Colin Nutley Movies

Not to be confused with the awful 1988 Chris Columbus picture of the same name, the Swedish-language comedy-drama Heartbreak Hotel gently explores the nuances and gradations in the blossoming friendship between two women. The film opens with a bitter, ugly and comically vulgar argument between gynecologist Elisabeth (Helena Bergstrom) and parking attendant Gudrun (Maria Lundkvist), who meet and immediately engage in a nasty dispute in a parking lot while Elisabeth is en route to her son's wedding. Such is their one and only interaction, until Gudrun experiences severe lower stomach pain and, ironically, winds up on the examination table at Elisabeth's office. The women quickly find that they have a great deal in common - specifically, both are recent divorcees and single parents. In time, a fast bond develops between them, and they become inseparable friends. Elisabeth enables Gudrun to open up to the outside world, carting her to the titular dance club and enabling her to have fun for the first time in years. But when Gudrun's ex-husband Ake (Claes Mansson) turns up and espouses a desire to reunite with his wife - kindling jealousy in Elisabeth - and Elisabeth's ex-husband Henrik (Johan Rabaeus) also seeks reconciliation with his former wife, it threatens to move the friendship onto decidedly shaky ground. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Colin Nutley's prequel to his 2001 film Deadline, Paradise tells the story of how tabloid reporter Annika Bengtzon (Helena Bergström) cracked her first big story. On the low-end of the totem pole at the tabloid where she is employed, Annika receives a call from Rebecca Björkstig (Lisa Nilsson) encouraging her to write a story about a domestic abuse protection and recovery foundation known as Paradise. Having had first-hand experience with that problem, Annika is sympathetic to Paradise's aims. After taking a call from a distressed woman named Aida (Suzanna Dilber) in which Aida claims to have an abusive significant other, Annika puts Aida into the Paradise program. However, Annika does some investigative work and discovers that Aida may be involved in a shooting and that Paradise may not be what it seems. Paradise is an adaptation of one of a popular series of novels written by Liza Marklund. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Nine of Sweden's leading actresses are brought together in this unconventional comedy-drama about a group of actresses awaiting a casting announcement. A major American film producer is looking for a Swedish actress to play the title role in a big-budget remake of the classic Greta Garbo vehicle Queen Christina, and a handful of women who were in talks for the role wait with bated breath for the decision to be declared. Rebecca (Lena Endre), married to hunky matinee idol Ake (Mikael Persbrandt), is spending her 40th birthday waiting for word on the role. Alexandra (Suzanne Reuter) will be shooting a TV commercial, to be directed by Rolf (Brasse Brannstrom). Rolf used to be involved with Cecilia (Marie Richardson), who lately is nearly as well known for the fact that she's pregnant and not identifying the father as she is for her acting. Cecilia appears on a morning chat show with Georgina (Ewa Froling), who used to be in love with Gregor (Peter Haber), Alexandra's current husband. Stella (Helena Bergstrom) is a defiantly out lesbian who is having an affair with Karin (Marika Lagercrantz), the wife of film director Magnus (Rolf Lassgard). Stella also happens to be starring in Magnus' latest project, along with Ake and Molly (Pernilla August). Meanwhile, Git (Gunilla Roor) is in a session with her analyst, trying to come to terms with her feelings about her work, and Evior (Stina Ekblad) is in rehearsal for a musical, and reaching the regrettable conclusion that she can neither dance nor sing. In keeping with the film's tangled onscreen relationships, Helena Bergstrom, who plays a lesbian sleeping with her director's wife, is married to Colin Nutley, Gossip's writer and director. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

With only two weeks to go before she turns the dreaded 30, Tin-Tin, a Swedish piano player hastily tries to achieve her two highest goals: to perform in the lounge of the Grand Hotel in Stockholm and to find a husband. Tin-Tin's endeavors provide the basis of this black Swedish comedy. She has a live-in lover, but Paul, who hosts the popular radio call-in show "Such Is Life," shows little interest in serious commitment, even though the subject of his series is how to make relationships work. Tin-Tin is also the object of her manager Stef's hottest fantasies. Olle, the owner of a large hotel has similar designs, though he is married. All of them are floored when she suddenly announces that she is marrying a Norwegian industrial tycoon in a tiny, picturesque northern town. That wedding is where the bulk of the film's most darkly humorous moments occurs. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Tove and Claes Salefalk (Helena Bergstrom and Reine Bynolfsson) and Liselott and Lennart Waltner (Ewa Froling and Peter Andersson) have known one another for years. At one time the two couples were good friends, but they have drifted apart recently. Both couples compete internationally as ballroom dancers, and both are very good, but the Waltners are better. They keep winning competition after competition, leaving the Salefalks in the dust. After a while, Tove just can't bear it, which is why, by the time they gather for the funeral of Claes' mother, they haven't spoken for almost a year. Meeting at the funeral, they attempt to renew their relationship, and take a vacation together in Barbados. However, close proximity only makes the tension worse. Another thing which bugs Tove is that she is sterile and can't have children, while Liselott gets pregnant and has one abortion after another. Things come to a head during a competition at Blackpool, an oceanside resort in northern England. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Inger (Helena Bergström), a single mother, has decided to return to her father's home from her life in Stockholm and sort out her life. Unfortunately, her father has grown restless, too, and is planning to sell the family house and move away, so she cannot stay long. To pass the time, she hangs out at the local dance hall. There, she dangles one man on a leash while she courts the drummer in the dance-hall band (Carl Kjellgren). She thinks that theirs is a romance beyond all others. He thinks of it merely as a pleasant affair. Eventually, she figures that out and moves back to Stockholm, and regrets stringing the second, nicer, man along. There was something epochal in the meeting of these two people however, and the band members recognize that something important has changed. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide