Alf Sjöberg Movies
While never as highly regarded as those illustrious filmmakers who surrounded him, the early films of director Alf Sjöberg helped Swedish cinema thrive during its transition from silent to sound films. For his work as a director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm from 1927 through the 1930s, Sjöberg was considered the father of modern drama. He directed his first film, Den Starkaste, a well-regarded adventure, in 1929, but his film career didn't really take off until the 1940s. As a filmmaker, Sjöberg's versatility kept him from being considered a true auteur like his immediate predecessors, Sjöström and Stiller. Still, he earned real international acclaim in 1942 for the deeply spiritual Himlaspelet (The Road to Heaven). Around the early '40s, Sjöberg acted as mentor to young screenwriter Ingmar Bergman, who later credited Sjöberg as his primary inspiration and guiding light. Sjöberg continued directing though the late '60s. The 1950s, which produced such works as the internationally acclaimed Fröken Julie (Miss Julie) (1951), are considered Sjöberg's golden age. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1969
A daughter (Lena Nyman) is caught in the marital feud between her mother (Gunnel Lindblom) and father (Georg Ryderberg) in this tense drama. The parents wage a battle for emotional supremacy until the father descends into madness and withdraws from society and his family. The mother believes she has won, but the family loses more than they win in this tragedy of love gone wrong. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Georg Rydeberg, Gunnel Lindblom, (more)
- 1966
In this somber drama, residents of a small island accuse a nobleman of killing a priest when the man of the cloth disappears. The two were seen arguing, and the nobleman is the main suspect. The priest is only away on a sabbatical trying to regain his faith, but the islanders continue to put pressure on the innocent noble. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Per Myrberg, Bibi Andersson, (more)
- 1960
Domaren is somewhat over the edge in its portrayal of the extent to which corruption can remain immune from any attempt to destroy it. But director Alf Sjoberg (mentor of Ingmar Bergman) has injected moments of satiric bite and tension. When a wealthy young entrepreneur gets back home from a brief stay abroad, bringing his fiancée with him, he is in for a shock. The Kafkaesque judge (Georg Rydberg) whom he trusted to manage his estate has blatantly commandeered all the assets for himself, leaving the young man broke and with no obvious legal recourse to get back his own fortune. The results are tragic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ingrid Thulin
- 1960
Once the mentor of his more internationally famous countryman Ingmar Bergman, Alf Sjoberg demonstrates his own interest in symbolism, visual atmosphere, and broader meanings in this still rather standard drama. Lenn (Maj-Britt Nilsson) is an ordinary young woman of reasonable means who is not truthfully happy about her impending marriage. Her discontent is strong enough to derail her nuptials once she meets Nisse (Per Oscarsson), a criminal type who sparks an incandescent romance. The two become an inseparable pair and burn their candle at both ends -- with the expected results. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maj-Britt Nilsson, Per Oscarsson, (more)
Froken Julie (Miss Julie) is adapted from August Strindberg's trenchant one-act play of the same name. The title character, a young woman of prestige and property, is played by Anita Bjork. Taught by her mother to hold all men in contempt, Miss Julie nonetheless enters into an affair with misanthropic valet Jean (Ulf Palme). Their passion for one another is tempered by their mutual animosity, and the results are catastrophic. Playwright Strindberg's intense dislike for womanhood will probably alienate half the audience of Miss Julie, but director Alf Sjoberg's handling of the material is masterful--so much so that this film, together with Frenzy (1947), cemented Sjoberg's international reputation as a filmmaker of distinction (despite the efforts by American censors to "water down" the film). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anita Björk, Ulf Palme, (more)
- 1949
Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjoberg's Bara en Mor takes place in a Statare, a farming community where the workers and their families were reduced to virtual serfdom by the landowners. The director uses this setting to decry the restrictive class structure that still existed in Sweden as late as the 1930s. Rya-Rya, the central character played by Eva Dahlbeck, is the mother of a large and ever-expanding brood. Rya-Rya must not only worry about putting food in the mouths of her children, but also reaching the inevitable day when she will have outgrown her usefulness to the landlords -- and must face the loss of her home and land. The drama is heightened by Rya-Rya's passion for two different men. Bara en Mor contained a bit of nudity that caused the film some problems when it was released in the U.S. as Only a Mother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Dahlbeck, Ulf Palme, (more)
- 1944
The Swedish-language picture Torment (AKA Hets, 1944) marked one of the first credited screenwriting efforts of the then 26-year-old scenarist Ingmar Bergman, and one of the broadest international successes of the gifted Swedish director Alf Sjöberg; it also launched the onscreen efforts of two young Scandinavian actors, Alf Kjellin and Mai Zetterling. This tragic drama concerns the ill-fated romance between student Jan-Erik Widgren (Kjellin) and Bertha Olsson (Zetterling), a slightly older, alcoholic widow who works at a tobacco store, and whom Jan-Erik meets when he discovers her unconscious in the street. The premise of the film finds Jan-Erik struggling valiantly to maintain his ongoing sexual affair with Bertha, while grappling, on the side, with the machinations of a sadistic and abusive professor, Caligula (Stig Jarrel. Events take an ugly turn when Jan-Erik discovers that Bertha is actually Caligula's lover - setting the stage for tragedy on the night of her booze-soaked orgy with the old man. Ultimately, both lovers are relentlessly victimized by the professor's doings. The cast also includes: Olof Winnerstrand, Hugo Bjorne, Stig Olin, Olav Riego, Marta Arbin and Nils Dahlgren. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stig Järrel, Alf Kjellin, (more)
- 1942
Released in America as The Road to Heaven, Himlaspelet is regarded as not only one of director Alf Sjoberg's finest films, but as one of the most impressive achievements of the Swedish cinema. Described by one observer as a Scandanavian Pilgrim's Progress, the story deftly combines nationalism, religious spiritualism and entertainment value in equal portions. The film's framework involves a naïve farm lad who seeks justice from Above after his father is burned as a witch. When he feels that God has failed him, he hardens into a flint-hearted idolator of material gains. After a lifetime of greed and treachery, the now-aged protagonist is given one last chance at redemption-not by God, but by Satan! As the elderly farmer digs through his past misdeeds, Biblical images parade across the screen, all of them eminently appropriate to the situation at hand. It is abundantly clear throughout that Himlaspelet was a source of inspiration for scores of future Swedish filmmakers-notably Ingmar Bergman, whose own The Seventh Seal owes a great deal to the tone and texture of the Sjoberg classic. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rune Lindstrom
