Christina Olofson Movies

A young man and an elderly woman forge an unusual friendship in this Swedish drama. Aspiring rock musician Lukas (Stefan Norrthon) has no desire to work in father's auto shop, so when he finds out that his family has an apartment on Sweden's west coast, he heads out there to take advantage of the privacy and free rent. However, when he arrives, he discovers that the flat has been sublet to Marja (Harriet Andersson), a 69-year-old woman who has decided it's time to write her memoirs. Marja does not intend to share her home with a twentysomething guitar player, and Lukas tries to find a place to stay with two fellow rockers, Greger (Roberto Jelinek) and Bamse (Alexander Skarsgard), who are planning to head out for Germany. But when Marja's computer starts acting up, she makes Lukas an offer: he can stay with her in exchange for taking dictation. He reluctantly agrees, and he soon finds himself caught up in Marja's story of her troubled childhood and problematic relationship with her father. Leading lady Harriet Andersson was a veteran of several classic Ingmar Bergman films, while Alexander Skarsgard is the son of noted actor Stellan Skarsgard. ~ 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

Sun Axeslsson and her lover, poet Pär Radström, were central figures in Swedish literary life in the middle of the 20th century. This very literate and literary film is based on one of her semi-autobiographical novels, in which she delineates her attempt to establish her own identity in the midst of her relationships with two powerful, even overbearing men, one of them the poet, the other a mathematician. Set in the 1950s in Paris and Stockholm, Mignon (as she is called in the novel) is coming to grips with her own challenges as a writer, and trying not to submerge her life in that of the verbose, egocentric, older, and well-established poet. While on a trip to Paris with Pär (Johan Rabæus), Mignon (Maria Grip) encounters a Chilean man who envelops her in his Latin warmth, but is also a very self-centered fellow. However, all along, her father quietly has backed her efforts at self expression and self-assertion. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi