Edvard Munch (film)

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Edvard Munch
DVD cover
Directed by	Peter Watkins
Written by	Peter Watkins
Narrated by	Peter Watkins
Starring	Geir Westby Gro Fraas
Cinematography	Odd Geir Sæther
Editing by	Peter Watkins
Release date(s)	1974
Running time	210 min. / 174 min. (USA)
Country	Sweden / Norway
Language	English/ Norwegian
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Edvard Munch is a 1974 biographical film about the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch, written and directed by Peter Watkins. It was originally created as a three-part miniseries co-produced by the Norwegian and Swedish state television networks NRK and SVT, but has subsequently been released as a three-hour feature film. The film covers about thirty years of Munch's life, focusing on the influences that shaped his art, particularly the prevalence of disease and death in his family and his youthful affair with a married woman.

Contents 1 Style 2 Distribution and responses 3 Cast 4 External links

[edit] Style

Like Watkins' other films, Edvard Munch uses a docudrama approach; scenes from Munch's life are re-enacted by a large cast (mostly Norwegian non-professional actors), but there is also a voiceover narration by Watkins, and there are moments when the characters speak directly to camera, as if being interviewed about their own lives or their opinions of Munch. Some of the dialogue was improvised by the cast, especially in the interview segments. To convey the hostile response Munch's work often received during his lifetime, Watkins recruited Norwegians who genuinely disliked the paintings.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Distribution and responses

After its initial broadcast, the film was briefly an international success^{[citation needed]} but was not widely available for many years afterward. Watkins has said that network officials tried to suppress its distribution, and tried to bar it from competition in the Cannes Film Festival, because they disapproved of its use of nonprofessional actors and anachronistic dialogue.^{[citation needed]} After NRK relinquished rights to the film in 2002, it gained a wider international release.

Ingmar Bergman, the great Swedish filmmaker, called the film a "work of genius".^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Cast

Geir Westby as Edvard Munch Gro Fraas as Fru Heiberg Johan Halsbog as Dr. Christian Munch Lotte Teig as Tante Karen Bjolstad Gro Jarto as Laura Catherine Munch Rachel Pedersen as Inger Munch Berit Rytter Hasle as Laura Munch Gunnar Skjetne as Peter Andreas Munch Kare Stormark as Hans Jaeger Eli Ryg as Oda Lasson Iselin Bast as Dagny Juell Alf Kare Strindberg as August Strindberg

Eric Allum as Edvard - 1868 Amund Berge as Edvard - 1875 Kerstii Allum as Sophie - 1869 Inger-Berit Oland as Sophie - 1875 Susan Troldmyr as Laura - 1868 Camilla Falk as Laura - 1875 Ragnvald Caspari as Peter - 1868 Erik Kristiansen as Peter - 1875 Katja Pedersen as Inger - 1868 Anne-Marie Daehli as Inger - 1875

[edit] External links

• Edvard Munch at the Internet Movie Database
• Edvard Munch at Allmovie
• Stanford Museum document on screening of film