The Cinema of Jan Troell

The Smith Rafael Film Center welcomes Swedish director Jan Troell, one of the world's greatest filmmakers, to the Bay Area for a residency and screenings of films rarely shown in this country. A master at depicting humanity on screen, Jan Troell frequently tackles historical subjects, but with an appreciation for the common people, their struggles and their relation to nature. In his hands the past is never varnished; it breathes life and truth.

Troell is best known here for the two-film saga he made in the early 1970s, The Emigrants and The New Land, both of which received Academy Award nominations and together constitute a profoundly intimate kind of epic narrative. On the occasion of the Telluride Film Festival's Tribute to Jan Troell in 2008, critic John Simon wrote: Troell's films have such feeling for life and understanding for humankind as to envelop the viewer in a warm friendship with the filmmaker... "

Jan Troell's films are almost completely unavailable in the United States, and these screenings provide a rare opportunity. All films are in 35mm and are original Swedish versions with English subtitles. Several are to be presented by Mr. Troell.

This series is made possible by the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation and the Swedish Institute, Stockholm. Further support comes from the Consulate General of Sweden, San Francisco, and the Embassy of Sweden. Thanks to: Barbro Osher (Consul General of Sweden, San Francisco), Lars Hedenstedt (Project Manager, Film, Swedish Institute, Stockholm), Kristina Bünger, Ulla Wikander Reilly, Liza Piroska, Stephen Ujlaki (San Francisco State University), Susan Oxtoby (Pacific Film Archive) and Gary Meyer and Kirsten Laursen of Telluride Film Festival.

Everlasting Moments (Maria Larssons eviga ögonblick)
Presented by Jan Troell & Agneta Ulfsäter Troell
Saturday, February 27, 7:15
Released in the U.S. last year to wide acclaim (and a Golden Globe nomination), Jan Troell's beautiful drama stars Maria Heiskanen as Maria Larsson, a poor working-class woman in the early 1900s who wins a camera in a lottery and quietly develops a talent for photography. Troell co-wrote the script with his wife Agneta, based on an actual relative of hers. (Sweden 2008) 130 min.

The Emigrants (Utvandrarna)
Saturday, February 27, 2:00
Saturday, March 6, 2:00
The first of Jan Troell's two films adapted from epic novels by Vilhelm Moberg stars Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow as struggling Swedish farmers in the 1840s who decide to emigrate to America. Screened here in its complete version (both films were shortened for the U.S. and have never appeared on DVD), The Emigrants received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Actress, Director and Adapted Screenplay- rare honors for a foreign film. (Sweden 1971) 192 min.

The New Land (Nybyggarna)
Sunday, February 28, 2:00
Saturday, March 6, 7:00
Jan Troell's sequel to The Emigrants follows Kristina (Liv Ullmann) and Karl-Oskar (Max von Sydow) on a difficult pioneer trek to Minnesota and a life that is better but bittersweet, with the trials of the Civil War and Indian conflicts. A Golden Globe winner, The New Land received an Oscar nomination for Foreign Language Film. Liv Ullmann, often identified with Bergman's films, has said Kristina is her favorite role. (Not available on DVD) (Sweden 1972) 204 min.

Dancing / Reflexion 2001 / Their Frozen Dream
Sunday, February 28, 7:00
Jan Troell will present three of his nonfiction films. Dancing (Dansen) (1994) is a colorful, wordless dance film spanning cultures, generations and social classes. Reflexion 2001 is a short meditation on the World Trade Center. Their Frozen Dream (En frusen dröm) (1997) is his poetic documentary about the 1897 S.A. Andrée Polar expedition, the subject he had dramatized so beautifully in his 1982 adventure The Flight of the Eagle, starring Max von Sydow. Films 90 min.

As White as in Snow (Så vit som en snö)
Monday, March 1, 7:00 Thursday, March 4, 7:00
Based on the true story of Sweden's first female aviator, Jan Troell's film, which Variety called "as beautiful and evocative as a poem," stars Amanda Ooms as 21-year-old Elsa Andersson, who in 1921 abandons farm life and enters flight school for what was then a dangerous (and all-male) profession. (Never released in the U.S.) With Rikard Wolff, Björn Kjellman. (Sweden 2001) 154 min.

Il Capitano
Jan Troell In Person
Tuesday, March 2, 7:00
Jan Troell won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival for this true-crime story based on the 1988 '... msele murders, where a family of three was murdered by a young Finnish drifter traveling with his girlfriend. Controversial in Sweden (made so soon after the actual events), this psychological drama invites comparison with Badlands and In Cold Blood. With Antti Reini, Maria Heiskanen. Never released in the U.S. (Sweden 1991) 110 min.

Bang!
Wednesday, March 3, 7:00
Made by Jan Troell on his return to Sweden following his Hollywood sojourn, and inspired by a line of Snoopy's in a Peanuts cartoon, this surreal fantasia about a teacher (Håkan Serner), his mid-life crisis and his relationships with different women, was controversial at the time of release, but Ingmar Bergman would later call it "a poetic masterpiece." With Susan Hampshire, Yvonne Lombard, Eva von Hanno. (Sweden 1977) 105 minutes.

Here Is Your Life (Här har du ditt liv)
Jan Troell In Person
New 35mm Print!
Friday, March 5, 7:00
Jan Troell will present a brand-new 35mm print of his first feature, a "forgotten" masterpiece waiting for rediscovery. Eddie Axberg stars as Olof, a teenager who wanders the impoverished landscape of northern Sweden in 1914 seeking various jobs (happily as a movie projectionist) and progressively developing a social conscience. Beautifully filmed in widescreen, color and black and white, with appearances by Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Allan Edvall and Per Oscarsson. Not available in the U.S. (Sweden 1966) 169 min.