Margareta Krook 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

In this odd feature, played completely straight, a long-married middle-aged couple quietly arrange the apparent end of their relationship. The wife ties up her unresisting husband and feeds him poison, saying she's done with him. Then she leaves. It turns out that he hadn't taken the poison after all, he only pretended to. And he easily escapes his bonds. Then he calls up a friend, who comes over to commiserate with him. In order for the husband to explain exactly what happened, he needs for his friend to put on the absent wife's underwear, which he does. They do some role-playing. The friend isn't able to get into the feminine role very effectively, so the husband puts on female underwear too, and shows him how to do it. Then the seemingly murderous wife comes back with a man she has picked up, comes into the bedroom (to check on her husband's body?) and finds him and the friend alive, in her underwear, and as chipper as they can be. The new lover soon enters the room, and, to the wife's infinite disgust, is easily persuaded to don feminine underwear and join into the role-playing session underway. He is a psychiatrist. Maybe that explains it. The wife, disgusted, leaves again, perhaps for good. Meanwhile, the role-playing men consider the husband and wife relationship at some length and with startling insight. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This light farce chronicles the eventual emancipation of rebellious "Mama's boy" Claes-Henrik (Gosta Ekman), who falls into more than one funny mishap before the apron strings are cut. Prone to practical jokes and intent on making a living as a con artist, Claes-Henrik, who goes by the nickname of "Double H" hits upon a chance to make some easy cash. A porno film producer wants to use his mother's apartment for three days of shooting and will generously pay for its rental. Double H cons Mama (Margaretha Krook) into taking a vacation to visit some relatives, but when they get to the train, a hilarious sequence of misunderstandings leaves Mama at the station in her nightie. Double H ends up in the sleeper compartment without a ticket but with a happy female companion in the upper berth and a bottle of Irish whiskey. Emancipation has to begin somewhere. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this drama, a 13-year-old suffers the normal pains of growing up as she tries to deal with her changing relationship with her family. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Either a failed love affair or the Swedish winter would be enough to send almost anyone off on a Mediterranean holiday. Torc has had to endure both of these. So it's little wonder that he overdoes a bit during his first few days in Cyprus, even if his getting drunk and going nude bathing on a clothed beach does land him in jail briefly. Still, his woman tour guide is rather miffed at him for this inconveniently rowdy behavior. Now committed to mineral water as his drink of choice, he accompanies the few folks on the tour who will speak to him on long walks, and he falls in love with his tour guide in this whimsical movie, based on the novel by Stig Claesson. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

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, Rovi

Persona is difficult to characterize in simple terms, but it may be helpful to describe this complex film as being an exploration of identity that combines elements of drama, visual poetry, and modern psychology. The central story revolves around a young nurse named Alma (Bibi Andersson) and her patient, a well-known actress named Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann). Elisabet has stopped speaking, and the attending psychiatrist treats the actress by sending her to an isolated seaside cottage under Alma's care. There the nurse, who must do all the talking for both women, becomes a little enamored of the actress. One evening Alma tells Elisabet about some exhilarating sexual experiences she once had and their unpleasant aftermath. Soon after sharing this confidence, the nurse reads a letter Elisabet has written and is shocked to learn that the actress thinks of her as an amusing study. The relationship between the women becomes tense, and they wound each other. Then Alma has a long dream in which her identity merges with that of Elisabet, but when the nurse awakes, both women have apparently come to at least temporary terms with their psychological problems. ~ Rovi

Brink of Life (original Swedish title: Nara Livet) can be described as an Ingmar Bergman potboiler--keeping in mind that a potboiler from Bergman is better than a major production from almost anyone else. Eva Dahlbeck, Ingrid Thulin and Bibi Andersson portray three mothers in a maternity ward. In the course of a few days, each woman reveals to the others their life stories and intimate thoughts. And each wrestles with the decision whether or not to keep their babies or give them up for adoption. Brink of Life was adapted by Bergman from an original story by Ulla Isaakson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi