a few days. He doesn't manage to get an interview with the man, but by talking to all the women who live with him, he comes to learn a lot about the musician's private life none the less. Cornelius then decides to use this information and tries to blackmail the cellist into performing a composition that he, Cornelius, has written. Written by Leon Wolters
"A dream play" - This made-for-television film constituted Bergman’s first production of Strindberg’s A Dream Play – a play he would revisit three times more. Gunnar Ollén’s Malmö crew was behind this, for its time, prestigious and costly theatre production, involving more than 40 actors and no less than 75 extras.
Lieutenant Glahn arrives in a small village in northern Norway. He wants to live in peace in the company of his dog. The young Edvarda stirs emotions in the lieutenant.
Someone is murdered. Who is the killer? Members of all star cast are all suspects...
The devil has a stye in his eye, caused by the purity of a vicar's daughter. To get rid of it, he sends Don Juan up from hell to seduce the 20 year old Britt-Marie and to rob her of her virginity and her belief in love. She however can resist him and things get even turned around when Don Juan falls in love with her. The fact that he feels love for the first time now, makes him even less attractive to her and Don Juan returns to hell.
Devout Christians Töre and Märeta send their only daughter, the virginal Karin, and their foster daughter, the unrepentant Ingeri, to deliver candles to a distant church. On their way through the woods, the girls encounter a group of savage goat herders who brutally rape and murder Karin as Ingeri remains hidden. When the killers unwittingly seek refuge in the farmhouse of Töre and Märeta, Töre plots a fitting revenge.
Sam Persson is released from a mental hospital. He goes to Stockholm to meet a man he hates, theater manager Stig Brender. In Brender's office they get into a fight...
"The Dies is Cast" - A member of a highly successful crime drama TV-series is found murdered in a TV studio. The screenwriter of the TV-series is found as prime suspect but claims his innocence and tries to clear his name. But who is the murderer and what is his motive?
Anders and Sylvia are set to be married, but Sylvia says 'no' and runs away at the altar.
The Baron of Qvinnevad Castle has financial problems and is forced to show the estate to tourists. The baron finds out that an unknown person is trying to acquire the castle.
Young Greasers, known as Raggare in Sweden, gather in at a café outside Stockholm. Roffe is the toughest greaser and kidnaps his girlfriend Bibban, when he discovers that she is out riding with other guys. Bibban falls in love with the sensitive Lasse.
The third film adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf's novel of the same name. The drinker David Holm gets killed right on the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve will face the death coachman, which happens to be his old friend Georges. Together, reliving the events of the past, and David becomes aware that he ruined the lives of two women who both loved him.
It is in a battlefield in Karelia, Finland during the Continuation war (1941-1944). Intensive shooting between Finnish and Soviet troops takes place. The Soviet occupation is strong, and on the Finnish side it is ordered to withdraw. But Captain Viktor Aaltonen does not listen to the order but wants to shorten a wounded companion's suffering. Aaltonen is taken to the Soviet prison camp, Vorkuta, where he will spend a decade.
Fransiska is visited by a social worker when she's in the custody. She tells him her lives story, about her mother who was an alcoholic, her father a night watchman and how she and her five year old little sister was left. Her boyfriend was unemployed and needed money and to help him she stole money.
"Wild birds" - A Swedish film noir with the character of a French noir ('Quai des brumes', 'Le jour se lève'). Two worlds meet for a brief experience of happiness ended by a violent tragedy. In one world the unhappy prostitute (Ulla) finds a drunken young man (Nisse) who had previously failed in many occupations. She takes him home. Her feelings are like those for a younger brother.
Marianne is a dancer at the Lilla Teatern. The theatre has financial troubles and its existence is under threat. Marianne falls in love with Stig Broman, the owner of the theatre. After a few problems, the actors manage to set up a show, with Marianne as leading lady, which will decide the fate of the theatre.
David, a young woodsman with a family, is leasing a farm. The family are welcomed by the locals until it becomes known that David is the son of a notorious drifter.
The marriage of the newlyweds Gun and Emil is strained when Gun sings in a radio show and makes a breakthrough.
