Popular Music/Populärmusik från Vittula (2004) - Wild coming-of-age in country-side Sweden

♥♥♥

 

Two boys in various outdoor situations make up this unclear poster for Reza Bagher's Popular Music

Two boys in a small corner of Sweden near the Finnish border become friends and later start a rock band in their homestead, which is eating into them.

 

Popular Music is written by Erik Norberg (Iskungen (2001, short)) and co-writer/director Reza Bagher (Vingar av Glas (2000)), adapting the same-titled 2000 novel by Mikael Niemi (Astrotruckers/Svålhålet (2004)). The original Swedish title translates to 'popular music from Vittula'.

It is a high-energy coming-of-age drama (think C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)) with many funny scenes (the asphalt scene and the church scene are especially memorable.) And four sweet lads at the front, playing Matti and Niila at ages 7 and 15, respectively.

But the narrative is also a jumbled affair, devil-may-care and dynamic, which at times almost seems to forget the boys in order to relate something amusing about fringe area Swedes and Finlanders. We suddenly leave Matti and Niila as boys to find them again almost ten years later with no explanation or clear understanding of who is who. (They have changed an incredible lot.)

There is plenty of fun in Popular Music, but the direction is unclear. It becomes very dark and dramatic in periods after excessive abandon, which also demands more of the average viewer than can be expected.

 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here, uploaded by the actor in the clip who gets hit by a bus in the clip, without it being planned, and who calls director Bagher a 'demon' in the caption, claiming that extreme working hours and stress led to accidents and lax safety during production

 

Cost: Reportedly 2.224 mil. €, approximately 2.37 mil. $

Box office: Uncertain - but at least 1.52 mil. $

= Uncertain; projected huge flop (projected return of 0.64 times its cost)

[Popular Music premiered 19 September (Sweden) and runs 105 minutes. Shooting took place from August - October 2003 in Sweden. The film has two markets listed on its Box Office Mojo: Finland (932k $) and Norway with 416k $. Sweden is missing, and so is Denmark, where 11k bought admission (approximately 123k $). Iranian-born Bagher never returned as a filmmaker after the film's release. 5.5k IMDb members have given Popular Music a 6.5/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Popular Music?

The Hypnotist/Hypnotisören (2012) - Hallström returns to the fatherland with thriller turkey

♥

 

Uncomfortably staring stars with bluish faces make up this poster for Lasse Hallström's The Hypnotist

A basketball trainer and an entire family have been stabbed to death: Only a big lad survives - but in a coma - and a hypnotist attempts to get answers from him.

 

The Hypnotist is written by Paolo Vacirca (Feed (2022)), with co-writer/director Lasse Hallström (En Kille och en Tjej (1975)) contributing story elements, adapted from Lars Kepler's (Stalker (2014)) same-titled 2009 novel.

Completely incompetent as a thriller, The Hypnotist is an assembly line 'Nordic noir' that also rests on a very dubious story. As seen before the Swedish setting has been robbed of almost all color and humor, and instead Mikael Persbrandt (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)) here walks around and looks like a middle-age crisis-hit man with a bad case of hangover, who hypnotizes people. Lena Olin (Vinyl (2016, TV-series)) plays one of the film's snapping, commanding, sour females.

Violent but unexciting, the film has desperately dull relationship scenes, crisis of confidence scenes, crying children and general discouragement, darkness and ugly settings. Suddenly near the end a more dramatic action suspense is erected out on the ice (literally) but it is hopeless. The Hypnotist is a toothache-reminiscent torment of a film.

 

Related post:
 

Lasse Hallström: Chocolat (2000) - Delicious pairing in spite of Hallström's ghastly taste

 

Here is a video from a press conference for the film

 

Cost: 61 mil. SEK, approximately 5.91 mil. $

Box office: 7.1 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.20 times its cost)

[The Hypnotist was released 28 September (Sweden) and runs 122 minutes. Shooting took place from January - March 2012 in Sweden, including in Stockholm, and in Prague, Czech Republic. The film opened #1 to a 974k $ first weekend in Sweden, where it remained for another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3), grossing 3.8 mil. $ (53.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Denmark with 916k $ (12.9 %) and Spain with 646k $ (9.1 %). The film was only shown at a couple of film festivals in North America. It was chosen as Sweden's Oscar entry of the year but went without nomination. Hallström returned with Safe Haven (2013). Persbrandt returned in Mig Äger Ingen (2013); Tobias Zilliacus (Beck (2018, TV-series)) in 7 TV and short credits prior to his theatrical return in Onnelin ja Annelin talvi (2015); and Olin in Night Train to Lisbon (2013). 8.4k+ IMDb users have given The Hypnotist a 5.6/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of The Hypnotist? 

Häxan/Heksen/Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) - Christensen's great, otherworldly work of satanic horror

♥♥♥♥♥

 

A fascinating, extremely detailed and eerie poster for Benjamin Christensen's Häxan, which mixes sexuality and satanism in its erotic imagery

Häxan begins in a lecture-like fashion with presentation of historical representations of world views, Satan and witch culture, and later delves into these areas as both nonfiction and fictionalized fantasy.

 

Häxan is written and directed by great Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen (Sealed Orders/Det Hemmelighedsfulde X (1914)). The original title translates to 'the witch'.

The many text cards in this deeply remarkable silent film inhabit a distinct and keen, underlying intelligence, which is not without humor, and if one has the ability to lose oneself in Häxan, the film can cast an almost hypnotic spell on you. It later evolves into fictional depictions of the fantasies and practices of the Middle Ages, sometimes with acerbic commentaries added to them, and a good deal of them wholly without music.

Nothing in Häxan will make you think that it was shot in Denmark, (unless you recognize some of the few locally well-known Danish actors in it.) The impression is rather intensely otherworldly, and particularly the many devil scenes (with Christensen playing Satan!) are haunting material. Häxan is an extraordinary film about Europe's hair-raising past as it relates to witches and witch culture.

 

Related posts:

 

Benjamin Christensen: Top 10: Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

The Mysterious X/Det Hemmelighedsfulde X/Orders Under Seal/Sealed Orders (1914) - Pioneer Christensen's spectacular spy thriller debut

Watch a modern trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 1.5-2 mil. SEK

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[Häxan was released 18 September (Sweden) and runs 105 minutes. Christensen had found a copy of the 15th century German inquisitor's guide Malleus Maleficarum in a bookshop in Berlin and then developed his script from 1919-1921, where he was able to get extensive funding - and artistic freedom, - from Svensk Filmindustri. He bought and refurbished the Astra film studio in Hellerup, Zealand, Denmark, North of Copenhagen. Shooting took place there from February - October 1921. The production was the most expensive in Scandinavia ever undertaken at the time, and is still considered the most expensive Scandinavian silent film ever made. The Swedish censors required extensive cuts of brutality and nudity prior to release. The film premiered simultaneously in 4 Swedish cities and 2 months later in Copenhagen, accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra performing live. It was screened in several countries over the course of many years, reportedly first coming to America in 1929. In 1968 it was re-released in North America, re-edited to 74 minutes, with a new narration by William S. Burroughs and a jazz score. Though made by a Danish filmmaker and shot in Denmark, the film is mostly considered Swedish, (because funding came from a Swedish production company.) Christensen returned with Hvem Er Hans Kone? (1923). Häxan is fresh at 91 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Häxan?

Waltz for Monica/Monica Z (2013) - Fly's overrated, neat yawn inducer

♥♥

 

Edda Magnason looks dazzling on this glamour-indicating poster for Per Fly's Waltz for Monica

 

Monica is a telephone operator in a small Swedish community, where her small-minded father keeps her hopes and aspirations down, aspirations of becoming a jazz singer. But she will show him.

 

Waltz for Monica is written by Peter Birro (Knockout (2000)) and directed by great Danish filmmaker Per Fly (Bænken (2000)), based on the life of Monica Zetterlund.

It is well-acted, well behaved and skillfully shaped - but a deadly bore. Predictable and etched in such well-known thematic terrain (alcoholism, career vs. children etc.) that one almost breaks one's toes cringing from displeasure.
Recognition arrives to the very stubborn, Waltz for Monica shows. Alas. What junk.

 

Related post:

 

2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 40 mil. SEK, approximately 4.58 mil. $

Box office: 9 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.96 times its cost)

[Waltz for Monica was released 13 September (Sweden) and runs 111 minutes. Shooting took place in Sweden, including in Stockholm, and in New York. The film was the 4th highest-grossing in Swedish cinemas in 2013 with a gross of 7.1 mil. $ (78.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Denmark with 1.5 mil. $ (16.7 %) and Norway with 48k $ (0.5 %). In North America it was screened at the Newport Beach International Film Festival. It won 4/11 Guldbagge awards, Sweden's Oscar. Fly returned with Follow the Money/Bedrag (2016, TV-series) and theatrically with Backstabbing for Beginners (2018). Edda Magnason, a previously unknown actress, has only returned in Box 21 (2020, miniseries); Sverrir Gudnason (Falling (2020)) in Gentlemen (2014); and Kjell Bergqvist (Deathly Compulsion (1999)) in Den Fjärde Mannen (2013-14) and theatrically in Prästen i Paradiset (2015). 3,900+ IMDb users have given Waltz for Monica a 6.9/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Waltz for Monica?

All These Women/Now About These Women/För att Inte Tala om Alla Dessa Kvinnor (1964) - Bergman's pitifully awful farce

♥

This American poster does its best to sell Ingmar Bergman's hopeless All These Women, - but might have added tantalizing colors to certify that this actually is a color film

A pretentious critic is writing a biography about a cellist master and goes to his large home to conduct an interview with him. This proves difficult, and so instead the critic interviews the many women in the master's life for insights.

What is the meaning of this piece of crap?!? - None? - And is that the meaning?
That was my main thought upon watching All These Women, the 26th theatrical feature by Swedish master filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (Brink of Life/Nära Livet (1958)).
The film is meant as a satire based on Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963), the great semi-autobiographical B/W drama about Fellini's life, filmmaking and relationships with women. Because of Bergman's usually heavily serious films one naturally goes looking for meaning, even when he makes a super-light, possibly pointless escapade as this seems to be.
The film is a strange mix of the plot's central cellist master being missing, (and whose absence seems to have some symbolic import, but the film is too poor to invite real interpretation in this or any other direction), and awful, unfunny shenanigans that are accompanied by happy jazz.
Jarl Kulle (Miss and Mrs. Sweden (1969)) as the protagonist critic snob earns the film's sole heart for his hardly understandable but physically impressive performance here. All These Women is perhaps the biggest turkey in Bergman's body of work. He co-wrote it with Erland Josephson (Faithless/Trolösa(2000)).

Related posts:

Ingmar Bergman: Fanny and Alexander/Fanny och Alexander (1982) - Bergman's treasured mammoth drama farewell
The Magician/Ansiktet (1958) or, Fool the Townfolk 

Watch a video that shows pictures of Bergman and posters from his filmography here

Cost: 1.7 mil. SEK
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown (but likely a huge flop)
[All These Women was released 15 June (Sweden) and runs 80 minutes. Bergman admired Fellini, and the film was his first in color as well as the most expensive for the director so far. It was Bergman's second straight comedy after Smiles of a Summer Night (1955). Shooting took place in Sweden, including in Stockholm. The film reportedly flopped both in Sweden and internationally, although the French reportedly took a liking to it. It seems that it was only released in just over a handful of countries. Bergman responded that he had made it in "hatred and disdain" as a way of attacking critics and puffed-up artists. He returned with the TV miniseries Don Juan (1965) and theatrically with Persona (1966). 1,386 IMDb-users have given All These Women a 5.7/10 average rating.]

What do you think of All These Women?