Toivo Pawlo Movies

Told in a series of tableaux (in which live actors hold still as if appearing in still photos or paintings), this is the story of a woman who cannot figure out what to do with herself. After a disturbing childhood, she becomes something of a tramp and an exhibitionist before marrying a stage director. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this drama set in a Scandinavian hospital in 1915, the individual stories of three pregnant women about to give birth are presented. The women come from a different social classes and have disparate views about the impending births. The middle-class woman married a servant of a wealthy family. She doesn't love her husband, nor does she care much about her child, whom she conceived out of spite. The baby is stillborn, and the woman sheds nary a tear. The second woman became wild and sexually irresponsible after she was seduced as a young woman by a much older man. Dividing her time between modeling and robbery, the woman ends up sleeping with the son of the family the middle-class woman's husband works for. The son is willing to support his bastard provided the wild woman marry his homosexual friend and pretend the child is his. She agrees. The third woman is introverted. As a youth, she had a short-lived lesbian affair in school. She then fell in love with an archaeologist who impregnated her. He refuses to acknowledge the child as his. This enrages the woman who joins a feminist movement and dedicates her life to removing the stigma of having babies out of wedlock. Of the three, she is the only one who really wants her child. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this romantic comedy, a young heir sets off to prove he can make a fortune on his own by working from the ground up at a bank. To assist his rise, he woos the daughter of a wealthy client. At first it's only business, but in time he comes to love her. When he eavesdrop on a conversation in the bank and overhears some hot market tips, his good fortune is assured. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Together with Les Miserables, Hunchback of Notre Dame and A Christmas Carol, Dostoyefsky's Crime and Punishment is one of the most frequently filmed novels in literary history. This 1947 version emanates from Sweden, a country uniquely attuned to the "guilt trip" which dominates the latter portions of the novel. Director Hampe Faustman also stars as Raskolnikov, the misguided intellectual who endeavors to prove his superiority to his fellow man by murdering an elderly pawnbroker. Because he considers himself bereft of such bourgeois attributes as a conscience, Rasklonikov is certain that he'll get away with the killing. But he hasn't reckoned with the kindly, methodical detective Samlotov (Sigurd Wallen), who knows that there's still a glimmer of humanity left in the arrogant murderer-and intends to exploits that glimmer to bring Raskolnikov to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi