Harriet Andersson Movies

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, Rovi

Those with a special love for Swedish films and who are familiar with actresses Harriet Andersson and Bibi Andersson and Gunnel Lindblom will be most delighted by this documentary interview held at the palatial French retreat of noted late filmmaker Mai Zetterling. The trio of actresses have ostensibly gathered to pay tribute to Zetterling, but during the course of their day also reminisce about their own careers and the illustrious figures, including Ingmar Bergman, they have worked with. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Mari (Inger Lise Winjevoll) can't get along with anybody either at home or at school, except for one teacher who is similarly an oddball. Mari is confrontative, and wears clothes which express her feelings of not fitting in. It upsets her to learn that the sympathetic teacher, Miss Kjaer (Harriet Andersson), is retiring. Thus, it not only pleases her but undoubtedly reassures her family when the two get together for a series of adventures over the summer break. Together, they each find some way of becoming reconciled with their lives. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Maria (Karina Skands) is an 18-year-old, late-blooming woman who has for years been a gifted violinist. She live in the slums of Copenhagen and has led a sheltered life often marked by poverty and cruelty. Due to her consuming musical passions -- fueled by the expectations of her overprotective father -- the beautiful Maria is unaware of her own attractiveness. She feels the first stirrings of love with Jonny (Ole Lemmeke), but she leaves him when he turns out to be a repressed homosexual. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Though he made allusions to his own life in all of his films, Fanny and Alexander was the first overtly autobiographical film by Ingmar Bergman. Taking his time throughout (188 minutes to be exact), Bergman recreates several episodes from his youth, using as conduits the fictional Ekdahl family. Alexander, the director's alter ego, is first seen at age 10 at a joyous and informal Christmas gathering of relatives and servants. Fanny is Alexander's sister; both suffer an emotional shakedown when their recently-widowed mother (Ewa Froling) marries a cold and distant minister. Stripped of their creature comforts and relaxed family atmosphere, Fanny and Alexander suddenly find their childhood unendurable. The kids' grandmother (Gunn Wallgren) "kidnaps" Fanny and Alexander for the purpose of showering them with the first kindness and affection that they've had since their father's death. This "purge" of the darker elements of Fanny and Alexander's existence is accomplished at the unintentional (but applaudable) cost of the hated stepfather's life. Ingmar Bergman insisted that Fanny and Alexander, originally a multipart television series pared down to feature-film length, represented his final theatrical film, though within a year after its release he was busy with several additional Swedish TV projects, and his final work, the 2003 Saraband (also produced for Swedish television), eventually received global theatrical distribution. Oscars went to Fanny and Alexander for Best Foreign Film, Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist), Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A British writer goes to live in a Spanish village while he looks into the mysterious life of a 19th century wanderer who was allegedly slain by La Sabina, a mythical lady dragon. The writer becomes lovers with an American visitor and then falls in love with an enigmatic beauty from town. Things get really confusing when the writer's good friend arrives with his wife. When the writer's all-out campaign to seduce the local woman fails, tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In his appalling failure to communicate, the father of one teenaged and one nearly grown boy manages to inflate the tension in their relationships to tragic proportions. One boy has returned from study abroad in the U.S. with a suitcase full of Elvis and a whole host of notions which have no place in Sweden. The younger boy's aspirations are dashed by his father's coldness to him following his failure to win an athletic contest. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Despite having sponsored films by Ingmar Bergman, and many others, director Kenne Fant was subjected to an incredible amount of ad hominem abuse when he released this film. Fant, an actor and later a director, managed to offend many sensitive types during his chairmanship of the State Film Institute and of Svensk Filminsustri AB. The futuristic story concerns the persecution of a schoolteacher who commits the crime of encouraging his students to think for themselves and uses an example from physics to illustrate his point. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Anna (Harriet Andersson) is a 40-year-old anesthesiologist who takes a working vacation with her teenage daughter (Maarit Hyttinen) and their maid (Pertti Melasniemi). She turns down her lover's request to marry because she believes the union will not maintain their status as equals. Next door to the trio lives a boozy ex-politician (Papani Perttu) and his teenage son (Tapio Rautavaara). The maid and the neighbor boy engage in a passionate affair while Anna reflects on her middle age and examines her changing values in regards to life, love and her career. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This Swedish feminist drama focuses upon three women in a traveling troupe of thespians performing Aristophanes' Lysistrata. Each of the women has some serious problems and fears to overcome. The husband of one has two lovers. The lover of another will not marry her, and the third's husband stays home to care for the kids. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this heavy drama, a woman goes on a tumultuous train ride to South America, has a number of affairs, get involved in a murder and finds herself in a brothel. Later she finds herself pursued by one of her train conquests as she returns to New York to become a star dancer. Time passes and she boards another train. Here she is assaulted by a masked man who demands that she take off her clothes. In the morning she wakes up alone. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi