Jan Garbarek Movies

Take a voyage through the history of European jazz in this musical meditation on the origins, growth, and exciting shifts in direction that came to define the endless search for that ever-elusive "voice of one's own." As musicians from both sides of the Atlantic began working in unison, jazz lovers around the world would bear witness to a fascinating form of evolution in their favorite freeform musical style. Rare footage of Ben Webster, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and en entire host of jazz legends make this a musical journey that is sure to fascinate and educate. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Jon Bang Carlsen attempts to explore the importance of religion and spirituality in the lives of men who have transgressed the rules of society in this thought-provoking documentary. Born and raised in South Africa, Carlsen returned home to speak to the inmates of one of the nation's largest prisons; claiming to be an investigator, he spoke to a number of men convicted of violent crimes who claim to have had a spiritual conversion behind bars. Carlsen prompts these men to open up about their crimes, how religion entered their lives, what their faith means to them, and how their spiritual revival has changed them. Portraet av Gud was screened at the 2001 Haugesund Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Swiss born Léa Pool, who settled in Montreal, Quebec in 1975, set her sixth feature film, Emporte-Moi, in Mile's End, Montreal's working class district, in the year 1963. Hanna is a thirteen-year-old girl who is mesmerized by Anna Karina's portrayal of Nana S. in Jean-Luc Godard's film Vivre sa Vie. She thinks Nana S. looks like her teacher, with whom she hopes to establish a special bond. Hanna has her share of problems at home. Her father (Miki Manojiovic) is a stateless Jew and an unrecognized poet with a tormented soul. Her mother (Pascale Bussiéres) is a fragile and overworked young Catholic from Quebec, and their marriage is not ideal. Fortunately, she has her older brother (Alexandre Mérineau) to share her experiences and her close friend Laura Charlotte Christeler who attracts Hanna because she is so different and so sensual. Growing up in her limited circumstances, Hanna gradually realizes that like the character in Godard's film, she, too, is free to determine her future ... and with freedom comes responsibility. Miki Manojlovic, who plays the father, is a Belgrade born actor who is particularly known for his roles in the films of Emir Kusturica; he is quite convincing in the role of the affectionate but impulsive father. The young actress Karine Vanasse, who plays Hanna, carries the responsibility of her role very well and writer Nancy Huston, who collaborated on the screenplay, fits her role as the teacher in her screen debut. Emporte-Moi is definitely a woman's film, not only because the director, producer, screenwriter and even the director of photography are all women, but also in the way these women have collaborated in creating a work that specifically reflects a woman's point of view. The film competed at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

This historical Norwegian drama suitable for family viewing, centers on an 8-year old 14th-century Norwegian girl from an isolated valley on Norway's west coast who loses most of her family and neighbors to the dreaded Black Death.. Following the death of her community, the girl, Maren, learns to survive in the densely forested mountains. Later she is discovered by villagers living in the next valley. They believe the girl has the ability to see the future, and they want her to make predictions for them. Eventually she is rescued by her father, who was away when the plague hit their village. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

From her vantage point as a neighbor, nightclub singer Lina (Liane Hielscher) observes and comments (through her act) on the complex tangle of romantic attractions which center on the offices of a psychiatrist (Christian Phillips) who lives and works in the hothouse climate of Southern California. In this romantic comedy and social satire, it seems that the psychiatrist is in love with his patient, an artist who is in love with a stand-up comic, who is living with a stripper. All of them seek to unfold the meaning of their obsessions with the psychiatrist, who in turn seeks the same thing from his psychiatrist. Meanwhile, not content with confessing all on the psychiatrist's couch, all these artists and artistes unburden themselves of their concerns with their friends, and use them in their art and performances. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Leonhard, the brother of this film's scenarist Michael Lentz, is the subject of this unusual documentary. As Leonhard went through the rigors of being diagnosed and treated for throat cancer, eventually having a large portion of his throat removed, he kept a detailed diary. The pain and disruption brought into his life nearly cost him his sanity and threatened his habitual good cheer. However, he learned to talk again without the aid of a machine and enjoyed the final months of his life with something approaching his old gusto. Footage of the sufferer is paired with readings from his diary and interviews with family and friends. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Somewhat thrown off by a plethora of subplots, this exploration of a woman's disturbed psyche has several stories and various threads interwoven all at once, yet it is still an interesting tale. Lawyer Helen Stousland's (Elisabeth Mortensen) father commits suicide by jumping out of a window, and, distraught by his death, she seems unable to escape him wherever she turns. The drug dealer she is defending in her current case implies that he has some connections to her father, she seduces the detective investigating her father's death, she quarrels with her stepmother, and her law firm is handling her father's property. As various facets of Helen's life seem to converge so much on her father, the story focuses on her inner thoughts and feelings, and in the end, both the outer and inner worlds are brought into a surprising conjunction. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Using the context of a drowning man who reviews his life and past major events in his last moments, this long, pessimistic film looks at ponderous and depressing subjects: young hotheads only interested in expounding their viewpoints, corpses in a concentration camp, Norwegians giving a "heil Hitler" one-armed salute to the Gestapo leader in Oslo in 1941, the atomic bomb explosions in World War II, and personal issues of bad relationships. It seems like everything in the world is going down with the drowning man. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide