Films with: Björnstrand, Gunnar

Här har du ditt liv Here is your life /

This mesmerizing debut by the great Swedish director Jan Troell (The Emigrants, The New Land) is an epic bildungsroman and a multilayered representation of early twentieth-century Sweden. Based on a series of semi-autobiographical novels by Nobel Prize winner Eyvind Johnson, the film follows a working-class boy's development, from naive teenager to intellectually curious young adult, from logger to movie projectionist to politically engaged man of the people--all set against the backdrop of a slowly industrializing rural landscape. With its mix of modernist visual ingenuity and elegantly structured storytelling, this enchanting film--presented here in its original nearly three-hour cut--is a reminder that Troell is one of European cinema's greatest and most sensitive illuminators of the human condition.

DVD 13006

Nattvardsgästerna Winter light /

"In this stark depiction of spiritual crisis, small-town pastor Tomas Ericsson performs his duties mechanically before a dwindling congregation. When he is asked to assist a troubled parishioner with his debilitating fear of nuclear annihilation, Tomas is terrified to find that he can offer nothing but his own uncertainty."--Container.

DVD 3638

Persona

A famous actress is stricken with psychosomatic dumbness and is placed under a nurse's care in an isolated house, where the two gradually assume each other's personalities.

DVD 3630

Såsom i en spegel Through a glass darkly /

"While vacationing on a remote island retreat, a family's already fragile ties are tested when Karin discovers her father has been using her schizophrenia for his own literary means. As she drifts in and out of lucidity, her father, husband, and younger brother are unable to prevent Karin's harrowing descent into the abyss of mental illness."--Container.

DVD 3637

Seventh seal

In medieval Sweden a knight returns from war only to find a ravaged homeland. He meets up with a group of travelling players and eventually confronts the embodiment of death with whom he engages in a game of chess for his life. The knight and Death play as the cultural turmoil envelopes the people around them as they try, in different ways, to deal with the upheaval the plague has caused.

DVD 674

Skammen

"Shame probes the atrocities of war-both internal and external-as a young couple struggles to survive while the world around them crumbles into chaos"--Container.

DVD 3632

Sommarnattens leende Smiles of a summer night /

A sharp satire about eight Swedish aristocrats who become romantically and comically intertwined over a single weekend. Includes Director approved special edition features.

DVD 3398