Swedish nominee for next years Academy Awards.
Since its national premiere this March, Sweden’s The Last Journey has become the top-grossing domestic documentary ever, in a country where the genre has quite a proud and prestigious tradition. This sensational success may partly stem from the popularity of directors Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson, aka “Filip & Fredrik”, a television staple for over 20 years, creating and hosting humorous shows of the barmy and boisterous sort.Read More »
Quote:
Helge, a factory worker, awakens to life after he almost loses his arm in a machine. His happiness at not losing his arm has him see the world in a new way. He takes a vacation, where he sees Klara, a beautiful girl. He decides to spend the rest of the vacation searching for her.Read More »
Quote:
Ingmar Bergman had discovered the bleak, windswept Fårö while scouting locations for Through a Glass Darkly in 1960. Nearly a decade later—and after shooting a number of arresting dramas there and making the island his primary residence—the director set out to pay tribute to its inhabitants. In Fårö Document, shot on handheld 16 mm by Sven Nykvist, Bergman interviews a variety of locals, in the process laying bare the generational divide between young residents eager to leave the island and older people more deeply rooted in bucolic tradition. The film revealed Bergman to be a sensitive and masterly documentarian.Read More »
Quote:
KOCHUU is a visually stunning film about modern Japanese architecture, its roots in the Japanese tradition, and its impact on the Nordic building tradition. Winding its way through visions of the future and traditional concepts, nature and concrete, gardens and high-tech spaces, the film explains how contemporary Japanese architects strive to unite the ways of modern man with the old philosophies in astounding constructions. KOCHUU, which translates as “in the jar,” refers to the Japanese tradition of constructing small, enclosed physical spaces, which create the impression of a separate universe. The film illustrates key components of traditional Japanese architecture, such as reducing the distinction between outdoors and indoors, disrupting the symmetrical, building with wooden posts and beams rather than with walls, modular construction techniques, and its symbiotic relationship with water…Read More »
Ekman’s favorite of his own films, and an enduring classic in Scandinavia, “Girl with Hyacinths” examines the mysterious suicide of a young woman (Eva Henning, Ekman’s wife at the time) through a Wellesian multiplicity of points of view. Visually striking, with extreme long takes and images that drift into a dreamlike surrealism, the film reveals its secrets with grace and sympathy, moving toward a final revelation that seems at least a generation ahead of its time.Read More »
Quote:
Three women in a maternity ward reveal their lives and intimate thoughts to each other.
Quote:
At the height of his international acclaim, Ingmar Bergman followed two meditations on death, The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, with an examination of the mystery and pain of birth. This intimate chamber drama, set in a maternity ward, follows the emotional crises of three women as they grapple with motherhood. Another major success for the director that was also recognized for its exquisite performances by Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck, and Bibi Andersson, Brink of Life is one of Bergman’s most brilliantly nuanced explorations of the inner lives of women.Read More »
Quote:
From the first camera to 45 billion cameras worldwide today, the visual sociologist filmmakers widen their lens to expose both humanity’s unique obsession with the camera’s image and the social consequences that lay ahead.Read More »
Quote:
A hot story about young Claudia’s lovely summer outings in picturesque southern Sweden. The summer and the nice weather mean that Claudia has no problem whatsoever getting what she wants – and through her diary entries she tells us exactly how she went about it…Read More »
In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman (Jessica Lundberg) remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.Read More »