Monica Zetterlund Movies

This unusual film explores the small dramas experienced by a group of people who have been stranded in Copenhagen overnight because of a cancelled flight. The all ride in an airport bus to lodgings in town, and the stories of each person or group of persons are told from the moment they leave the bus to the moment they get back on it the next morning. Extraordinary things happen to all of them, and yet, to see them on the bus the next morning, you would imagine nothing at all had happened. Strandees include a rock singer from Russia chaperoned by his English-speaking daughter; he is on his way to an engagement at, of all things, a Russian pizza house in New York. Another strandee is an airline stewardess, and then there are the two brothers who have reunited for the first time after many years. As the movie goes on, their stories overlap in humorous ways. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this musical comedy set in 1935, an impoverished painter takes care of a crippled orphan girl. Living in an attic, the pair are threatened by a mean-spirited landlady who wants to evict them, but their social worker helps them. The artist is cleared of charges of theft with the help of his "guttersnipe" friends, waifs like his ward, and he eventually becomes famous and wealthy. The girl, with access to good health care, is enabled to walk again, and happiness reigns as the two host their poor friends to a picnic. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This is the second installment of the Swedish epic which began with The Emigrants. Nybyggarna is a chronicle of the life and times of the Swedish immigrants in Minnesota, covering the time period up to and beyond the Civil War. Even though they did not come to America to become Americans, they are gradually drawn into the culture of their new country. Father Karl-Oskar Nilsson (Max Von Sydow) and his wife Kristina (Liv Ullman) battle the elements and political changes in order to survive. The family members have little contact with their neighbors, and because they know so little English, they have difficulty buying things from the nearby general store. Robert (Eddie Axberg), Karl's younger brother, wants to find gold and travels westward with Arvid (Pierre Lindstedt), the Nilsson's strange and skittish farmhand. The two lavish epics, The Emigrants and The New Land were the two most expensive films made in Sweden up to that time. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Director/writer Jan Troell's expansive saga deals with the Larsen family, who during the 19th century famine in Sweden emigrate to the more fertile fields of Minnesota. With painstaking detail, the director follows the Larsens as they make the perilous (and, to some of their fellow immigrants, fatal) journey by foot, steamer, train, and paddle boat. The film, which originally ran 190 minutes but was pared down to 150 by its director for American consumption, earned Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Direction, and Best Actress (Liv Ullmann). The Emigrants was followed by a sequel, Nybyggarna ("The New Land"); both films have been edited together for TV release under the title The Emigrant Saga. The subsequent American TV series The New Land (1974) starred Bonnie Bedelia in the role created in The Emigrants by Liv Ullmann, and Scott Thomas in the patriarch role originated by Max von Sydow. In 1991, Sven Nykvist directed a "prequel" to The Emigrants titled The Ox. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This satirical comedy examines the loneliness of men and women from the Swedish perspective and their resolve to find Mr. or Miss Right or Mr. or Miss Right-Now. Couples try to find their soulmates in a series of vignettes and sight gags. Director Tage Danielsson co-wrote the script with Hans Alfredson. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi