Gaby Stenberg Movies
- 1992
Scripted (but not directed) by Ingmar Bergman, Best Intentions is a multilayered backwards glance at the courtship of Bergman's own parents. Henrik Bergman (Samuel Froler) is a struggling theology student in the year 1909. His intended, Anna Aakerbloom (Pernilla August, who married director Bille August while the film was in progress) is from a well-to-do family. Despite the expected class differences and personality clashes, love-or at least mutual understanding-prevails. But after a harsh, spare few years as the wife of a clergyman, Anna yearns for the more bountiful pleasures of her family home. Bergman writes himself into the proceedings as a mewling infant. The current three-hour theatrical version of Best Intentions (original title: Den Goda Viljan) was simultaneously prepared as a six-hour TV miniseries, which ran in Europe, Scandanavia, and Japan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Samuel Fröler, Pernilla August, (more)
- 1989
The Swedish Hajen Som Visste for Mycket was written and directed by Claes Eriksson, who cast himself and his brother Anders in the leading roles. The Eriksson boys play a couple of high-rollers who hope to crack Sweden's business community. Their ruthless behavior is none too good for the cold-blooded execs whom they sucker on their way to the top. A satire of Scandinavian business practices, Hajen Som Visste for Mycket may not play too well for American audiences -- unless, of course, those audiences are comprised of our own financial movers and shakers. The title, by the way, translates to The Shark Who Knew Too Much. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anders Eriksson, Claes Eriksson, (more)
- 1960
A light farce from Swedish director Gentele Goran, this amusing comedy stars Gaby Stenberg as a wealthy widow and Jarl Kulle as a writer she meets on a plane. Once the two get together they are involved in a series of incidents that keep them interacting and in the end, romance begins to blossom. Various situations are set up for good comic effect, as the scene described by the title where the writer and a thief find themselves in the widow's bedroom -- with the subsequent comedic attempts at righting an essentially "wrong" predicament. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jarl Kulle, Gaby Stenberg, (more)
- 1949
A couple's relationship begin to unravel during a rail trip through Europe in this drama, an early work from legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Rut (Eva Henning) is a former ballet dancer whose career has been sidelined due to an injured knee, while her husband Bertil (Birger Malmsten) is a slightly prickly academic. Rut and Bertil are traveling though Germany from Switzerland while their friends at home are celebrating the rowdy annual observance of Midsummer; much of Europe is still mired in poverty and disarray in the wake of World War II, and their vacation generates more tension between the two than positive feelings. As the couple's train rolls through the ravaged nation, flashbacks introduce us to other characters in the drama -- Raoul (Bengt Eklund), a military officer with no conscience who has an affair with Rut, and Viola (Birgit Tengroth), a friend of Rut from her days in dancing school who had a fling with Bertil and has fallen into a deep depression over her romantic and sexual confusion. Torst (aka Thirst) was adapted from a short story by Birgit Tengroth, who also appeared in the film as Viola. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Henning, Birger Malmsten, (more)
- 1947
Supe for Tva (Supper for Two) was directed by Ragnar Arfvedsson, who also essayed one of the leading roles. Based on the French play L'Inevetable M. Dubois, the story concerns a whirlwind romance amongst the rich and famous of Southern Europe. In a rare move for its time, this Swedish production was largely filmed on the French Riviera. "Pick-up" scenes were lensed in Finland, a reasonably adequate substitute for coastal France. Edvin Adolphson and Karin Ekelend head the cast of this ooh-la-la comedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edvin Adolphson, Gaby Stenberg, (more)
- 1945
The Swedish Goranssons Pojke was inspired by Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1920) -- and like the earlier film, was directed by its star, in this case Weyler Hildebrand. The story concerns the relationship between carefree junk dealer Goransson (Hildebrand) and an abandoned urchin named Pelle (Tom Olsson). Their blissful existence is shattered when Pelle's long-lost mother returns to claim the child. There's pathos and heartbreak aplenty before a happy ending can be realized, and while Hildebrand isn't precisely Chaplin, he strives to please. The film's English-language title was Goransson's Boy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Weyler Hildebrand, Emy Hagman, (more)
