Waldemar Bergendahl Movies

When Adam and Eva first meet, it is love at first sight in the grandest Hollywood tradition. Normally such a scene would occur at the end of the film, but in this sparkling look at male and female relationships, it is only the beginning. The story jumps ahead four years. By this time, the two are living together and totally bored. While Eva wants to marry and start a family, Adam dreams of having an affair. He gets his opportunity when a pretty and very young woman sashays into the picture. Adam manages to keep his liaison a secret for a while. When Eva finds out, a terrible scene erupts and she leaves him. Left to himself, Adam is forced to come to grips with what Eva really meant to him. Unfortunately, by the time he figures it out, it is almost too late, for she has found a new love, one who is willing to marry her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A young child's account of an idyllic summer in the 1920s, this film by Lasse Hallstrom (My Life as a Dog) features three girls and three boys on vacation in a remote rural area of Sweden. Their ages range between seven and nine and they have fun in the way that innocent kids can; they romp in the open fields and camp out in a hayloft for the night. The boys misbehave in ways that are guaranteed to get them attention from the girls (they steal the sandwiches their mothers made for them) and the girls thoroughly enjoy their revenge, all in a game of one-upmanship. Because of the genteel tone of the film, devoid of violence or dark, scary unknowns, this film is ideally suited for a young audience. A sequel (Mer Om Oss Barn I Bullerby) followed in 1987. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Inger (Helena Bergström), a single mother, has decided to return to her father's home from her life in Stockholm and sort out her life. Unfortunately, her father has grown restless, too, and is planning to sell the family house and move away, so she cannot stay long. To pass the time, she hangs out at the local dance hall. There, she dangles one man on a leash while she courts the drummer in the dance-hall band (Carl Kjellgren). She thinks that theirs is a romance beyond all others. He thinks of it merely as a pleasant affair. Eventually, she figures that out and moves back to Stockholm, and regrets stringing the second, nicer, man along. There was something epochal in the meeting of these two people however, and the band members recognize that something important has changed. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren pens this heartwarming story about a little girl named Brenda Brave who discovers the benefits of being benevolent, loving, and selfless. Brenda lives in a quaint village with her elderly grandmother. After Brenda's grandma slips and breaks her leg, the little girl does her best to keep the family business afloat by selling peppermint sticks from a stall in Town Square. When Christmas arrives, young Brenda is elated to see a special gift with her name nestled comfortably beneath the family tree. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Inspired by the famous Johan Lindstrom Saxon ballad, this Swedish film involves circus performer Elvira Madigan (Pia Degermark) and army officer Sixten Sparre (Thommy Berggren). Sparre breaks loose of the oppressive atmosphere of both the military and his tradition-bound family to conduct a passionate affair with Elvira. Aware only of one another's presence, the lovers refuse to recognize that they have stepped irreversibly on the road to tragedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unemployment is the subject of this black Swedish comedy and though it is generally funny, it will be most enjoyable with those familiar with Sweden's culture and economic climate. It is the story of Torsten, a bank clerk who is fired by his boss. Devastated and ashamed, poor Torsten becomes so desperate to get his job back that he decides to engineer a bogus bank robbery so he can play hero. Unfortunately, the mock-heist goes awry and he suddenly finds himself responsible for finding 5 million in missing kronor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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

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, All Movie Guide

Some middle-class dreamers sell their homes to build a boat that will allow them to sail off to an unspecified paradise. The ship is wrecked before the maiden voyage, and the men lie to their wives to cover-up the debacle. The men decide to steal a vessel in order to come up with the proposed dreamboat in this uneven comedy highlighted by the performances of Philip Zanden and Peter Andersson. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A popular television personality learns the hard way that fame has as many drawbacks as advantages in this satiric comedy. Alexander (Johan Rheborg) is the host of a wildly popular Swedish talk show, which has made him famous, wealthy, and very successful with women. But Alexander senses there's something missing in his life, and when he's interviewed by Asa (Alexandra Rapaport), an attractive but no-nonsense journalist, he's immediately smitten. Asa, however, isn't much interested in Alexander, and he soon finds himself in the novel position of pursuing one of the few women he can't seduce on demand. Life becomes all the more complicated for Alexander when he's approached by Ralf (Kristian Luuk), an former schoolmate who has written a book but can't find anyone to publish it. Ralf asks Alexander to put his name on the manuscript so a publisher will pick it up, and Alexander agrees. But Alexander doesn't bother to read the text before the book hits the streets, and he learns too late that the book is a bitter rant against conventional morality that quickly makes him a national pariah. Kristian Luuk, who plays Alexander's old school chum, is himself the host of a successful chat show in Sweden. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on a Swedish television series, this comedy considers the life of the hapless, hopelessly serious and infinitely clueless one-man natural disaster Kurt Olsson (mostly played by Lasse Brandeby) from his beginnings in his mother's womb up to the time when he becomes a father himself. While Kurt himself is humorously humorless in all his undertakings, his streetcar conductor father (also played by Brandeby) is quite simply a fanatic. The film features successive appearances by Kurt's TV partner Hans Wiktorsson as Arne Nystrom, also shown from birth to the "present." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Despite having a serious basic storyline, this comedy was tremendously successful in its home country. It features actors from the Swedish television series Macken (The Gas Station) and the drolly wooden features of the beloved comic actor Anders Eriksson. In the story, the underhanded dealings of a group of smug and powerful arms manufacturers are exposed by the simple-minded but honest bunglers, resulting in at least one uproarious chase. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide