Gio Petre Movies
Swedish actress Gio Petre was a protégée of her husband, Lorens Marmstedt, who frequently cast her in romantic films during the '50s, '60s, and '70s. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1970
- PG
A young man learns the identity of his father's mistress after finding a teddy bear in the car after his father's fatal auto accident. He threatens to tell his mother about the affair unless the mistress pretends to be his fiancee. They end up falling in love, but she leaves soon after finding out that she is pregnant by the young man's father. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
Having previously touched on the taboo topic of incest in such distinguished productions as Confessions of a Young American Housewife and The Indelicate Balance, sexploitation specialist Joseph Sarno approaches the subject with greater subtlety and deeper complexity than ever before in this Danish produced psychodrama that pushes the boundaries of soft-core erotica. Katja (Helli Louise) and her father Eric (Ole Wisborg) live together in a home that's virtually isolated from the rest of the world. Though Eric does the best he can to provide for his young daughter, the fact that he's usually away on business means that Katja leads a relatively solitude childhood. Their fragile living arrangement begins to show signs of stress when Eric announces plans to marry his secret lover Svea (Fanny Hill), just as young Katja begins to experience the first confusing pangs of sexual awakening. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helli Louise, Gio Petre, (more)
- 1969
Frustrating both to those who view this X-rated movie seeking a simple sex-flick, and those looking for an art-piece, this movie is a bit of a spoof on both. The story concerns the Yugoslavian holiday of two toothsome Swedish girls. One of the girls, played by Maria Liljedahl, is (metaphorically speaking) a world-champion in the promiscuity sweepstakes, bedding men (and women) in great profusion. Somehow, the movie also manages to be about film reviewers and film directors. Variety) commented "...the film's inherently good visual and physical qualities are themselves dissipated in [the director's] cynicism, ennui, and involuted intellectual mirror tricks." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gio Petre, Marie Liljedahl, (more)
- 1968
John Clelland's ribald 18th-century novel Fanny Hill got plenty of attention during the let-it-all-hang-out '60s. Nudie filmmaker Russ Meyer beat everyone to the punch with his notorious soft-core version of Fanny Hill, filmed in Germany in 1965. Around the same time, director Mac Ahlberg was preparing his own FH in Sweden. To avoid confusion, Ahlberg's effort was released in the U.S. as The Swedish Fanny Hill, even though most of the story takes place in Merrie Olde England. Diana Kjaer plays the buxom Ms. Hill, a "woman of pleasure" whose memoirs are long, loud and lusty. Considered hot stuff in the 1960s, Fanny Hill seems almost austere when seen today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diana Kjaer, Keve Hjelm, (more)
- 1968
A violin student studying in Switzerland returns home to Sweden to visit his mother. During the summer vacation, his mother reveals the boy's late father fiddled around with more than the violin as the classical virtuoso engaged in numerous extramarital affairs. His sister is revealed to be only his half-sister as they both have different mothers. His sister longs to have sex and casts her lustful eyes towards her dear brother. He spends the night with three naked women who each take turns relating the sordid details of their first sexual experiences. Even Swedish censors had an initial reluctance to allow the film to be released because of the graphic content of sex and nudity. They finally relented, allowing those 15 and older to see the feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Maria (Gunnell Lindblom) returns to the scene where she was raped as a young woman years earlier in this grim and disturbing psychodrama. She finds that the landlord and rapist (Eric Hell), is still around, and he again tries to have his way with Maria. Her daughter (Gio Petre), who witnessed the attack, has a fear of men and has lesbian leanings, and the son of the landlord follows in his father's felonious footsteps and rapes a young girl. The viewer should be warned of the graphic scenes of child molestation, rape, violence, and masturbation in this film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gunnel Lindblom, Erik Hell, (more)
- 1964
This plodding drama has the female manager of a laundry fighting her lesbian leanings towards one of her employees. Marta (Eva Dahlbeck) has eyes for Rike (Gio Petre), a younger woman plagued by promiscuity, alcoholism and thoughts of suicide. When Rike tells the other women her boss made a move on her, the business is halted by a worker revolt. Xenia (Ruth Kasdan) is the Nazi concentration camp survivor who Marta saves when the other women attack her after a hysterical outburst. Slight male romantic interest comes in the form of a young shipping clerk (Per Myhrberg) who often tries to flirt with the women individually but is afraid of them in a group situation. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Dahlbeck, Isa Quensel, (more)
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harriet Andersson, Gunnel Lindblom, (more)
- 1962
This interesting but uneven psychological drama about the slow mental deterioration of a night watchman is helmed by one of Sweden's more noted independent directors, Arne Mattsson. The story is set in a rather rundown house, where the night watchman (Per Oscarsson) lives in a rented room, as do several other residents. He is a lonely individual, and just how lonely is brought home one day when he catches some thieves trying to rob a store while he is on duty. They escape but knock over a display of dolls on their way out. As he is setting the display right again, the watchman takes a fancy to one of the dolls and decides to bring it back to his room. From that point onward, the doll gains in importance in his life until it becomes as real as a female companion -- a substitution that can only lead to tragedy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Per Oscarsson, Gio Petre, (more)
After exploring his disillusionment with religion in his previous films, Ingmar Bergman adopted a humanistic approach for this classic study in isolationism. Legendary Scandinavian director Victor Sjöström stars as Isak Borg, an aging medical professor who reassesses his life while journeying to his former university to receive an honorary degree. Borg travels with his estranged daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) and revisits many of the landmarks of his past, conjuring up memories of his family and of his onetime sweetheart Sara (Bibi Andersson). Returning to the present, he meets a teenage girl who resembles the long-departed Sara. She hitches a ride with the professor and Marianne, as do a ceaselessly bickering married couple. These new characters eventually become intertwined with Borg's hazy flashbacks and fantasies, as the old man recalls the disappointments and disillusionments that have left him cold and guilt-ridden, attributes emphasized when he encounters his equally cold and resentful son. Bookending Borg's odyssey of self-discovery are a series of symbolic images at the beginning of the film (a clock without hands, a man without a face) and a hauntingly beautiful finale, in which professor is beckoned back to the "perfect" world he left behind so many years earlier. This classic art movie remains one of Bergman's most accessible films and one of the most influential European art movies of its generation. Its intense focus on one man's thoughts, regrets, and memories set the tone for innumerable psychological character studies in its wake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, (more)
- 1956
In this adventure, set deep within the Belgian Congo, a local witch doctor decides the only way to stop a rampaging gorilla from terrorizing his people is to sacrifice a new-born baby. Meanwhile a local game warden and a journalist researching a story on the natives team up to stop the crazed simian. As the endeavor, the two fall in love. They succeed in stopping the beast and then as they part, vow that they will meet again someday. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
