Johan Holm Movies
- 2002
The life of supermodel/junkie Gia Carangi, who died of AIDS in 1986 at the age of 26, has already been the subject of several television documentaries, and the HBO-produced docudrama Gia, which gave Angelina Jolie's acting career a huge boost. In The Self-Destruction of Gia, filmmaker JJ Martin explores the young woman's life through rare home movies and photos, previously unseen interviews with the supermodel, and contemporary interviews with family, friends, and associates of the tragic figure. Fashion world stalwarts like photographer Francesco Scavullo and designers Diane Von Furstenberg and Vera Wang describe Carangi's special spark, and the arc of her modeling career. Longtime lover Sandy Linter talks about Carangi's powerfully fluid sexual allure and her surprising neediness. The late screenwriter/actress Zoe Lund lovingly describes the appeal of heroin, while Carangi's drug counselor, Robert Hilton, discusses Carangi's amazing appetite for the drug and her regular visits to the squalor of a Lower East Side shooting gallery. Carangi's mother, Kathleen Sperr, goes into painful detail about Carangi's final days. Throughout, interviews with Carangi and her peers present the image of an intelligent young woman with a lust for life who was uncertain of her place in the world and profoundly unhappy with a career that thrust her into the limelight because of how she looked. The Self-Destruction of Gia was shown at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kathleen Sperr, Sandy Linter, (more)
- 1985
In this excellently crafted story of human growth, Jonny Roova (Rolf Degerlund) is a fugitive from the isolation and underemployment in northern Sweden, looking for a better life in the more populated South. When he arrives in the big city, his first introduction to his new environment is the theft of all of his belongings. Not one to give up easily, he finds a job and then almost loses his thumb in an accident. Still determined to adjust to this new life, Jonny imperceptibly starts "adopting" a young boy left behind by some foreign workers -- the child has nowhere to go and latches onto Jonny like a leech. The results are rather unexpected, as Jonny starts to reconsider his life and its location. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rolf Degerlund, Jan Dytlow-Kozlowski, (more)
- 1985
In a farce that starts out galloping but then stumbles and essentially collapses, a few crooks end up cheating other crooks as the story bobbles along between Sweden and Cuba. First a sleazy used-car salesman cons an innocent hair stylist into buying a wreck of a car. Next, the stylist's crooked brother gets out of prison and decides to fleece the car dealer in turn. And so it goes, back and forth, until everything seems to get out of hand, and the story and characters are buried in the process. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janne Carlsson, Gosta Walivaara, (more)
- 1985
This uneven comedy is set in the 1920s and stars Janne Carlsson, one of Sweden's favorite comics, in the role of Albert Jansson, a fisherman who turns from fish to foul in order to make a better living. In a near-parody of its cinematic predecessors, Smugglarkungen is also set in a bucolic coastal community where love and the forces of virtue face heavy-duty challenges. Albert is an honest fisherman until he succeeds with a vengeance at bootlegging and cannot but enjoy the happy consequences of his success: namely, the physical attractions of the fair Sickan (Nina Gunke) and equally appealing Grethe (Sanne Salomonsen, one of Denmark's more popular rock stars). Albert's love-life is rudely interrupted when the "smuggling king" Strauss (Ernst Gunther) and his minions resent his intrusion on their lucrative turf, and to make matters worse, Lt. Winkel (Bjorn Skifs) is sent from Stockholm to investigate possible customs violations in the area. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janne Carlsson, Bjorn Skifs, (more)
