Bo Widerberg

  • Bo Widerberg – Mannen från Mallorca AKA The Man from Majorca (1984)

    Bo Widerberg1981-1990CrimeNordic NoirSweden
    Mannen från Mallorca (1982)
    Mannen från Mallorca (1982)

    In Stockholm, on St. Lucy’s feast day, a bandit daringly robs a crowded post office. Within a fortnight, two witnesses are dead. Two cops from vice squad, Johansson and Jarnebring, who were the first to the crime scene, pursue all leads and identify a suspect, an arrogant member of the elite secret police, a man assigned to guard the country’s Minister of Justice. Just as the beat cops think they’ve tightened the noose around the suspect, loose ends appear, witnesses lose their certainty, alibis crop up, and even the cops doubt what they’ve seen. Who’s protecting the suspect and why?Read More »

  • Bo Widerberg – Ådalen ’31 AKA Adalen Riots (1969)

    1961-1970ArthouseBo WiderbergDramaSweden

    Quote:
    Flushed with the success of his Elvira Madigan, Swedish director Bo Widerberg concocted another story of teenaged love juxtaposed with social upheaval in Adalen 31. The title refers to the 1931 worker’s strike against the Adalen paper mill in Northern Sweden. As the strikers debate whether or not to use violence in pressing their complaint, the daughter of the factory owner (Marie De Geer) is impregnated by the son of a worker (Peter Schildt). The strike is “resolved” in a bloody confrontation between the laborers and government troops, resulting in the death of the boy–and, on a greater scale, the collapse of Sweden’s Conservative Government. The girl ultimately opts for an abortion, which partially explains why Adalen 31 was originally given an “X” rating by the then-conservative Motion Picture Association of America.Read More »

  • Bo Widerberg – Kärlek 65 AKA Love 65 (1965) (HD)

    1961-1970ArthouseBo WiderbergDramaSweden

    A film director has problems coping with his wife and marriage. The daughter is their only connecting link. He is looking for love and sex elsewhere. A married woman becomes his new partner for a while.Read More »

  • Bo Widerberg – Lust och fägring stor AKA All Things Fair (1995)

    1991-2000Bo WiderbergDramaRomanceSweden

    Malmoe, Sweden during the Second World War. Stig is a 15 year old pupil on the verge of adulthood. Viola is 37 years old and his teacher. He is attracted by her beauty and maturity. She is drawn to him by his youth and innocence, a god-sent relief from her drunk and miserable husband. They start a passionate and forbidden relationship – but it has consequences they never could have expected. Written by Mattias PetterssonRead More »

  • Bo Widerberg – Vildanden AKA The Wild Duck (1989)

    Bo Widerberg1981-1990DramaSwedenTV

    “Every generation needs Ibsen” says Bo Widerberg and presents his version of the classic drama “The Wild Duck” from 1884. As in a thriller we get to follow how the family happiness of the Ekdahls is driven towards a tragic disintegration.Read More »

  • Bo Widerberg – Joe Hill (1971)

    1971-1980ArthouseBo WiderbergDramaSweden

    I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night. Alive as you or me. Says I, but Joe you’re ten years dead. I never died says he.

    In the early 1900’s, the legendary Joe Hill emigrates with his brother to the United States. But after a short time, he loses touch with his brother. Joe gets a few jobs but is struck by all the injustice and tragedy going on. He becomes active in the forbidden union IWW, a union for workers without trades. It is forbidden to demonstrate and to speak in public but Joe gets around that by singing his manifests with the Salvation Army. He manages to get more and more people to get on strike with him but he also makes powerful enemies doing that. Finally he gets connected with a murder and during the trial he fires his lawyer and takes upon himself to become his own defender.Read More »

  • Bo Widerberg – Ådalen 31 AKA Adalen Riots (1969)

    1961-1970Bo WiderbergDramaSweden

    Quote:
    Flushed with the success of his Elvira Madigan, Swedish director Bo Widerberg concocted another story of teenaged love juxtaposed with social upheaval in Adalen 31. The title refers to the 1931 worker’s strike against the Adalen paper mill in Northern Sweden. As the strikers debate whether or not to use violence in pressing their complaint, the daughter of the factory owner (Marie De Geer) is impregnated by the son of a worker (Peter Schildt). The strike is “resolved” in a bloody confrontation between the laborers and government troops, resulting in the death of the boy–and, on a greater scale, the collapse of Sweden’s Conservative Government. The girl ultimately opts for an abortion, which partially explains why Adalen 31 was originally given an “X” rating by the then-conservative Motion Picture Association of America.Read More »

  • Bo Widerberg – Elvira Madigan (1967)

    1961-1970Bo WiderbergDramaRomanceSweden

    A count and a tightrope dancer fall madly in love, so much so that he deserts the army and his family to run away with her. Set to a Mozart concerto, this film was released in 1967 to rapturous critical acclaim and went on to win Best Actress Award at Cannes for its then 17-year old star, Pia Degermark.Read More »

  • Bo Widerberg – Kvarteret Korpen aka Raven’s End (1963)

    1961-1970Bo WiderbergClassicsDramaSweden

    By Roger Ebert / March 20, 1972
    The young man looks at the empty lives of the people living on his block, and writes an angry book about the way they’ve been treated. A publisher invites him to Stockholm to discuss the manuscript, but finally patronizes him: “There is a cry of rage here, but it is still inarticulate.” Sobbing with frustration, the young man tells a sympathetic neighbor girl: “Sometimes a cry is so loud it cannot be heard.” They make love that night, the girl becomes pregnant, and before long the young man believes that he has been trapped just as his parents were.Read More »

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