The Emigrants (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Utvandrarna
The Emigrants
Directed by Jan Troell
Produced by Bengt Forslund
Written by Bengt Forslund
Jan Troell
Starring Max von Sydow
Liv Ullmann
Eddie Axberg
Monica Zetterlund
Studio Svensk Filmindustri
Distributed by Warner Bros. (U.S.)
Release dates
  • 8 March 1971 (1971-03-08)
Running time 191 minutes
Country Sweden
Language Swedish
Budget $1,600,000

The Emigrants (Swedish: Utvandrarna) is a 1971 Swedish film directed by Jan Troell. It tells the story of a Swedish group who emigrate from Småland, Sweden to Minnesota, United States in the 19th century. The film follows the hardship of the group in Sweden and on the trip.

The film is based on the first two novels of The Emigrants suite by Vilhelm Moberg: The Emigrants and Unto a Good Land. It was adapted to the screen by Bengt Forslund and Jan Troell. The Emigrants stars Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann in the lead, along with Eddie Axberg, Sven-Olof Bern, Aina Alfredsson, Allan Edwall, Monica Zetterlund and Pierre Lindstedt. The Emigrants was followed by a 1972 sequel, The New Land (Nybyggarna), with the same cast.

Plot

In the middle of the 19th century, a young couple, Kristina and Karl-Oskar, live in Småland - a province of southern Sweden. They survive on a small plot of infertile land. Times are difficult: there is bad weather, the harvests are poor, and hunger prevails. Hunger forces the couple's first-born child to secretly eat food that was not ready to be eaten. Their child dies as a result, and her death convinces Kristina to agree to Karl-Oskar's desire to emigrate to the US. They are joined by Karl-Oskar's brother, Robert, another family that is escaping religious persecution, and a man running away from a troublesome wife. The film traces their difficult ten-week journey on a rickety sailing ship across the Atlantic, then an inland journey to what is now Minnesota. The emigrants survive the journey and start their life in the New World.

Cast

Reception

Richard Schickel wrote in Life that "Jan Troell has made the masterpiece about the dream that shaped America - a dream, and an America, fast disappearing from our views."[1] Vincent Canby of The New York Times hailed the acting performances, especially from Sydow and Ullmann, which he found to hold "a kind of spontaneous truth, in look and gesture, that does a lot to relieve the otherwise programed nobility, truth and beauty." One complaint was raised by Canby: "As he showed in Here's Your Life, Mr. Troell, who is a fine cameraman, simply cannot resist the extra shot of sunlight-reflected-in-water that becomes just one too many, a thing of movie decoration."[2]

Awards and honours

The Emigrants was nominated for five Academy Awards. It is notable that the nomination for Best Foreign Language Film came from the 1972 Oscars, while the rest came from the following year:

At the 30th Golden Globe Awards it won the awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress (Liv Ullmann). In Sweden it won the Guldbagge Awards for Best Film and Best Actor (Eddie Axberg).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Schickel, Richard (1972). "When America was a dream". Life (October 13): 28. Retrieved 2010-01-21. 
  2. ↑ Canby, Vincent (1972-09-25). "' The Emigrants,' a Swedish Film Epic, Lands Here". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  3. ↑ "The 44th Academy Awards (1972) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-11-27. 

External links

Films directed by Jan Troell
Fiction films
Documentaries
Novels
Films
Musical
1956–1960
1961–1980
1981–2000
2001–present
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.