Bertil Ohlsson Movies
Niall Johnson's comedy Keeping Mum concerns the family of a vicar who are beset by a variety of problems. Reverend Walter Goodfellow (Rowan Atkinson) is a well-meaning but hapless religious figure in his town. His son, Petey, is a wimp, forever terrorized at school. His daughter, Holly, enjoys the company of a variety of different boyfriends. Wife Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas) has had enough of her husband and is considering leaving him for a golf teacher (Patrick Swayze). The family starts to come back together after hiring housekeeper Grace (Maggie Smith), a woman who knows a thing or two about keeping secrets. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, (more)
Australian filmmaker John Duigan directs the romantic war drama Head in the Clouds. Charlize Theron stars as ambitious photographer Gilda Bessé, who lives in France during the 1930s. She shares her stylish luxury apartment in Paris with Cambridge student Guy (Stuart Townsend) from Ireland and refugee Mia (Penélope Cruz) from Spain. When WWII starts, the three close friends are torn apart by different priorities. Thomas Kretschmann also stars as Major Thomas Bietrich. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlize Theron, Penélope Cruz, (more)
- 1996
With a nod towards the films of Aki Kaurismaki, this off-beat, whimsical directorial debut by British filmmaker Sue Clayton, centers on the mysterious disappearance of the titular Irish youth, who late one night, leapt from a freeway overpass and was never heard from again. Three years later, his family and his friend Danny still grieve. Matters are made worse when a pop song about Danny and the incident becomes a smash hit in Europe. Shortly after, Danny receives a phone call from Finbar who is in Scandinavia. Thus begins Danny's search for Finbar, a search that leads him to a tiny Lapland village located near the Finnish border. There he is taken in by an icy beauty named Abbi and soon begins to rebuild the life that was shattered by the disappearance of Finbar. When Finbar suddenly returns, problems arise. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This light romantic comedy follows the amorous backstage shenanigans of the cast and crew as they prepare to stage "The Hit Man," noted playwright Felix Webb's latest play. The trouble begins when director Humphrey Beal hires Felix's extramarital lover Hilary Rule as his leading lady. Working in such close proximity does nothing to help an already tense relationship made more shaky by Hilary's insistence that Felix leave his insecure wife Elena. When Humphrey hires hot, young movie star Robin Grange to play opposite Hilary, matters really heat up, especially after the handsome and perceptive young stud offers to seduce Elena so that Felix can have grounds to dump her. Unfortunately for Felix, this dreamy solution soon turns to a nightmare when Robin proves too irresistible. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom's follow-up to the underrated Once Around earned far more attention than its predecessor thanks to the judicious casting of perennial thinking woman's heartthrob Johnny Depp and a certain up-and-coming thespian by the name of Leonardo DiCaprio. A prisoner of his dysfunctional family's broken dreams in tiny Endora, IA, Gilbert (Depp) serves as breadwinner and caretaker for his mother and siblings following his father's suicide and his older brother's defection. Momma (Darlene Cates) is a morbidly obese shut-in who hasn't left the house in seven years; her children include retarded Arnie (DiCaprio), who's about to turn 18 despite a host of negative medical forecasts, and terminally embarrassed Ellen (Mary Kate Schellhardt), who's emerging from an awkward adolescence. When he's not taking care of the difficult but tender Arnie, Gilbert spends his time fixing up the family's tattered farmhouse, working at a failing mom-and-pop grocery store and hanging with local misfits Bobby (Crispin Glover), an overly ambitious junior undertaker, and Tucker (John C. Reilly), a handyman who hankers after a job at the new burger franchise. Into this complicated but essentially unchanging social universe steps Becky (Juliette Lewis), a thoughtful young woman who's been escorting her nomadic grandmother from state to state in a mobile-home caravan. As Becky teaches Gilbert to finally consider his own happiness for a change, she disrupts both his family obligations and his long-running affair with a lonely housewife (Mary Steenburgen). Adapted by Peter Hedges from his own novel of the same name, What's Eating Gilbert Grape was the first and only film role for non-actress Cates, whom the filmmakers discovered on an episode of the Sally Jesse Raphael Show titled "Too Heavy to Leave Their House." ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, (more)
- 1993
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö are writers of a series of immensely popular "police procedurals," or novels in which the police, while carefully following their own real-life rules and procedures, solve a crime or close a case. Many of these novels have been translated into English, and they have done respectable business in the U.S. In this film, the chase is on when a fatal fire leads the police to suspect a drug group. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gösta Ekman, Jr., Kjell Bergqvist, (more)
- 1993
This is the fourth in a series of films based on the police detective novels of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. In this story, the police only have one witness to a series of crimes which have electrified the country, the rape and murder of a number of beautiful young women. Unfortunately, the witness is not terribly willing to come forward to assist the police since he is wanted in conjuction with the violent robberies he has committed. The police are assisted in their investigations by a beautiful psychologist (Magdalena Ritter), who helps them get a bead on both perpetrators. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gösta Ekman, Jr., Kjell Bergqvist, (more)
- 1992
- R
Successful character actor Barry Primus spent seven years trying to get financing for his feature debut as a writer-director, Mistress. In the film, a once-promising writer-director, Marvin Landisman (Robert Wuhl), who now directs instructional videos, is sitting home one night, watching his own print of Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion, when he gets a strange phone call. A producer, Jack Roth (Martin Landau), formerly a bigwig at Universal, tells Marvin he was cleaning out his office when he came across Marvin's old script, "The Darkness and the Light." Jack claims he can get financing to make the film, and agrees to Marvin's stipulation that he be attached to direct. They "take a meeting" at a low-rent diner, and Jack brings along a gung-ho novice screenwriter, Stuart (Jace Alexander), to help Marvin polish the script. They meet with three potential backers, played by Eli Wallach, Danny Aiello, and Robert DeNiro, each one more meddlesome than the last, and each with a girlfriend (played by Tuesday Knight, Jean Smart, and Sheryl Lee Ralph, respectively) whom they demand be cast in the film. At first, Marvin adamantly resists changing his serious, downbeat, and very personal script, about an painter who commits suicide, rather than betray his ideals. But eventually, Marvin gets caught up in the momentum of actually getting his dream project made, and starts compromising. He agrees to cast the three women; he agrees to make the script funnier and sexier; he even agrees to change the painter to a photographer to please his backers. Laurie Metcalf plays Marvin's long-suffering wife, and Christopher Walken has a cameo as a tortured actor. Mistress was the first film produced by DeNiro's independent production company, Tribeca Films. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Wuhl, Martin Landau, (more)
- 1988
- R
- Add The Unbearable Lightness of Being to QueueAdd The Unbearable Lightness of Being to top of Queue
In Philip Kaufman's surprisingly successful film adaptation of Czech author Milan Kundera's demanding 1984 bestseller, Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, an overly amorous Prague surgeon, while Juliette Binoche plays Tereza, the waiflike beauty whom he marries. Even though he's supposedly committed, Tomas continues his wanton womanizing, notably with his silken mistress Sabina (Lena Olin). Escaping the 1968 Russian invasion of Prague by heading for Geneva, Sabina takes up with another man and unexpectedly develops a friendship with Tereza. Meanwhile, Tomas, who previously was interested only in sex, becomes politicized by the collapse of Czechoslovakia's Dubcek regime. The Unbearable Lightness of Being may be too leisurely for some viewers, but other viewers may feel the same warm sense of inner satisfaction that is felt after finishing a good, long novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, (more)
For this film adaptation of Peter Shaffer's Broadway hit, director Milos Forman returned to the city of Prague that he'd left behind during the Czech political crises of 1968, bringing along his usual cinematographer and fellow Czech expatriate, Miroslav Ondricek. Amadeus is an expansion of a Viennese "urban legend" concerning the death of 18th-century musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. From the vantage point of an insane asylum, aging royal composer Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) recalls the events of three decades earlier, when the young Mozart (Tom Hulce) first gained favor in the court of Austrian emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones). Salieri was incensed that God would bless so vulgar and obnoxious a young snipe as Mozart with divine genius. Why was Salieri--so disciplined, so devoted to his art, and so willing to toady to his superiors--not touched by God? Unable to match Mozart's talent, Salieri uses his influence in court to sabotage the young upstart's career. Disguising himself as a mysterious benefactor, Salieri commissions the backbreaking "Requiem," which eventually costs Mozart his health, wealth, and life. Among the film's many pearls of dialogue, the best line goes to the Emperor, who rejects a Mozart composition on the grounds that it has "too many notes." Amadeus won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for F. Murray Abraham. In 2002, the film received a theatrical re-release as "Amadeus: The Director's Cut," a version that includes 20 minutes of additional footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, (more)
- 1968
In this Swedish feature, the bright and colorful carnival atmosphere of Rio is contrasted by life in the neighboring town of Niteroi. The poor town festers with poverty, prostitution and hopelessness and serves as a gathering place for derelict alcoholics who jump ship from many countries. The characters are plagued by tremors, illness and personal and moral degradation as they live out the rest of their miserable lives waiting for their inevitable demise at the hands of demon alcohol. Pappila (Bibi Andersson) tries to collect a $3,000 reward from the Swedish consulate for the safe return of one of the poor unfortunates who is near death in this depressing film. Max von Sydow also stars in this feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bibi Andersson, Tommy Berggren, (more)
Set in the late 1800s, Hunger is about a struggling, starving Norwegian writer (Per Oscarsson) who rejects charity, even though he lives penniless in the streets, because he believes in the strength of his talent. Oscarsson won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his remarkable performance. The film is based on Knut Hamsun's novel, Sult. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Per Oscarsson, Gunnel Lindblom, (more)
