♥♥♥♥♥
+ Best Period Movie of the Year + Best Swedish Movie of the Year
 |
| A fresh-faced young man in a boarding school uniform against a clouded sky makes up this poster for Mikael Håfström's Evil |
Erik Ponti is a young violent thug, made so by his tyrannical, abusive step-father, who in 1958 sends him off to a boarding school for sons of Sweden's elite, where violence also plays a central role.
Evil is written by Hans Gunnarsson (King of Ping Pong/Ping-Pongkingen (2008)), Klas Östergren (Gentlemen (2014)) and great Swedish filmmaker, co-writer/director Mikael Håfström (Vendetta (1995)). It is an adaptation of the same-titled 1981 semi-autobiographical bestseller by Jan Guillou (The Road to Jerusalem/Vägen till Jerusalem (1998)). The English title is a literal translation of the original Swedish title.
The scenes of violence are staged with convincing power, and the acting performances, - with an intense, dogged Andreas Wilson (The Italian Key (2011)) in front as Erik, - are uniformly good in this well-made film of Guillou's school-time recollections, fantasies and traumas.
Evil has a fine width to its narrative, is a splendid production and edited to perfection. A compelling and exciting film.
Watch a short clip from the film here
Cost: 20-22 mil. SEK, (different reports), approximately 1.92-2.11 mil. $
Box office: Approximately 7.48 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.54-3.89 times its cost)
[Evil premiered 16 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 113 minutes. The adaptation had been envisioned as a TV-series, but Håfström convinced the producers to allow him to make it as a film. Shooting took place in 30 days from October - November 2002 in Stockholm. The film opened #102 to a 2k $ first weekend in North America, where it did not achieve a higher position although it widened to 4 theaters, grossing 15k $ (0.2 % of the total gross). The film was a huge hit in Sweden, where it sold 959,223 tickets, coming to approximately 6.45 mil. $ (86.2 %). It sold 50,776 tickets in Denmark, its 2nd biggest market, coming to approximately 510k $ (6.8 %). The 3rd biggest market was Norway with 280k $ (3.7 %). The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, lost to The Barbarian Invasions. It won 3/7 Guldbagge nominations (Sweden's Oscar), among other honors. Håfström returned with Drowning Ghost/Strandvaskaren (2004). Wilson returned in Animal (2005). Evil is fresh at 68 % with a 6.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Evil?
No comments:
Post a Comment