Ulf Palme Movies
- 1979
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erland Josephson, Bibi Andersson, (more)
- 1975
This historical drama is based on a play by Henrik Ibsen and set in the 16th century. The central figure in the low-keyed story is a Norwegian noblewoman who is seeking to bring independence to that country despite the involved political intrigues of the Swedes and Danes, who are using Norway as a pawn in their complex rivalries. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frits Helmuth
- 1968
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, (more)
- 1967
Noomi Harriet Andersson is a Jewish woman who survived the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. Although she has married an artist, she carries on an affair with her husband's friend. Noomi can't seem to shake her label as a victim, as people have willfully taken advantage of her all her life. However, she offers no resistance to overcome those who victimize her in any situation. Eventually, her lover divorces his wife in order to be with Noomi. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harriet Andersson, Ulf Palme, (more)
- 1966
Based on Eyvind Johnson's book Romanen om Olof, Here's Your Life is an epic drama considered a masterpiece in Sweden. Filmed in widescreen with black-and-white and color film stocks, it was released in 1966 in Sweden with a three-hour running time. In 1968, it was cut down considerably for the U.S. release. Set at the turn of the 20th century, Olof Persson (Eddie Axberg) grows up in the small village of Norrland. He tries to escape his hometown and become a writer. Max Von Sydow appears as Smalands-Pelle, a family friend who offers Olof a job. Eventually the young man grows into adulthood and discovers politics, sex, and the cinema. Also starring Gudrun Brost, Bo Wahlstrom, and Gunnar Bjornstrand. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Axberg, Ulla Sjöblom, (more)
- 1963
Alberto Sordi pulls off another great comic role as Amadeo Ferretti, an Italian businessman who is traveling through Sweden in this entertaining comedy by Gian Luigi Polidoro. Amadeo is the quintessential Latin man who is quite taken with the blond beauties he sees on the streets around him. His attitudes and assumptions, his characteristics and defining qualities are contrasted with the nature of the Swedes and by extension, other citizens of Europe's colder climates. It is this underlying depth that adds considerable interest to the comic situations, and which garnered the director and his cast and crew a "Best Film" award from the 1963 Berlin Film Fest, and in that same year, a "Best Foreign Film" award from the New York Film Critics' Circle. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberto Sordi
In this tense espionage drama set in 1942, William Holden plays Eric Erickson, an American-born Swede who is put on the Allied blacklist for trading oil with the Nazis. Collins (Hugh Griffith), a British intelligence agent, offers to expunge Erickson's name from the blacklist after the war in return for information on the Nazis. Erickson agrees to the plan and proceeds to make it look as if he is pro-Nazi. This subterfuge causes him to be branded a traitor, and his wife, believing Eric to be a Nazi, walks out on him. Nevertheless, Eric continues with his deceit and makes the Germans think that he is planning to construct an oil refinery in Sweden to serve as a fuel supply for Germany. As a result he is allowed entrance to four German oil refinery, and he passes on the information to Collins. But Eric is being put under surveillance by the Nazis. They discover that Eric's lover, Marianne (Lilli Palmer) is working for the Allies. Suddenly both Marianne and Eric are arrested and thrown into Moabit Prison -- with dire consequences for both of them. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, Lilli Palmer, (more)
- 1960
Once the mentor of his more internationally famous countryman Ingmar Bergman, Alf Sjoberg demonstrates his own interest in symbolism, visual atmosphere, and broader meanings in this still rather standard drama. Lenn (Maj-Britt Nilsson) is an ordinary young woman of reasonable means who is not truthfully happy about her impending marriage. Her discontent is strong enough to derail her nuptials once she meets Nisse (Per Oscarsson), a criminal type who sparks an incandescent romance. The two become an inseparable pair and burn their candle at both ends -- with the expected results. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maj-Britt Nilsson, Per Oscarsson, (more)
- 1958
Harriet Andersson stars as Marianne Croneman, the bored wife of bourgeois Arvid Croneman (Ulf Palme). Marianne prefers the company of family doctor Lennart Hagg (Erik Strandmark), who reciprocates her feelings. Together, Marianne and Lennart plot the murder of Arvid, making it look like natural causes. While on their own honeymoon, the homicidal couple is brought to justice through an elaborate charade, staged by the dead man's relatives. Also known as Woman in a Fur Coat, Kvinna I Leopard manages to keep the audience guessing from start to finish. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harriet Andersson, Ulf Palme, (more)
- 1955
Not even Ingmar Bergman was prone to discuss his obscure 1955 production Dreams. While on vacation, photo agency owner Susanne (Eva Dahlbeck) hopes to rendezvous with her married lover. The man's wife puts the kibosh on this, whereupon Susanne enters into an affair with diplomat Sanderby Gunnar Bjornstrand. This liaison ends unhappily, leaving her sadder and wiser at vacation's end. So annoyingly confusing is Dreams that at times it resembles a Woody Allen parody of Bergman, rather than the genuine article. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harriet Andersson, Eva Dahlbeck, (more)
An Alexander Kouprine novel was the springboard for the contemporary melodrama Le Sorciere (The Sorceror). Marina Vlady stars as Ina, a beautiful, mysterious young Swedish girl who captures the heart of visiting French engineer Laurent Brulard (Maurice Ronet). Ina is forced by the local townsfolk to live in the deep forest because they believe that she's really a witch. Laurent pooh-poohs their provincial superstitions and pursues his romance with the girl. The ensuing tragedy is not altogether unexpected, but the impact of the film's final image still leaves the audience with a hollow feeling in the pit of the stomach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marina Vlady, Maurice Ronet, (more)
Froken Julie (Miss Julie) is adapted from August Strindberg's trenchant one-act play of the same name. The title character, a young woman of prestige and property, is played by Anita Bjork. Taught by her mother to hold all men in contempt, Miss Julie nonetheless enters into an affair with misanthropic valet Jean (Ulf Palme). Their passion for one another is tempered by their mutual animosity, and the results are catastrophic. Playwright Strindberg's intense dislike for womanhood will probably alienate half the audience of Miss Julie, but director Alf Sjoberg's handling of the material is masterful--so much so that this film, together with Frenzy (1947), cemented Sjoberg's international reputation as a filmmaker of distinction (despite the efforts by American censors to "water down" the film). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anita Björk, Ulf Palme, (more)
- 1950
Dagmar's next-door neighbor, a writer, receives both a legacy and a mystery when Dagmar commits suicide. The legacy is her few belongings. The mystery is exactly why she killed herself. He investigates her stark life, from the fact that she was an illegitimate child, to the successful blackmailing of her father for money to help her alcoholic boyfriend seek treatment. In order to understand what triggered her to act, he needs to determine the identity of someone she writes of in her diary as the one true love of her life. This black-and-white Swedish language film probably has subtitles. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1949
Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjoberg's Bara en Mor takes place in a Statare, a farming community where the workers and their families were reduced to virtual serfdom by the landowners. The director uses this setting to decry the restrictive class structure that still existed in Sweden as late as the 1930s. Rya-Rya, the central character played by Eva Dahlbeck, is the mother of a large and ever-expanding brood. Rya-Rya must not only worry about putting food in the mouths of her children, but also reaching the inevitable day when she will have outgrown her usefulness to the landlords -- and must face the loss of her home and land. The drama is heightened by Rya-Rya's passion for two different men. Bara en Mor contained a bit of nudity that caused the film some problems when it was released in the U.S. as Only a Mother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Dahlbeck, Ulf Palme, (more)
- 1948
Brott I Sol (Crime in the Sun) was adapted from the long-running stage thriller by Staffan Tjerneld. The story concerns six diverse characters, united by romance during a Summer vacation. Murder rears its ugly head when both Raoul (Curt Masrellez) and Richard (Ulf Palme) fall in love with Eva (Margareta Brostrom). Who "done it"? Doggedly faithful to the original play, Brott I Sol still manages throughout to be thoroughly "cinematic," thanks to the deft touch of director Goran Gentele. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Birger Malmsten, Gunnel Broström, (more)
- 1946
Swedish actress Eva Dahlbeck was one busy lady in 1945-46, though not quite as busy as actor-writer-director Hasse Ekman. Somehow, Dahlbeck and Ekman found time to combine their talents in Mote I Natten. The title translates as Night Meeting, indicating that the film is "noir-ish" in nature. Unlike previous Swedish thrillers, which favored psychology over violence, Mote I Natten plays like an old-fashioned serial, with the protagonists placed in dire jeopardy more than once. Director Ekman seems determined to imitate the best (and occasionally the worst) of American movie melodramas, and he succeeds quite admirably. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hasse Ekman, Eva Dahlbeck, (more)
