Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share three movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each.For further details visit the series main page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Non-English Language Movies - Scandinavian Language
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My picks today are basically the only Scandinavian language movies I've seen.
A Royal Affair (2012)
I know people like love this movie; I thought it was just ok. The whole insight into Danish court life was interesting but I found the noticeable age difference between Vikander and Mikkelsen was just distracting so I couldn't really buy the romance, especially since the age gap of the historical figures wasn't as large.
Love love this movie. It's an eerily haunting movie about a young outcast falling for the girl next door who happens to be a vampire.
I Am Dina (2002)
I didn't even remember this as being filmed in Norwegian because it had English and French actors in some the bigger roles but since it was Norway's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film, it lands as my pick today. Truthfully I remember very little of it, just that at the beginning the title character as a young girl causes a horrific accident that claims the life of her mother resulting in her father to neglect her and she grows up a little wild and eccentric.
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LOVE LOVE LOVE Let the Right One In. So good on so many levels. I hear you on A Royal Affair, but then, I find Mikkelsen to be oddly attractive, so I didn't have any trouble buying the romance.
ReplyDeleteLet the Right One In is an excellent film and one I almost picked but i did a theme within a theme. I have not seen the others at all although both sound good
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen any of these though I have heard of Let the Right One In and A Royal Affair. Thanks for the tip on A Royal Affair it would have been the one I was most drawn to because of the setting.
ReplyDeleteMy knowledge of Scandinavian film is extremely limited, mostly Ingmar Bergman-as you'll see from my picks-and the one Dutch film that I love The Fourth Man I've used before. To avoid having an entirely Ingmar line-up I mixed in one from that other famous Bergman, Ingrid.
Wild Strawberries (1957)-Lovely reverie about looking back at life and the memories that come unbidden. Approaching 80 Dr. Isak Borg (Victor Sjöström), a retired doctor and professor, a remote man with a cold demeanor is traveling from his home in Stockholm to Lund to accept an honorary degree. Originally intending to fly he decides to drive instead accompanied by his daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin), a journey of a day. Along their way the people they meet and stops they make, including the doctor’s childhood summer home, lead him to evaluate the man he was and the one he has become. My favorite Bergman film.
A Woman’s Face (1938)-Ingrid Bergman plays Anna Holm, a woman whose facial disfigurement has led her to become a blackmailer out of bitterness. The ruthless leader of a gang, she has no compassion for anyone until one of her victims turns out to be married to a renowned plastic surgeon giving Anna the opportunity to change her life. However the long tentacles of her former accomplices don’t want to let her go. Solid drama was remade a few years later by MGM with Joan Crawford.
Sawdust & Tinsel (1953)-As a ragtag circus troupe makes its way through the bleak Swedish countryside conflicts arise between the members of the group. When they arrive in the town where owner Albert’s ex-wife lives he seeks reconciliation leading to bitterness from his present mistress who becomes involved with an actor with designs of his own leading to misery for all. Dark and unsettling but that’s Bergman for you.
Honorable Mention-Cries & Whispers (1972)-Heavy, heavy Ingmar Bergman drama of recrimination and the acrid damage caused to relationships by long buried resentments. Two sisters gather at their childhood home to await the death of the third desperately ill sister. While they fail to reconnect to each other or their mortally ill sibling their maid seems to be the only person in the house who is capable of offering comfort and empathy. Color is used heavily to convey the oppressive mood of the picture although sometimes too much so, by the end you feel like you’ve been living inside a tomato for ninety minutes. Still an intricate, interesting drama.
Oh I don't think I've seen any Dutch films before, but the Netherlands is not part Scandinavia so it isn't relevant.
DeleteIngmar Bergman on the other hand definitely count, I haven't seen any of his films but I assume most were filmed in Swedish?
Let the Right One In is the only one I've seen, but man is it fantastic! Unable to participate this week due to running my blogathon but I have put out the good word.
ReplyDeleteLet the Right One is probably my favorite foreign film ever.
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard of I am Dina. I did enjoy A Royal Affair, great cast and I love LTROI, I have a feeling it will be popular today.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any of these, but they sound interesting. I'll check them out.
ReplyDelete