1988 Winner, Pelle the Conqueror

Pelle the Conqueror

Director:  Billie August

Distributed by:  Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden) and Kærne Film (Denmark)

Released:  December 1987

Countries:  Denmark and Sweden

There are some films—some very good films—that after you finish watching, you walk away without a good idea in your head what the plot was.  You may tell someone else you liked the film, but if pressed to relay what it was about, you are unable to coherently give a satisfactory response, ending by saying something like, “Uh, it was pretty good.”  Pelle the Conqueror is one of these films.

Set sometime in the mid-1800’s, a Swedish father and son emigrate to Denmark to start over again after the death of the boy’s mother.  The father, Lasse, played by Max von Sydow, is rather old to have an 11-year old son

Pelle asking Lasse to come home

and is feeling his age.  Lasse thinks things may be better, but the only work, and place to live, he can find is on a farm as laborers.  The movie is mostly about the tough times they experience on the farm, included being treated by the Swedes as second-class citizens.  Lasse takes up with a woman whose husband is missing at sea, which is not looked at kindly by the townspeople, including the kids, who mistreat Pelle in school for having such a father.

If this doesn’t sound like much of a story, it’s because it isn’t.  This point is, mostly, that the father, Lasse, realizes he is stuck in life and has to make due with a possible widow and all the booze he can get his hands on.  It’s Pelle who has a shot to make it in life, as long as he can escape the life on the farm.  An older rebellious man working on the farm instills in him the dream to make it on his own, to live a life in which he isn’t told what to do, possibly in America.

"The power of Christ compels you!"

I can’t say I found the film entertaining really, but watching a masterful actor at his craft was what made this worth watching.  Von Sydow is truly an international star, having starred in the classic Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal from 1957, a Swedish film, famous for his game of chess with the Grim Reaper.  He also, of course, was the titular character in 1973’s The Exorcist.  But his role in this film earned him a Best Actor nomination, and rightfully so.  His relationship with Pelle is somewhat ambiguous—there is certainly love between them, and Lasse will sacrifice for him and protect him.  But the father was not quite admirable, as he struggles with who he is and what he wants for his son. 

The Title:  Pelle Erobreren or Pelle erövraren, depending on if you are looking at the Danish or Swedish title, respectively.  The old man calls Pelle that to keep his chin up. 

"You took your finger off!  No take-backs!"

The Culture:  Unexplained is why the father and son move from Sweden to Denmark.  Given the bleak, almost washed-out quality of the film, Denmark doesn’t seem like a great place to move to in 1850.

Agenda Danger:  The movie is based on the first part of a 1910 novel of the same name written by Martin Anderson Nexo.  The book deals with Pelle growing up and becoming a labor leader who embraces communism.  This film sets the table for the need for such reform, but this is not really a leftist film—it concentrates on the father/son relationship.

Best Picture that year: Rain Man

Rating:  Uh, it was pretty good.

1961 Winner, Through a Glass Darkly

Through a Glass Darkly

Director:        Ingmar Bergman

Distributed by:  Janus Films

Released:  October 1961

Country:  Sweden

The idea of a family vacation can often be far superior to an actual family vacation.  Someone gets the idea that it will be great to spend days together in a little cottage near the water somewhere to get away from the pressures and boredom of regular life at home.  A lot of the time, the vacation is just what was needed, but going home to sleep in one’s own bed is a concept that should not be underestimated.  There is something confining about spending time in a little house with people who don’t have jobs to go to or errands to run.  A week in a cabin isolated from the rest of the world might just lead to a bit of craziness.

In Through a Glass Darkly, 1961’s Best Foreign Film by legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, we have a family of four off on a getaway to remote island to spend some quality time together.  There indeed is craziness, but the kind that existed before this get-together and goes deeper than a few days of isolation. 

Martin (Max von Sydow) and Karin (Harriet Andersson)

The family consists of four:  There is the father, David, who is a novelist and an absentee dad always away working.  There is his son, Minus, who has an inferiority complex that reflects his unfortunate name.  David’s friend Martin is with them, a man roughly David’s age but married to David’s daughter, Karin, who initially seems like the stabilizer in the family, but in reality is certainly not. 

The four of them joke around and make conversation like any family would at the start of spending time together.  Things get a little dicey when Minus, who is an aspiring writer, and Karin put on a play for the other two.  It's something Minus wrote with the thinly-veiled message that Minus thinks Dad is a bigtime jerk.  David has a hard time relating to his kids and only shares his deepest feelings with his friend Martin, played by Max von Sydow (who also stars in 1983’s Pelle the Conqueror, and the soon to be reviewed The Virgin Spring).  Cryptically, they discuss Karin’s previous illness. 

The Exorcist:  Max von Sydow has had to deal with worse

And Karin’s illness is the center of the film.  It seems she is having difficulty keeping a grip on reality, and things don’t look promising that she will get better.  And perhaps because she is a key relationship for each of the three men around her, things don’t really look promising for this family.  Even though Karin’s mental illness is the subject, to me the real story is how it affects the other family members, both tragically and with an ounce of hope.

Through a Glass Darkly is a talky film, centering on the individual relationships within the family and how the family exists as a unit.  But this is an Ingmar Bergen movie, so the subject matter is much broader than a summary of the film would provide—like in Fanny and Alexander, Bergman's 1983 Best Foreign Film winner (released in 1982), religious themes abound, carefully woven into the story and into the characters.   In the end, though this family endures the tragedy that mental illness can bring, since a God exists, there is always hope that will endure.

The Title:  Såsom i en spegel, which literally means, “as in a mirror.”  The title is a reference to 1Corinthians 13, “At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.”  This is from the “love” epistle of Paul, frequently used at weddings, with the chapter ending with: “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Things often go wrong on a family vacation

The culture:  The movie is set on Fårö, a Swedish island popular to vacationers and a location to a number of Bergman films.  The island may be quite beautiful, but the black and white photography makes it appear stark and devoid of warmth, reflective of the family and of the mental illness that isolates Karin.

Agenda danger:  The movie is grim, but the message is less so.  In some ways, mental illness is not only confined to the daughter, but to the entire family, both individually and as a group.  But the relationships survive, and especially redeeming is the final conversation between Minus and his father.

Best Picture that year:  West Side Story

Rating:  The film is essentially a three-act play with lots of dialogue and little action, and if you go into this understanding that, I think it is quite good and thought-provoking.  A nice short little film by a master director.