Gösta Ekman, Jr. Movies
- 1979
In this film based on a novel by Amalie Skram, Lucie is a dance-hall girl in 1880s Norway who is overjoyed at the prospect of marriage to a wealthy, upper-class lawyer. After their marriage, she discovers that not only will she be forever shunned by Oslo society, but that her husband is a narrow-minded and controlling man. Infuriated by the way she is treated at one party, she runs away to a park and is raped by a ghoulishly unattractive old man, with a huge mole on his cheek, who makes her pregnant. When her pregnancy is discovered, her husband becomes kinder, but when the baby is born with a huge mole in the same position as that on her rapist, the frustrated woman cannot bear any more and simply dies. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Inger Lise Rypdal, Gösta Ekman, Jr., (more)
- 1979
Consumed by sexual passion, David Jernberg pursues his relationship with Eva despite the fact that this marginally attractive woman is having a destructive effect on his life and everything he values. David, a scientist with a wife and a middle-class life, is a mature man who is just beginning to face the issues of aging. Eva is hostile to everything he represents, except when she is in the middle of the act of love: there, her abandonment in the moment is capable of exerting a hypnotic effect on him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gösta Ekman, Jr., Anita Ekström, (more)
- 1978
Rarely does a film do homage to a serious artist through the medium of a madcap farce, as this one does; however, Picasso was known for an irreverent and ribald sense of humor which is quite in line with this Swedish film, Picassos Aeventyr. In a skit recounting his birth, a woman's heavy breathing is demonstrated to have nothing to do with childbirth. Another skit features an appearance by Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein, played by two very masculine men in dowdy drag. In one particularly irreverent scene, Dr. Albert Schweitzer operates on Picasso. Picasso (Goesta Ekman) himself escapes the excessive commercialization of his works through a kind of suicidal self-transcendance. Told in a stripped-down mixture of French, Spanish and English, most will have no difficulty understanding the film's humor. Picassos Aeventyr is done in a style which has been compared that of Mel Brooks; as with Brooks' works, and some might not appreciate its broad humor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gösta Ekman, Jr., Hans Alfredson, (more)
- 1976
- R
Liv Ullmann plays Dr. Jenny Isakson, a psychiatrist who is taking a vacation while her husband Dr. Erik Isakson (Sven Lindberg) is elsewhere. Haunted by visions of an old woman, Jenny suffers from profound, inexplicable depression. Desperately in search of a escape from her doldrums, she has an affair with married doctor Tomas Jacobi (Erland Josephson). This only serves to spark an attack of hysteria for Jenny. Again visited by hallucinations of the old woman, she attempts suicide. While hovering between life and death, she imagines she sees all the people who've been influential in her life, and rails against them for causing her neuroses. Only while recovering does she learn who the spectral old woman is and why she is undergoing so harrowing an emotional experience. Like his later Scenes From a Marriage, Bergman's Face to Face (Ansikte mot ansikte) originated as a multipart TV series, which was then pared down into a two-hour-plus feature film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, (more)
- 1975
Swedish director Hans Alfredson adapted his own novel Pojken i Vattnet into Ägget är löst!, this musical tragicomedy starring Max von Sydow as The Father, the patriarch of a seemingly nameless family. A factory owner whose workers transform eggs into specialized tools for scratching certain unreachable human itches, The Father rules both his business and his family with an iron fist. So when The Son (Gösta Ekman) rebels against him, it comes as no surprise that The Father doesn't take it very well. In fact, the two end up squaring off to see who can kill the other first. Birgitta Andersson and Anna Godenius also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gösta Ekman, Jr., Max von Sydow, (more)
- 1975
Tender hearts unite an unlikely couple: Tage Danielsson here plays a giant of a man, Lena Nyman his quite tiny wife. In their happy household they have two of everything. For example, they have large and small beds, chairs, toilets, alarm clocks, etc. Tage reminisces about his childhood when he viewed everyone else he knew as a policeman of some sort. Suddenly, their lives are disrupted by an escaped convict. Against their better judgment they call the police, and he is put behind bars once more. They later repent however, and, through an outrageous scheme, pry the miscreant from the safety of his cell in order to teach him how to live. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tage Danielsson, Ernst-Hugo Järegård, (more)
- 1972
The subtitle of this Swedish comedy is "Tage Danielsson's Divine Comedy." It recounts the trials of a man named Dante Alighieri (Gosta Ekman) as he attempts to quit smoking. He is worried about backsliding, so he hires a pair of private detectives to keep him from smoking even a single cigarette. They follow him around from Sweden to France and back again. He also has an uncle who thinks it is funny to offer him cigars and cigarettes. Indeed, he even hires Dante's private eyes away from him and instructs them to get him smoking again. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1972
This Swedish satire/fantasy presciently lampoons the high-minded scheme of a multinational conglomerate to transform a large section of Sweden into a nature preserve and vacation resort, long before such issues arose in the development of Disney World/Paris. The corporation intends to transform a region of Sweden into "Angel Territory." The locals look favorably on the idea until they begin to consider who would benefit from this change. As that would only be those who are the already wealthy land and business owners, they come to oppose the scheme. The mystical beasts of Sweden, including giants, enlist on the side of these people, and battle the corporation, the rich of the region, and dragons. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1969
A university professor (Gosta Ekman) and his wife (Adriana Asti) hire a young man (Lars Ekborg) to help the professor arrange his papers for publication. The young man comes to live with the couple and leaves his mistress (Agneta Ekmanner) to take the position. The young man discovers very quickly that things are not quite right with the dysfunctional duo. He suspects the wife of trying to poison the professor, who mistreats and degrades his wife by humiliating her in front of the young man. The wife and the young man end up having sex while the professor goes after the young man's mistress. Soon the men swap partners and the blur between reality and fantasy continues in this erotic and confusing feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adriana Asti, Gösta Ekman, Jr., (more)
- 1968
Old morals fall by the wayside as a young couple agrees to have a child out of wedlock. The woman is a young veterinarian who is drifting apart from her lover. She agrees to have his baby even though their future as a couple is clouded, and they vow to stay together at least until the baby is born. Open discussions with friends about love, sex, mortality and emotional needs are featured between the couple and their friends. The couple forgoes the traditional relationship of marriage and long-term fidelity, allowing for a new found freedom to escape the confining unions of past generations. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agneta Ekmanner
- 1968
This dark and extremely grim Swedish drama is set at the end of the 19th century and centers upon an imprisoned woman awaiting her execution. Her story is told via flashback. The trouble began when she and her son were tried for murder and incest. Before the trial, rumors were spread about the scandalous relationship. To quell them, the son married another woman. Unfortunately, the young man was impotent and unable to consummate the marriage. The bride tried to force the issue and the enraged fellow beat her unconscious, and his mother then strangled her to death. The mother then tricked her son into confessing to the murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1964
This satirical comedy examines the loneliness of men and women from the Swedish perspective and their resolve to find Mr. or Miss Right or Mr. or Miss Right-Now. Couples try to find their soulmates in a series of vignettes and sight gags. Director Tage Danielsson co-wrote the script with Hans Alfredson. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Monica Zetterlund, Birgitta Andersson, (more)
- 1963
A troubled young woman resists reform and pays the consequences in this drama. The new trouble begins after she is paroled from reform school and is sent to work in the country. She is not interested in working and so violates her parole and returns to Stockholm to hang out with members of her old gang. She begins a series of affairs after her ex-boyfriend rejects her. She then begins dating a drug dealer whom the police are watching. One night, she shows up drunk at his flat. There she is arrested and sent back to reform school. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
