91
Retrospective: Jan Troell SCANDINAVIAN PORTRAITS
Since he left teaching in the 60s for a career as a filmmaker, Jan Troell has directed nearly twenty feature films and documentaries, received several Academy Award nominations, and won a number of awards at leading festivals including the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Today he easily ranks as one of the great directors of Scandinavian cinema, and we are proud to present a retrospective of some of the highlights of his career. It includes his brand new feature, the last sentence, on legendary editor-in-chief Torgny Segerstedt – yet another fine example of Troell’s eminence as chronicler of our recent past. If we reserve the «auteur» label for filmmakers writing their own scripts, Jan Troell falls short, as many of his scripts are literary adaptations and co-written by Troell in collaboration with other writers. But in terms of an «auteur» making deeply personal films with a distinct artistic vision, Troell scores plenty. He is famous for shooting and editing his own films, and the lyricism and profoundness of his imagery, both in his documentaries and his fiction films, is perhaps unrivalled in Scandinavia. It would be way too simple to say that Troell makes period dramas. Rather, he shows a genuine interest in conveying stories from a specific period: namely that of Sweden from the 19th century up to the present. He never uses history as a mere backdrop, but is able to make the past relevant and present for the audiences. The protagonists of these films are often dreamers caught in the discrepancy between their own ideals and the realities of their times. Troell’s sense of historical progress makes for key moments and precise depictions of social change, evident in all the films assemblied here. Just think of Maria Larsson’s almost unfathomable self-realization through photography in everlasting moments, or modernity in the shape of a tractor passing her husband’s horse and carriage in the same film. Think of the arduous crossing of the Atlantic in the emigrants where Karl Oskar and Kristina leave the old authoritarian farming system of rural Sweden for a better future in America. Or recall the many poignant scenes of his documentary land of dreams making transparent the flaws of modern wefare society. In many ways Troell tells the stories not only of Sweden but of Scandinavia – whether they deal with the emigration to America some 150 years ago, with class struggles and the rise (and later, setback) of a modern and confident Scandinavia from the turn of the 20th century, or about civil resistance during the Second World War. In this sense Troell tells the story of us all.
FILMOGRAPHY (UTVALG/SELECTION): 1966 HÄR HAR DU DITT LIV / HERE’S YOUR LIFE 1968 OLE DOLE DOFF / WHO SAW HIM DIE? 1971 UTVANDRARNA / THE EMIGRANTS 1972 NYBYGGARNA / THE NEW LAND 1982 INGENJÖR ANDRÉES LUFTFÄRD / THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE 1986 HAMSUN 1988 SAGOLANDET / LAND OF DREAMS 1991 IL CAPITANO 2001 SÅ VIT SOM EN SNÖ / AS WHITE AS IN SNOW 2003 NÄRVARANDE / PRESENCE 2008 MARIA LARSSONS EVIGA ÖGONBLICK / EVERLASTING MOMENTS 2012 DOM ÖVER DÖD MAN / THE LAST SENTENCE
