Haphazard travels of Sirman Deville to the North Star

[niminy-piminy]

Top 100 Nordic Films – SCFZ Poll ... https://letterboxd.com/mariogaborovic/l ... scfz-poll/

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

B/
Ingmar Bergman – SCFZ Directors Poll #71 ... https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... s-poll-71/

D/
Carl Theodor Dreyer – SCFZ Directors Poll #126 ... https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-126/

K/
Aki Kaurismaki – SCFZ Directors Poll #75 ... https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... s-poll-75/

S/
Victor Sjostrom – SCFZ Directors Poll #180 ... https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-180/

T/
Lars von Trier – SCFZ Directors Poll #194 ... https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-194/

[greennui]

Been watching some Hasse Ekman films lately. He's an actor/director/writer whose reputation has grown steadily in the last decade or so, many of his films have been restored and become available for streaming, just the other month the first tome on him was released. He's been unfortunate to have been overshadowed by more famous family members, in his younger days it was his dad, legendary actor Gösta Ekman the older and in his older days it was his son, the popular comic actor Gösta Ekman the younger. He himself quiped that he was merely the hyphen in between the two Gösta's. He also kinda stepped away from the spotlight in his prime to live a more carefree life.

In 1950 he released three films, his masterpiece (Girl with Hyacinths) and two more obscure titles that I've just recently seen. One of them is The White Cat, a peculiar amnesia noir. I liked the first part of the film the most, just a man without memory walking around a shadowy Stockholm, getting some help from a Finnish immigrant, the lovely Eva Henning (very out there for its time to have a prominent Finnish character). The other part of the film was pretty good too but it came dangerously close to Arne Mattsson territory at times. Bergman def took note of some of the nightmarish scenes in the film.



Like this look on Gunnar Björnstrand.



and Jack of Hearts, an acerbic comedy in which Ekman himself stars a womanizing dandy who gets in over his head.



So yeah, a very interesting, risque filmmaker/charismatic actor. There always tends to be one or two elements to his films that prevents me from truly loving them though.

[sally]

he looks so much like his dad there!

[greennui]

Poor Gösta Ekman the younger inherited barely any of those good looks.

[wba]

Been watching some Hasse Ekman films lately.

Ha, what a coincidence: I've watched my first Ekman-directed film a couple of weeks ago, the cinemascope-color-comedy MISS CHIC (Fröken Chic, 1959) with Ekman himself in the lead. It was outstanding, a total masterpiece, and I've planned to watch more by him since - though I haven't had time yet because of my watching some dozen other old Swedish/Scandinavian films (lots of them great and outstanding masterpieces as well).

I have currently available in good-looking HD-versions (all digitalized by the Swedish FIlm Institute, I believe) these Ekman-directed films, which I will hopefully watch this year:

En dag skall gry "A Day will dawn" (1944)
Medan porten var stängd "While the Door was locked" (1946)
Den vita katten "The White Cat" (1950)
Jazzgossen "Jazz Boy" (1958)
Stöten "The Heist" (1961)


PS: As you mentioned him, I also have some more Mattsson in HD to watch...

[wba]

One of my favorite nordic directors is Bo Widerberg, by the way - I hope we'll do a SCFZ poll of him some day (I've brought him up a few times, but he hasn't had the views so far, I believe).

A good starting point for anyone interested in Widerberg would be his 2 great masterpieces ELVIRA MADIGAN (1968, a love film set in the late 19th century) and THE MAN FROM MALLORCA (1984, a police procedural/political thriller that does everything(!) the best Dominik Graf policiers films do - and better).

[greennui]

100 Swedish films you have to see according to the Swedish Film Institute

https://letterboxd.com/dekadans/list/10 ... ve-to-see/

FLM Magazine's Best Swedish Films of All Time

https://letterboxd.com/film_obsessions/ ... -all-time/

[sally]

in lieu of the fact that my internet connection is so bad at the minute that i can't actually stream any of the twelvety hundred swedish films on netflix right now argh

https://twitter.com/LostfoundE/status/1 ... 4233767936

[sally]

no subs but super restorations

https://twitter.com/DKSilentFilm/status ... 7483072521

[niminy-piminy]

JIDFF 2021
CHEATING IS GOOD FOR YOU (Catarina Diehl, 2021)

This intimate film combining photography and animated drawing puts on screen the confessions of a middle-class woman, whose family life – with the always absent truck driver husband and children growing more and more distant – consists of moments of solitude and attempts to overcome them via an extramarital affair. The leading role is played by the famous Finnish actress Kati Outinen.

https://youtu.be/cusbmzK3xl4

[niminy-piminy]

2009 poll watchlist:

INCIDENT BY A BANK (Ruben Östlund, 2009)

Detailed and humorous account of a failed bank robbery. A single take where over 90 people perform a meticulous choreography for the camera. The film recreates an actual event that took place in Stockholm in June 2006.

https://vimeo.com/228071975

[sally]

the anchorage - anders edström & c.w. winter (2009)

pretty sure that all the people that reviewed this on letterboxed weren't women because for me this was a precise cross of gubben i stugan and that trailer for MEN that has been cropping up on my timeline lately. tense.

also did not know petrol stations for boats existed

[niminy-piminy]

1946 poll:

https://youtu.be/SZ6Db4oBkxc

[sally]

absolutely adore that one ^ its genuinely deliciously pagan

(related fact: my period came 5 days early today and i am not amused)

[sally]

parasympathetic

jackpot!

reykjavík vorra daga, fyrri hluti - óskar gíslason (1946)

viewable here: https://filmcentralen.dk/museum/island- ... yrri-hluti

1hr 49mins of, let's call it 'footage' of life in iceland in 1946. there doesn't seem to be a coherent structure, the film stock he's using makes all the colours look like a retro movie set, i could watch workmen on the roads for hours, there's the inevitable peter hutton skagafjördur-isms, and of course am always on the look out for chris marker's girls. i think we see a child attempt to commit suicide at one point, there's loads of giant grey concrete buildings that i can only assume are orphanages of future revealed scandals, and there's far too many long distance pans, but i enjoyed this more than a lot of other 1946 movies i've seen and since i am probably going to be the only person that watches it, ever, i am bearing witness here

[niminy-piminy]

i am probably going to be the only person that watches it

oho, gonna watch it too!
right after finishing the tale about my pitiful countryman & a mermaid (who can't properly walk (or dance) due to her fishtail).

[greennui]

reykjavík vorra daga, fyrri hluti - óskar gíslason (1946)

There's a second part released in 1948 in case you didn't know. 'Fyrri hluti' means first part.

https://filmcentralen.dk/museum/island- ... inni-hluti

[sally]

yeah i caught it thanks, will watch it when 1948 comes around again that guy was obsessed with iceland. actually there's quite a few longish silents around iceland too....none from 21 tho

(but if you find any mega travelogues for 21 for anywhere, please shout! all i got so far is karelia)

[niminy-piminy]

btw. i wonder it these two will be still hanging out together in Part Two?!



and i am also curious if she will ever (in the rest of Part One or eventually in Part Two) pull out her hands from the muff (handwarmer) and rubs his (cold) red ears?!

[sally]

why'd she wanna pull her hands out of the muff, it must be pretty cold! he could put his hands in there too i mean, he is pretty handsy anyway, when they were stood at the kerb, and he grabs her elbow to guide her like she's too retarded to cross the road on her own...or maybe that was revenge for her getting the aerial flight whilst he had to stay grounded...

since i had no idea what the cards were saying during their 'conversations' i had to imagine what they were saying to each other, and i'm afraid things got a little spicy. i guess sight-seeing travels as a couple can cause so many misunderstandings....i hope they made it! almost afraid to watch part 2....

[greennui]

Added it to the box btw

https://letterboxd.com/film/reykjavik-v ... rri-hluti/

[sally]

fab, thanks

[niminy-piminy]

i am starting to nickname this couple as Zelig & Forest Gumpia...


yes, i am still watching the film.
but i am nearing the end!
btw. including this film into my ballot already two days ago was not some haphazard action.
i just knew after the initial 30 minutes i like it a lot and it can't turn bad.

[sally]

baron dear, that screenshot perfectly expresses my patient anticipation regarding CoMo. when you're done admiring those idiots, can you make an official decision/announcement? i cannot handle this level of uncertainty (and besides i need to start mining the internet for relevant things before 1921 consumes me)

[niminy-piminy]

Canada is also part of the "North", so...

1984 poll:
PEPPER STEAK (Steven Woloshen)

This is the final confrontation with uncertainty. The sheer terror and joy of tomorrow's newspaper - delivered today! In this, the third and final act of the "Shadows and Caves" triptych, the social and scientific dialectic between form, texture, and abstract and representational images puts forward the question: does one plus one equal three?

https://vimeo.com/416065942

[niminy-piminy]

STRUGGLING HEARTS (A.W. Sandberg, 1923)
→ https://www.stumfilm.dk/en/stumfilm/str ... fra-skaane

The year is 1658 and the King of Sweden has seized large parts of Denmark.
A tenant farmer and his family on Falster are forced to look on while enemy soldiers loot and wreck their home.

Only the wounded and febrile soldier Lasse Månsson does not take part in the atrocities, and when the regiment moves on, he stays in the care of the farmer.

Soon, Lasse falls in love with Anna, the farmer’s daughter, and they plan a life together. But can love blossom in such dark times?