Rikard Wolff Movies
- 2001
Veteran Swedish director Jan Troell returned to fiction features after several years directing documentaries with this drama, based on a true story about a pioneering female aviator. Elsa Andersson (Amanda Ooms) was born near the dawn of the 20th century and raised by her father Sven (Bjorn Granath), a successful farmer, after her mother passed on at an early age. Elsa is brought up to believe it is her lot in life to marry another local farmer and raise a family, but as a teenager she becomes fascinated with airplanes, and at 21 she defies her family and enrolls in a school for pilots. While a student, Elsa meets fellow aspiring aviator Erik (Bjorn Kjellman) and they soon fall in love. But Erik dies in a plane crash not long after Elsa discovers she is pregnant with his child; Elsa is crushed, but forces herself to complete her pilot's training. After earning her licensee, Elsa develops an interest in parachuting; she also finds herself taking comfort in the arms of another woman. Jan Troell served as cameraman on Sa Vit Som En Sno, as well as directing and collaborating on the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amanda Ooms, Rikard Wolff, (more)
This moving, finely-wrought portrayal of legendary cinematographer Sven Nykvist was directed by his son Carl-Gustav Nykvist -- a noted filmmaker himself. Spanning from long forgotten kiddie flick in 1945 to Woody Allen's Celebrity (1997), Nykvist's career came to an abrupt end when he was diagnosed with a rare disorder that affects his speech. Though the film explores Nykvist's upbringing and turbulent private life (an ugly divorce, the suicide of one of his sons, an affair with Mia Farrow), the emotional heart of the film is his celebrated collaboration with auteur Ingmar Bergman, with whom Nykvist made some of his most enduring work, including Winter Light (1962) and Scenes from a Marriage (1973). As Bergman recalls his own career, he notes, "I don't miss making films, but I miss the collaboration with Sven." ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Bibi Andersson, (more)
- 2000
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pernilla August, Helena Bergström, (more)
- 1995
This Swedish comedy is a sequel to the 1992 international hit movie, House of Angels. It continues the story of Fanny and Zak, a formerly down and out couple that finds wealth when Fanny inherits a large house from her grandfather who lived in a small, unfriendly village. Fanny, whose father is unknown, eventually charmed the whole town with two old men, Ivar and Axel, gladly coming forth to claim her paternity. Now, it is one year later and Fanny and Zak have just returned from a world-tour. Unfortunately, while she was gone, her house burned down. Ivar who won a lottery, takes his brother Gottfrid and the returned couple with him to New York where he will visit his other brother, Sven. While the foursome grows accustomed to New York, the villagers continue to ponder the true identity of Fanny's father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
This biography profiles the life and times of early 20th century Swedish painter Anders Zorn who gained notoriety for his nudes. His works are currently worth millions. The film is set in the time when Zorn, already respected for his art, was commissioned to paint a portrait of the Swedish king. Though an excellent painter, Zorn's personal life is dreadful. A boozer and a womanizer who frequently cheats on his wife, Zorn constantly seeks approval for his art. When he travels to the U.S. for a tour he meets Emilie Bartlett the wife of sculptor Paul W. Bartlett with whom he begins a sporadic affair. After Paul commits suicide, Zorn and Emilie move to Sweden. Zorn disregards his wife's feelings and openly displays his affections for Emilie. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gunnar Hellstrom, Linda Kozlowski, (more)
- 1993
Tove and Claes Salefalk (Helena Bergstrom and Reine Bynolfsson) and Liselott and Lennart Waltner (Ewa Froling and Peter Andersson) have known one another for years. At one time the two couples were good friends, but they have drifted apart recently. Both couples compete internationally as ballroom dancers, and both are very good, but the Waltners are better. They keep winning competition after competition, leaving the Salefalks in the dust. After a while, Tove just can't bear it, which is why, by the time they gather for the funeral of Claes' mother, they haven't spoken for almost a year. Meeting at the funeral, they attempt to renew their relationship, and take a vacation together in Barbados. However, close proximity only makes the tension worse. Another thing which bugs Tove is that she is sterile and can't have children, while Liselott gets pregnant and has one abortion after another. Things come to a head during a competition at Blackpool, an oceanside resort in northern England. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helena Bergström, Reine Brynolfsson, (more)
- 1992
- R
House of Angels is a comedy about prejudice in a small Swedish town. The owner of the farm Änglagård is killed in an automobile accident, and the community is surprised and outraged when his granddaughter turns up at the funeral to claim the farm. Fanny (Helena Bergström) is a leather-jacketed cabaret performer from Berlin, and she lives with her gay biker buddy, Zac (Rikard Wolff). Many members of the community are horrified and make no bones about it. Appearances aren't everything, however. Fanny and Zac are far from the drugged-out weirdos they seem to be, and slowly but surely, the community accepts them. Expat British director Colin Nutley manages to forge strong, well-developed characters from these stereotypical origins. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helena Bergström, Rikard Wolff, (more)
- 1991
Though there's no single word for it, the lead character in this offbeat comedy is an all-purpose worrier. He's not particularly paranoid, even though this nightclub owner has got some real enemies. He just worries a lot. He worries about his sex life with his stripper girlfriend. He worries about her sex life, since he's impotent. He worries about the man he persuaded her to start an affair with. He worries about getting caught for murdering the man, since he's jealous. He's worried about the enforcers for the loan shark he borrowed money from, and what they might do to him. In fact, if he could have his way, he'd have his family doctor perform a lobotomy, so he wouldn't have to worry so much. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Zandén, Marie Richardson, (more)
- 1991
- NR
Based on a true story, the bleak period piece Oxen was co-written and directed by Ingmar Bergman's longtime cinematographer Sven Nykvist. In the small village of Småland in the late 1860s, Helge Roos (Stellan Skarsgård) works as a farmer on an estate belonging to Svenning Gustafsson (Lennart Hjulström) and his wife (Liv Ullmann). Plagued by a terrible famine, Helge illegally kills one of the Gustaffson's last oxen so his own family can eat. He and his wife, Elfrida (Ewa Fröling), feel guilty about it, but the meat keeps them alive through the winter. When he tries to sell the hide in the spring, a clergyman (Max Von Sydow) finds out and encourages him to confess. The judge sentences Helge to a life of manual labor at the state prison for his crime. When he is finally pardoned and released after six years, he returns home to Elfrida to find out that she has been supporting the family by performing sexual services, which has resulted in the birth of another child. In the 1970s, Von Sydow and Ullmann appeared together in a set of films also dealing with the Swedish famine in Jan Troell's The Emigrants and The New Land. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stellan Skarsgård, Ewa Fröling, (more)
- 1990
The dark recesses of a troubled psyche come to the light of day in this psychological thriller. In the story, Richard (Boman Oscarsson) is a young international art smuggler, who moves into the apartment of his cartoonist half-brother, who has disappeared. Once established there, increasingly strange mental states arise in his mind, and he sees (or seems to see) strange things going on around him. In addition, he has difficult encounters with his ailing mother and with a former girlfriend. As the experiences grow more numerous and intense, he decides that it is vital for his sanity that he discover what has become of his missing brother. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boman Oscarsson
- 1988
This horror feature send-up concerns an actor/director (Etienne Glaser) trying to talk his two female employers into letting his crew shoot a film about real people. The crew plays practical jokes that involve severed limbs and lots of blood in this tongue-in-cheek look at the horror film-factory that exposes the colorful carnage. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Etienne Glaser, Stina Ekblad, (more)
