Scandinavian Cinema

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
92 minutes; released 1978.
After having neglected her children for many years, a mother attempts a reconciliation with her oldest daughter through a night of painful revelation. Audio-track in Swedish with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Gabriel Axel.
103 minutes; released 1987.
In nineteenth-century Denmark, the daughters of a devout clergyman struggle between piety and passion when their father dies and a French gourmet cook comes to town. Audio track in English, French, Danish, or Spanish. Based on the novel by Karen Blixen.

Directed by Lars von Trier.
152 minutes; released 1996.
When an accident on an offshore oil rig sends a man home paralyzed, his young Scottish wife submits to his wish that she take on other lovers, convinced that this will aid in his recovery. Starring Emily Watson and Stellan Skarsgrd.

Directed by Torben Skjødt Jensen.
94 minutes; released 1995.
Using interviews, historical writings, and rare archival footage, this documentary sketches a portrait of one of cinema's greatest directors and provides and in-depth study of his life and work. Narrated in English; interviews in Danish and French with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Lasse Halström.
125 minutes; released 1999.
Tells how far a young man must travel to find the place where he truly belongs. Homer has lived nearly his entire life within the walls of an orphanage in rural Maine and has been groomed by its proprietor to be his successor. But Homer falls in love and strikes out on his own.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
91 minutes; released 1972.
The fractured relationships of three sisters, one of whom is dying of cancer. Audio-track in Swedish with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Lars von Trier.
141 minutes; released 2000.
A single mother, losing her eyesight due to a hereditary disease, is determined to protect her son from this fate by saving money for an operation. Starring Björk and Catherine Deneuve.

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer.
97 minutes; released 1943.
The wife of a minister in a small 17th-century Danish village falls in love with her step-son. Audio-track in Danish, with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Lars von Trier.
104 minutes; released 1984.
An exiled ex-cop returns to his old beat to catch a serial killer preying on young girls. Set in Germany and shot in sepia tones with brilliant blue flashes, Lars Von Trier boldly reinvents the expressionist style, combining dark mystery and operatic sweep to yield a celluloid nightmare.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
188 minutes; released 1982.
Told through the eyes of Alexander and his sister Fanny, we see the exuberant and colorful Ekdahl household in a Swedish town early in the twentieth century, and witness their delights and conflicts. In Swedish with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
410 minutes; released 2003.
This four disc set features Swedish director Bergman's work on three of his most powerful films presented as a trilogy: Through a Glass Darkly (89 min.; 1961), Winter Light (81 min.; 1963), and The Silence (96 min.; 1963). The last disc, Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie (144 min.; 1963), is a documentary film offering views on movie making, as well as conversations with the director. In Swedish with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier.
90 minutes; released 2003.
Leth and von Trier remake Leth's 1967 short film The Perfect Human five times using five different plot devices. English, Danish, French, Spanish with English subtitles.

Directed by Kjell Grede.
115 minutes; released 1990.
The story of Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg who helped Hungarian Jews obtain Swedish passports to escape the Holocaust. Audio-track in Swedish, German and Hungarian, with English subtitles. Starring Stellan Skarsgård.

Directed by Vilgot Sjöman.
228 minutes; released 2003.
Two films about Lena, a young woman on her personal quest to understand the social and political conditions in 1960s Sweden, as well as the exploration of her own sexual identity. Includes Yellow (121 min.; 1967) and Blue (107 min.; 1968).In Swedish with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg.
97 minutes; released 1997.
A disgraced Swedish detective travels to Northern Norway to solve a brutal murder. But after making a key error in his investigation, the detective finds himself implicated in the crime he was sent to solve. Audio-track in Norwegian and Swedish with optional English subtitles. Starring Stellan Skarsgård.

Directed by Lone Scherfig.
112 minutes; released 2000.
In this romantic comedy, seven strangers tired of Danish suburbia sign up for an Italian class and join together on a quest to Italy.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
135 minutes; released 1975.
Bergman's version of the opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart about a young man who rescues a beautiful princess from the clutches of parental evil. Audio-track in Swedish, with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer.
125 minutes; released 1955.
A father and his three sons have different religious experiences. Audio-track in Danish with English subtitles (optional on DVD). Based on the play by Kaj Munk.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
83 minutes; released 1966.
The relationship between an actress who has lost her voice and the nurse who takes care of her. Audio-track in Swedish with English subtitles.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
468 minutes; released 2004.
Marianne and Johan always seemed to be the perfect couple. When Johan suddenly leaves Marianne for another woman, they are forced to confront the disintegration of their marriage. Chronicles ten years of turmoil and love that bind the couple. Includes both Bergman's original television version (299 min.; 1973) and the U.S. theatrical version (169 min.; 1974). Audio-track in Swedish with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
96 minutes; released 1957.
A knight returning home from the Crusades encounters Death, who agrees to a chess game. In the balance hang the lives of the knight and a group of traveling players. In Swedish with English subtitles.

Directed by Lasse Hallström.
111 minutes; released 2001.
A journalist moves with his daughter from a New York town to a small fishing village in Newfoundland. Audio-track in English or French. Based on the novel by E. Annie Proulx. Starring Kevin Spacey, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore and Judi Dench.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
108 minutes; released 1955.
A sharp satire about eight Swedish aristocrats who become romantically and comically intertwined over a single weekend. In Swedish with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer.
73 minutes; released 1932.
A young man attempts to find and kill a vampire that has assumed the form of an old woman. In German with English subtitles. Based on the stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
89 minutes; released 1960.
Set in beautiful 14th century Sweden, a father seeks revenge after his daughter, a young virgin, is brutally raped and murdered after her half sister has invoked a pagan curse. In Swedish with English subtitles.

Directed by Ingmar Bergman.
91 minutes; released 1957.
A retired professor who lives alone with his housekeeper reminisces about his failures and disappointments in personal relationships. Includes a 90-minute documentary by Jörn Donner on Bergman's life and work. Audio track in Swedish with optional English subtitles.