Erland Josephson Movies

Ingmar Bergman's After the Rehearsal stars Erland Josephson as a theater director named Henrik Volger. He is in the midst of mounting a production of a Strindberg play when he is visited by Anna Egerman (Lena Olin), an actress whom he has cast in the play. Volger was involved with Anna's mother, Rakel (Ingrid Thulin), an alcoholic has-been actress who once was Volger's lover. Rakel intrudes upon their conversation, and the two women confront Henrik about how he has lived his life. This 72-minute production originally aired on Swedish television before receiving theatrical distribution. The cinematographer on the film is Bergman's longtime collaborator Sven Nykvist. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

This well-executed biographical docudrama is a plunge into the madness (and the sanity) of a writer living life on its rawest edges. Agnes Von Krusenstjarna (Stina Ekbland) was a Swedish novelist (1894-1940) whose works ranged from the idyllically romantic to crushingly sardonic, sexually explicit autobiography. Von Krusenstjarna teamed up with the eccentric bisexual David Sprengel (Erland Josephson) and continued to suffer bouts of mental instability that Sprengel felt were best cured by sexual abandon. Von Krusenstjarna was not a model of emotional health when she first met Sprengel. She had inherited madness from her family while at the same time passionately rebelled against the narrow-minded mores of her genteel but poor parents. With his own wildly unorthodox behavior, Sprengel both helped and hindered Von Krusenstjarna throughout their turbulent relationship. Audiences will be enthralled by the clash of Von Krusenstjarna's inner and outer realities, but should be aware there is an abundance of sexually explicit material here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Liv Ullmann plays Dr. Jenny Isakson, a psychiatrist who is taking a vacation while her husband Dr. Erik Isakson (Sven Lindberg) is elsewhere. Haunted by visions of an old woman, Jenny suffers from profound, inexplicable depression. Desperately in search of a escape from her doldrums, she has an affair with married doctor Tomas Jacobi (Erland Josephson). This only serves to spark an attack of hysteria for Jenny. Again visited by hallucinations of the old woman, she attempts suicide. While hovering between life and death, she imagines she sees all the people who've been influential in her life, and rails against them for causing her neuroses. Only while recovering does she learn who the spectral old woman is and why she is undergoing so harrowing an emotional experience. Like his later Scenes From a Marriage, Bergman's Face to Face (Ansikte mot ansikte) originated as a multipart TV series, which was then pared down into a two-hour-plus feature film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ingrid Bergman, the Swedish expatriate who became one of Hollywood's greatest stars, and Ingmar Bergman, one of the world's most acclaimed filmmakers and Sweden's most honored director, worked together for the first and only time in this intensely personal drama about the troubled relationship between a mother and daughter. Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman) is an acclaimed concert pianist who is visiting her daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann), the wife of a parson in a rural community, for the first time in seven years. While Charlotte and Eva struggle to be civil, there is a deep emotional gulf between them. Eva resents her mother for not caring enough for her as a child, feeling that Charlotte was more interested in her career and her other daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), who is severely handicapped and can only communicate through inarticulate noises. Charlotte, on the other hand, is uncomfortable with the fact that Helena now lives with Eva, and she is still coming to terms with the emotional devastation of her husband's recent death. Herbstsonate, released in America as Autumn Sonata, earned Ingrid Bergman some of the most enthusiastic acclaim of her career; she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and she won the same honor from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. It was also her last theatrical release; she would appear in only one more project, a TV movie about the life of Golda Meir, before her death in 1982. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Victor Sjostrom (1879-1960) was one of the better-known Swedish actors and directors, and this is a well-balanced documentary on his film work, his general artistic history, and his relationships with colleagues such as Ingmar Bergman. Scenes from his early silents (Terje Vigen, Phantom Carriage ) illustrate his skills in that era, still photographs chronicle some of his work from his Hollywood period (1923-1930), and Ingmar Bergman comments on the years in which he and Sjostrom knew each other (1940s-1950s), worked together (Wild Strawberries, 1957), and also had their differences. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

After achieving international recognition in the 1950's with such films as Det Sjunde Inseglet (aka The Seventh Seal), Smultronstället (aka Wild Strawberries) and Sommarnattens Leende (aka Smiles of a Summer Night), Ingmar Berman became one of the world's best known filmmakers for his emotionally intense portraits of souls in crisis, but the man himself developed a reputation for zealously guarding his privacy throughout his long and distinguished career. In 2004, Bergman sat for a series of interviews with filmmaker Marie Nyreroed, a longtime friend and confidant, for a documentary produced for Swedish television, and the results became Bergman Complete, a three-part series which explored the man and his work in depth. The first segment focuses on Bergman's life as a filmmaker, as he discusses his best-known pictures and his working methods. Part two concentrates on Bergman's lesser-known career in the theater, which he rates higher than his work in the cinema, and features reminiscences from actor Erland Josephson. In the final chapter, Bergman invites the filmmakers into his home on Faro Island and talks about his private life, including his hobbies, the emotions that drive his work, and his personal weaknesses. After receiving its premiere on Swedish television, Bergman Complete played at a number of international film festivals, including the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This 1991 Italian period drama is not to be confused with the 1990 Australian vampire film with the same English-language title, Wicked. The entire story, a genuine psychological detective tale, concerns the attempt by a young doctor (Julian Sands) working early in the 20th century in a Swiss clinic to uncover the root cause for the persistent mental breakdown of a young woman (Giuliana De Sio) who has recently suffered the death of her daughter. Despite the resistance of the clinic's administration to his use of Freudian methods, the doctor begins his analysis at the clinic but finds that he must travel to Italy to interview the woman's family and friends in order to get at the ultimate cause. A version of this film capably dubbed into English was released at the same time as its Italian-language version. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Cries and Whispers stars Liv Ullman and Ingrid Thulin as the sisters of dying cancer patient Harriet Andersson. Both sisters have already had brushes with death: Ullman has had an affair which prompted her husband's suicide, while Thulin has long wanted to do away with herself, at one point mutilating her own vagina out of self-hatred. As for Andersson, she has been in pain so long that she feels as though she's in the midst of death-in-life. With her two sisters wrapped up in their own problems, Harriet turns to her housekeeper Kari Sylwan for comfort; Sylwan has herself suffered the death of a child, and has developed a philosophical attitude towards impending doom. One of the most influential moments of the film -- when two of the sisters share the innermost thoughts that they'd kept from one another for so many years -- is filmed without benefit of dialogue, with the music of Chopin (enhanced by cinematographer Sven Nykvist's carefully selected camera angles) "speaking" for the ladies. While Cries and Whispers only won the Oscar for cinematography, the film did very well for itself in international awards contests. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Swedish comedy and satire, a gentle and shy man is fired from his job by an obnoxious yuppie. When that same yuppie challenges him to learn golf in a week's time, the beleaguered man seeks the help of a friend, who takes him to Scotland to learn the game in its spiritual homeland. Along the way, he not only picks up the basics but falls in love with the daughter of a Scottish golf pro. Meanwhile, his path crosses that of some of the snobbiest and most class-conscious individuals ever to have teed up for a round of golf. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The intertwined lives of people of both Polish and German extraction who live on the pre-World War II border between the two countries are explored in this drama. Valeska is the Polish/German matriarch of a family living on the German side of the border. Her son is involved with the Hitler youth, but nonetheless keeps secret the presence on family land of a Jew who is hiding from the authorities. When the son inadvertently kills a soldier to prevent his sister from being raped, he runs away after borrowing money from the Jewish man. When soldiers come to the family's door looking for the missing soldier who had been billeted there, the Jewish man commits suicide. In another episode, one of the family's daughters marries a German soldier in a ceremony presided over by a Polish priest. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This documentary of Andrei Tarkovsky was done by the co-editor of his last movie The Sacrifice. Michal Lecszylowski interviews Tarkovsky, considered the most important and influential Soviet director of the post-World War II era. Interviews with his widow in addition to television interviews of the legendary director give insight into the vision and inspirations for his films. The last days before his death from cancer in December 1986 were spent in Paris, France. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This artistically produced Swedish philosophical drama, filmed in black-and-white, is adapted from Strindberg's 1902 play. Using a combination of Biblical reference, classic mythology, and poetry it depicts God's daughter as she reflects upon the state of humanity. Agnes descends from Heaven to survey earthbound mortals about the cause of their pain and sadness. Initially, Agnes is carefree, but she cannot remain unaffected by the surrounding tragedy and becomes more serious. She ends up marrying an impoverished and dour lawyer. They dwell in a claustrophobic cellar with their new baby. The feature film at the local cinema stars Victoria. A frequent movie-goer tells Agnes of his love for the beautiful actress Victoria. He soon gets to meet her. Agnes then meets a dark poet who warns her that if she continues to wade in the morass of human existence the effects upon her may be permanent. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide