Such was the case for me with Swedish director Jan Troell, who was one of the honored guests at the 2. Telluride Film Festival. Both THE EMMIGRANTS and THE NEW LAND, which had been shown on Swedish television as a mini- series and were edited down into two features for U. S. The movies were visually captivating with naturalistic performances by the Swedish cast and an almost documentary- like realism that placed you firmly in the moment. As a result, it was often an emotionally grueling drama, one where you felt as drained and as exhausted as the settlers after watching them sweat, bleed, get sick, lose a child, survive bad harvests and start all over again. As impressive as the films were, their austere tone and leisurely pace didn’t encourage me to seek out other films by Jan Troell right away.
Nor did I have any desire to ever revisit THE EMMIGRANTS and THE NEW LAND. I did, however, attempt, several years later, to make it through Troell’s Ingenjor Andress luftfard aka THE FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE (1. Best Foreign Language Film Oscar contender, that was a dramatization of Swedish explorer S. A. Andree’s doomed expedition to the North pole. I found it just as austere and as punishing as those two earlier epics. So it was with some trepidation that I attended a rare showing at Telluride’s Le Pierre theatre, with Troell in attendance, of his first feature length film, Har har du ditt liv aka HERE’S YOUR LIFE (1. Eyvind Johnson’s Romanen om Olof (a semi- autobiographical, four novel account of the Swedish writer’s youth between the years of 1. In my opinion, HERE’S YOUR LIFE was the surprise hit of the festival and such an emotionally rich and visually dazzling experience that I was even tempted to see the special screenings of THE EMIGRANTS and THE NEW LAND again (even though that would have taken up an entire day’s festival schedule). The print, provided by the Swedish Film Institute (Svenska Filminstitutet), was the original version shown on Swedish television and not the edited version prepared for international release. Troell said, in his introduction, that he preferred the latter version, but I can’t imagine cutting a single frame of this poetic, totally original coming- of- age drama that now looks like a showcase of who’s who in Swedish cinema circa 1. Among the now famous cast members are Max Von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand (both of whom are best known for their work with director Ingmar Bergman), Per Oscarsson, Ulla Sjoblom, Bengt Ekerot, Allan Edwall and Eddie Axberg as Olof, author Johnson’s young alter ego. In the first half of the film, he serves as a mostly passive observer, soaking up all that he sees. But he begins to emerge as an active character who takes control of his fate at the film’s mid- point, revealing his innate curiosity and hunger for knowledge, some of it spurred on by reading. Ver Completa En frusen dr. Sinopsis de En frusen dr HERE’S YOUR LIFE: Innocence Lost and Found. Posted by Jeff Stafford on October 4, 2008. Director Jan Troell. Troell, who not only directed but also photographed and edited HERE’S YOUR LIFE, obviously had been influenced by the French New Wave since his first feature film abandons the controlled environment of a studio. Instead Troell shoots on location in natural, often bucolic settings, employing frequent use of hand held cameras and a minimum of background music, concentrating on natural sounds. The dialogue, especially in the film’s first half, is sparse with Troell preferring to tell Olof’s story and his experiences in the world in almost purely visual terms. Also evident is an untraditional editing style which results in abrupt mood shifts, a subtle but wry sense of humor (that is missing from Troell’s later work) and an experimental, playful approach to the narrative that can go from an evocative black and white closeup suitable for framing to a sudden burst of music for dramatic effect to a flashback sequence rendered in color. Olof, who has dropped out of school, goes to work as a common laborer in a timber camp which is followed by a succession of menial jobs, each one bringing him into contact with a variety of diverse individuals who, in their own way, encourage his development as a writer and a man. The movie has the flow of real life with the advantage of dropping in and out of Olof’s chronology so that Troell just gives us the essence of each passage along his “pilgrim’s” journey. Interesting characters drift into Olof’s life and just as quickly drift away, some to reappear later and some to never be seen again. The early sequences with Olof working as a logger, then bricklayer and sawmill employee capture the isolation, boredom and sexual frustration of men living in some remote location, often risking their lives performing dangerous physical tasks under adverse weather conditions (one logger is killed in the river, a young boy is crushed by a log collapse). Despite the often bleak picture of the dire economic conditions of Sweden in the thirties, Troell often counters this by his lyrical celebration of the natural elements and moments of joy that arise unexpectedly amid the harsh daily routines. This movie is alive to the moment and we often experience the world through Olof’s eyes – a fly buzzing against a cabin window on a sweltering summer day, the flight of a bird as it soars higher and higher into the sky, the sight of tall grass and clover obscuring the face of Olof’s teenage girlfriend as they make love in a field for the first time. During their brief time together, Olof is introduced to the pleasures of good food, alcohol and smoking. He also receives a most welcome education in sexual pleasure from Nicke’s sometimes mistress, Olivia, a gypsy- like free spirit who runs a traveling concession stand and makes Olof her unofficial business partner for awhile. The remainder of the film follows Olof’s progression toward the independent thinker and writer he would become with episodes involving a rebellious phase as a railyard worker, his initiation into society through a romance with an upper- middle class girl and his departure for points south where a more prosperous future awaits. And maybe one day you.
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