Jan Malmsjö Movies

Busted by authorities while attempting to gain entry into Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater and subsequently transported to a remote retirement community, senile former stage director Walter Jan Malmsjo) attempts to stage a geriatric production of Romeo and Juliet in hopes of impressing ageing diva resident Virginia (Ghita Norby), who longs to assume the role of Shakespeare's ill-fated heroine one last time, in director Suzanne Osten's warmhearted tribute to the films of Ingmar Bergman. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

According to medieval legend, the "Tears of Saint Peter" is a strange elixir said to be able to heal and restore the dead to life. Using the concoction, Carla devises an ingenious plot to rob a wealthy mayor in this Swedish comedy-drama set in the late 15th century. Disguising herself as a man, whom she calls Carlo Marcellini, Carla wants to use the potion to bring back every townsman who has died over the previous ten years. Unfortunately, she falls in love with the mayor's son who makes her promise to also resurrect his beloved, late fiancee. This is a rather randy film and features medieval orgies and full-frontal male nudity. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Goran thought the house he was buying was a pretty good deal. Little did he know that it was the sort of good deal that would consume all his money, time and energy in repairs and expenses, and alienate his wife and children so much that he would lose them. Now that they're gone, he still has his house, lucky man that he is. On top of that happy burden, he discovers that burglars are very interested in getting into his junkpile house to look for something. Now, if only he can keep them away from the place while he finds whatever they were looking for, maybe it was something valuable... This comic tale of domestic disasters was a big boxoffice success in Sweden. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In Sweden, the popular post-WWII newspaper cartoon strip created by Steve Terry was known as Jim & The Pirates instead of Terry and the Pirates, its U.S. moniker. In this children's story based on some of the stories from that strip, a pre-teen boy receives counseling from his dead father's ghost on how to cope with new developments in his life -- from his mother's getting a new boyfriend, to the fine art of chopping onions. The boy learns a pretty good trick from his father's shade which enables him to use his imagination to turn a boring birthday party into an ocean adventure among pirates. ~ Clarke Fountain, 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

Eller (Erland Josephson) is a successful, middle-aged married man who becomes a celebrity when he woos the femme reporter Anna (Bibi Andersson) during his mid-life crisis. He goes on the lecture circuit where he encourages avid listeners to abandon the shackles of staid mediocrity and live life to the fullest. His star sinks when Anna turns him down, and Eller returns home to find his daughter has run off to "find herself." Eller's wife tries unsuccessfully to seduce one of her husband's cousins as retribution for her husband's much-publicized dalliance. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Originally created as a six-part series for television, this film -- widely regarded as one of Ingmar Bergman's most powerful later works -- offers a close-up examination of a relationship as it slowly falls apart, and investigates the toll it takes on both parties. Johan and Marianne (Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann) are a seemingly successful professional couple who have juggled careers as (respectively) a doctor and an attorney with marriage and children; when we first encounter them, they're being interviewed by a television reporter about what makes their marriage a success, an event contrasted by a later meeting with an openly bitter and combative couple (Bibi Andersson and Jan Malmsjö). But things are not always what they seem on the surface, and Johan announces he has become involved with a younger woman. Johan seems to give little thought to the harm he has done to Marianne, while she is devastated by his abandonment of her. After a stay in Europe, Johan returns to Sweden and visits Marianne; eventually, the divorced couple briefly comes together, but the damage done is too severe to mend. Focusing less on narrative than on a deep-focus portrayal of the thoughts and emotions of two characters, Scenes From a Marriage originally ran nearly 300 minutes in its original television edition; Bergman later edited the film to 168 minutes for theatrical release in Europe and North America. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Blinded in an explosion, Saunders (Vic Morrow) is rescued by a British-accented man (Fritz Weaver) identifying himself as Chaplain Ernest Miller. The Chaplain persuades Saunders to assist him in carrying a wounded Allied officer back to American lines. What the sightless Saunders doesn't know is that "Miller" and the wounded man are both Germans--and they intend to lead him in the wrong direction and into captivity. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama set in a Scandinavian hospital in 1915, the individual stories of three pregnant women about to give birth are presented. The women come from a different social classes and have disparate views about the impending births. The middle-class woman married a servant of a wealthy family. She doesn't love her husband, nor does she care much about her child, whom she conceived out of spite. The baby is stillborn, and the woman sheds nary a tear. The second woman became wild and sexually irresponsible after she was seduced as a young woman by a much older man. Dividing her time between modeling and robbery, the woman ends up sleeping with the son of the family the middle-class woman's husband works for. The son is willing to support his bastard provided the wild woman marry his homosexual friend and pretend the child is his. She agrees. The third woman is introverted. As a youth, she had a short-lived lesbian affair in school. She then fell in love with an archaeologist who impregnated her. He refuses to acknowledge the child as his. This enrages the woman who joins a feminist movement and dedicates her life to removing the stigma of having babies out of wedlock. Of the three, she is the only one who really wants her child. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi