Keve Hjelm Movies

Nearly a decade before his brilliant starring performance in Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries, Swedish actor/director Victor Sjostrom topped the cast of Arne Mattson's Rallare. At this point in time, Mattson was alternating between thrillers and romances. Rallare falls into neither category: it is instead a pageantlike paean to the 19th-century builders of the Swedish railroad. Ballong (Sjostrom) and his pal Valfrid (John Ellfstrom) are two of the many stout-hearted, strong-limbed laborers who braved the elements to bring transportation to the length and breadth of Sweden. When not driving spikes or laying track, the two venerable stars while away their time with liquor and women -- and sometimes, with women and liquor. A box-office bonanza in Sweden, Rallare was liberally adapted by Rune Lindstrom from his own novel Nordanvind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bo Widerberg wrote and directed this domestic drama. Thommy Berggren is Anders, who works at a factory in Malimo, but dreams of being a writer. He lives with his parents in a poor section of the city. His father is an alcoholic whose desire for upper class respectability keeps him from working class employment, while his mother struggles as a washerwoman to earn enough money for the family's survival. Anders writes a first novel that is rejected by the publisher; he turns to the girl next door for sympathy and they fall in love. When she becomes pregnant and wants Anders to marry her, he sees his life unfolding like his parents' and has to decide whether to give up hope and raise a family or to head to Stockholm for a more hopeful future. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

On the night before his marriage, a young man and his fiancee return to the castle where he grew up to find out why he is impotent. In flashbacks, it is shown that his aristocratic mother indulged in nearly every sexual perversion known to man: orgies, incest, and so on. He and his fiancee blow up the castle, and she helps him begin a more normal life. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

John Clelland's ribald 18th-century novel Fanny Hill got plenty of attention during the let-it-all-hang-out '60s. Nudie filmmaker Russ Meyer beat everyone to the punch with his notorious soft-core version of Fanny Hill, filmed in Germany in 1965. Around the same time, director Mac Ahlberg was preparing his own FH in Sweden. To avoid confusion, Ahlberg's effort was released in the U.S. as The Swedish Fanny Hill, even though most of the story takes place in Merrie Olde England. Diana Kjaer plays the buxom Ms. Hill, a "woman of pleasure" whose memoirs are long, loud and lusty. Considered hot stuff in the 1960s, Fanny Hill seems almost austere when seen today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This English-language film was made in Sweden by American essayist Susan Sontag and includes a French and Swedish cast. There is a similar confusion in the storyline. Four artistic adults (two men and two women) have gone to an island at the same time. They are people who have caused one another considerable pain in the past, and they appear to be prepared to do so again here. One woman, an actress, commits suicide when she is not able to seduce a (male) ballet dancer whom she had traumatized before. The dancer and the (male) theater director may or may not be having an affair. The dancer tries to have sex with an under-age autistic girl. The mother of the girl copes with all this, and more. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

John and Disa are a decent couple; she is level-headed, and he has a pretty good job. A handsome lad, much given to idealistic musings, his poorly thought-out ethical ditherings cause him to lose both his job and his wife. His only friend is Bernhard, an older rich man, who cannot offer him much useful advice. He is bolstered up somewhat by his affair with Sonja, who has a very orderly life, despite the fact that she is quite poor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A physical attraction between Simone Cambrai (Bibi Andersson) an agent for a French press, and Steiner Carlsen (Bjoern Skagestad) a cover designer for a Norwegian firm turns into a sexual relationship when the two meet at a book fair in Frankfurt. Although they carry on an affair through letters and tapes until they can meet again, they do not seem able to get past their glamorous exteriors to something at a deeper level. When issues arise that call for communication on a more profound basis, the relationship starts to falter. This movie itself functions more on a superficial level, making it only skin deep for many viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

John Ericsson (Keve Hjelm) is a horse trainer suspected of drugging Rainfox, a champion in his class, and as a consequence he finds himself caught in a shady world of betting, money, and murder that becomes more complex as time goes on. This crime drama set among the elite of racing is not as fast-paced as its subject and loses by trading action in for words. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This drama concerns the relationship between two brothers, both at first involved in petty crime in one way or another. Kiljan (Joakim Thastrom) is the older of the two siblings who has already changed and is now working at an auto repair shop. His one hope is to steer his younger brother away from a life of crime, and how he goes about it happens quite by accident, literally. He uses an accidental death to get his brother off the hook, though his help may backfire on both of them. Symbolism and animals get a lot of screen play here, though their meaning remains an enigma in many instances. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Johannes (Helge Jordal) is an inveterate entrepreneur with ambitions of carving out a bigger place for himself in society. Since his family is already part of the upper-middle class, this is quite a challenge. Unfortunately, at the moment, he has almost become bankrupt. The situation in his household is already tense when his wife's sister comes to stay with them. She is not right in the head and provokes tension wherever she turns her gaze. This already disturbing picture becomes yet more threatening when Johannes takes to his bed, never to rise from it again. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Irony abounds in this comical Norwegian story of two comedians married to each other. At first husband Stig is the star, a stand-up comic noted for his bawdy monologues and cutting remarks about his many friends and acquaintances. He loves his career and has a great time until the terrible night that his greatest fan, a stuffy insurance broker laughs himself to death in the audience. After that poor Stig cannot perform without seeing the broker's face staring back. Naturally this impacts his humor. His wife and manger Ane, who is also a talented singer blessed with an even raunchier sense of humor than his, takes over as his opening act. Soon she becomes the main attraction. Meanwhile the still traumatized Stig stays at home playing with his toy trains and hangs out with his depressed father-in-law who came to stay after he learned that his wife had an affair 50 years ago. Ane is also having an affair with a handsome drummer, more in retaliation for Stig's many indiscretions than out of any real lust. The many goings on are punctuated by asides made directly to the audience. This film will be most enjoyable for those who speak Norwegian as much of the subtlest humor is lost in the literally translated subtitles. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this black comedy, a charming family man's response to his own tendency to take on too much work is to periodically indulge in bouts of drinking. Rather than say that he is drunk, his family has taken to saying "Dad's tired and emotional again." One of the highlights of the film is Gosta Ekman's bravura performance as the alcoholic father. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide