Hans Alfredson Movies

In a series of remarkable events inspired by a true story, Maria Heiskanen stars as Maria Larsson, a Finnish mother and housewife who devotes all of her attention, care, and consideration to the well-being of her family -- but, like many homemakers, does so at the expense of her own identity and self-awareness. Not that her dockworker husband, Sigge (Mikael Persbrandt), particularly deserves such consideration; a brutish, alcoholic lout, his evenings consist of making life hell for Maria and their daughter with tyrannical, abusive behavior. Then, as the dockworkers go on strike and the family's economic situation plummets, a ray of hope appears, in the form of a Contessa camera won in a local lottery. Unsurprisingly, Maria at first attempts to pawn it to reel in extra monies, but store owner Sebastian Pedersen convinces her otherwise; he teaches her how to use it, and she begins taking gorgeous, haunting photographs with the unaffected, instinctive perceptions of a young child. As the woman's self-discovery builds and her identity takes on form and definition, Sebastian unofficially takes her on as a protégée and quietly witnesses romantic feelings for her building inside of him. Meanwhile, Sigge's life falls to pieces when the authorities connect him with the catastrophic explosion of a British vessel. Maria's daughter, Maja (Callin Öhrvall), narrates. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Originally made for television and directed by distinguished Swedish actress-turned-director Liv Ullman, this provocative drama is a sequel to director-turned-screenwriter Ingmar Bergman's autobiographical Bille August-directed drama Best Intentions (1992). Returning to their roles of Bergman's parents are actors Pernilla August and Samuel Froler; their discussions are divided into five sections that take place over several years beginning on a Sunday in July, 1925 when young Anna Bergman runs into her old friend and mentor Jacob (Max von Sydow) an aged priest. She is obviously distraught about something and soon confesses to him that she has been cheating on her husband Henrik, also a priest, with yet another man of the cloth named Tomas Egerman (Thomas Hanzon). Jacob suggests she immediately end the affair and inform her husband. Several weeks pass and Anna finally heeds Jacob's advice. When her words finally sink in, Henrik becomes angry and begins grilling her for details. Her further confessions make matters worse. The tale then flashes back to Anna's seduction of Tomas, a situation which reveals truths unspoken by Anna in her confessions. The fourth segment of the story is set several years later. Anna visits the now elderly and frail Jacob. The final discussion jumps back to 1907 when the adolescent Anna first met Jacob and this segment reveals a few more truths about the nature of her friendship with Jacob. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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, Rovi

This big-budget animated feature from Sweden, drawing upon some of that country's best known performers, is a children's adventure story with a cautionary ecological theme. The director drew his inspiration from such diverse sources as The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, and Machine Island, by ules Verne. In the story, Prospero has been exiled from his home, and is living on the island of Melonia with his daughter Miranda, an albatross named Ariel, and a fruit-monster called Caliban. Just as Caliban has finished creating something called "power soup" from the emanations of a local volcano, a crew of ne'er do wells crash-lands. They are from Plutonia, a polluted industrial planet given over to entirely to making weaponry, and they have come to steal Caliban's creation. Their plan is to take over the world Melonia is on and make it just as ugly as their own. Prospero and his kin band together to rescue the children on the industrial planet, who have been enslaved to work in the munitions factories, and at the same time put a stop to the evil plans of the Plutonians. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In Sweden, the popular post-WWII newspaper cartoon strip created by Steve Terry was known as Jim & The Pirates instead of Terry and the Pirates, its U.S. moniker. In this children's story based on some of the stories from that strip, a pre-teen boy receives counseling from his dead father's ghost on how to cope with new developments in his life -- from his mother's getting a new boyfriend, to the fine art of chopping onions. The boy learns a pretty good trick from his father's shade which enables him to use his imagination to turn a boring birthday party into an ocean adventure among pirates. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Pettersson (Stellan Skarsgård) and Bendel (Allan Edwall) (the latter a refugee from a Polish dictatorship, the former a confirmed amateur capitalist) get together in the big city to see what they can skim off the top and are successful until their luck changes and the two men are back on the bottom of the barrel again. One of the difficulties with this film is that it swings from restrained comic interludes to tragic events, and back -- while hewing to a predictable plot. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A young man (Stellan Skarsgård) with a harelip deformity has been called the "idiot" since he was little because of his difficulty in talking. When his mother dies, Hoglund (Hans Alfredson), a rich, despotic, Nazi landowner brings the boy to his farm and abuses him through overwork, feeds him food unfit for consumption, and forces him to sleep in the barn. Additional verbal humiliation is piled on top of these inhumane acts, until the boy finds some sympathy and assistance from a kind family nearby. They decide to take him in, and the young man does well enough to save his earnings and buy a motorcycle -- defeating Hoglund's attempt to prevent him from getting a license. While all this is going on, the young man and Anna (Maria Johansson), the kindly farmer's daughter who is confined to a wheelchair, fall in love with each other. But Hogland is determined to ruin the family and he manages to do so by paying off all the farmer's creditors and then expelling the family from their homestead. Pushed beyond his capacity to bend, the young man kills Hoglund and escapes with Anna. During this time, he has visions of three avenging angels who have appeared before whenever he was in trouble or when he was reading the Bible. It is the angels who encouraged him to kill Hoglund, and who stay with him afterwards. He and Anna escape in Hoglund's car, and they find a temporary shelter in a very old house. When Anna starts reading to him from the Bible, he falls asleep, and she looks out the window to see that people are coming to the house. She must make a decision on how to handle this new danger, and as she reaches for the pistol that had belonged to Hoglund, the decision is reached as well. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Rarely does a film do homage to a serious artist through the medium of a madcap farce, as this one does; however, Picasso was known for an irreverent and ribald sense of humor which is quite in line with this Swedish film, Picassos Aeventyr. In a skit recounting his birth, a woman's heavy breathing is demonstrated to have nothing to do with childbirth. Another skit features an appearance by Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein, played by two very masculine men in dowdy drag. In one particularly irreverent scene, Dr. Albert Schweitzer operates on Picasso. Picasso (Goesta Ekman) himself escapes the excessive commercialization of his works through a kind of suicidal self-transcendance. Told in a stripped-down mixture of French, Spanish and English, most will have no difficulty understanding the film's humor. Picassos Aeventyr is done in a style which has been compared that of Mel Brooks; as with Brooks' works, and some might not appreciate its broad humor. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Tender hearts unite an unlikely couple: Tage Danielsson here plays a giant of a man, Lena Nyman his quite tiny wife. In their happy household they have two of everything. For example, they have large and small beds, chairs, toilets, alarm clocks, etc. Tage reminisces about his childhood when he viewed everyone else he knew as a policeman of some sort. Suddenly, their lives are disrupted by an escaped convict. Against their better judgment they call the police, and he is put behind bars once more. They later repent however, and, through an outrageous scheme, pry the miscreant from the safety of his cell in order to teach him how to live. ~ 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

After an accident, an old man is hospitalized in a convalescent home when it is decided he needs extra help. The man has animated dreams and flashbacks about his first love affair and initial trip to the local house of prostitution, his childhood and his family. Hans Alfredson stars as the aging dreamer in this combination of film and animation. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi