Carl-Gustaf Nykvist Movies
This moving, finely-wrought portrayal of legendary cinematographer Sven Nykvist was directed by his son Carl-Gustav Nykvist -- a noted filmmaker himself. Spanning from long forgotten kiddie flick in 1945 to Woody Allen's Celebrity (1997), Nykvist's career came to an abrupt end when he was diagnosed with a rare disorder that affected his speech. Though the film explores Nykvist's upbringing and turbulent private life (an ugly divorce, the suicide of one of his sons, an affair with Mia Farrow), the emotional heart of the film is his celebrated collaboration with auteur Ingmar Bergman, with whom Nykvist made some of his most enduring work, including Winter Light (1962) and Scenes from a Marriage (1973). As Bergman recalls his own career, he notes, "I don't miss making films, but I miss the collaboration with Sven." ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- 1991
- NR
Based on a true story, the bleak period piece Oxen was co-written and directed by Ingmar Bergman's longtime cinematographer Sven Nykvist. In the small village of Småland in the late 1860s, Helge Roos (Stellan Skarsgård) works as a farmer on an estate belonging to Svenning Gustafsson (Lennart Hjulström) and his wife (Liv Ullmann). Plagued by a terrible famine, Helge illegally kills one of the Gustaffson's last oxen so his own family can eat. He and his wife, Elfrida (Ewa Fröling), feel guilty about it, but the meat keeps them alive through the winter. When he tries to sell the hide in the spring, a clergyman (Max Von Sydow) finds out and encourages him to confess. The judge sentences Helge to a life of manual labor at the state prison for his crime. When he is finally pardoned and released after six years, he returns home to Elfrida to find out that she has been supporting the family by performing sexual services, which has resulted in the birth of another child. In the 1970s, Von Sydow and Ullmann appeared together in a set of films also dealing with the Swedish famine in Jan Troell's The Emigrants and The New Land. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stellan Skarsgård, Ewa Fröling, (more)
- 1990
The dark recesses of a troubled psyche come to the light of day in this psychological thriller. In the story, Richard (Boman Oscarsson) is a young international art smuggler, who moves into the apartment of his cartoonist half-brother, who has disappeared. Once established there, increasingly strange mental states arise in his mind, and he sees (or seems to see) strange things going on around him. In addition, he has difficult encounters with his ailing mother and with a former girlfriend. As the experiences grow more numerous and intense, he decides that it is vital for his sanity that he discover what has become of his missing brother. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Boman Oscarsson
- 1989
The English-language title of this Swedish costume drama is The Women on the Roof. Set in 1914 Stockholm, the film explores the friendship between Austrian photographer Helena Bergstrom and farm girl Amanda Ooms. Despite their radically different backgrounds, both learn a lot about life from one another until their relationship is strained by the intrusive presence of Anna's boyfriend (Stellan Skarsgard). The director/co-writer of Kvinnorna Pa Taket is Carl-Gustaf Nykvist, son of celebrated cinematographer Sven Nykvist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Amanda Ooms, Helena Bergström, (more)
