Elvira Madigan [VHS]

Elvira Madigan [VHS]
by Bo Widerberg

Elvira Madigan [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Cleo Jensen, Lennart Malmer, Pia Degermark, Thommy Berggren, Yvonne Ingdal
Director: Bo Widerberg
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: Danish (Original Language); Swedish (Original Language)
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 90 minutes
Release Date: 1993-10-13
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: World Artists Home Video
Studio: World Artists Home Video

VHS Movie Reviews of Elvira Madigan [VHS]

Movie Review: Elvira Madigan
Summary: 5 Stars

I bought this for my husband.We had seen it before and expected this to be the same, but it isn't quite.The acting is first-rate.Photography is beautiful-all those idyllic country scenes.It is of course a tragedy.Depending on ones viewpoint they either get their just deserts or they should just go off into the sunset,family and responsibilities shrugged off.I was pleased with the speed of delivery and service.

Movie Review: A lush, lyrical folie ? deux
Summary: 4 Stars

I'd wanted to see this acclaimed film for a long time, after missing it when it first appeared some 4 decades ago -- but I wondered how those intervening 4 decades would affect my experience of watching it. Well, it was a remarkable experience!

It's true that some of the film's power has been diluted by the use of its iconic imagery in countless commercials. We've seen the gorgeous look so many times that we can't come to it with fresh eyes any longer. Even so, the exquisite cinematography remains so lush & enveloping that you can practically feel it caressing your senses like fine, brilliant, perfumed silk.

The story is simple, following the impossibly romantic passion between two lovers striving to escape from the world. And of course it invariably descends into romantic tragedy, languidly beautiful to the bitter end. The two leads convincingly capture the irresistible pull of youth & beauty & gloriously naive romance. Who among us hasn't wanted to live in a perfect, golden bubble with his or her beloved at some point? Yet a darker thread begins to appear as their idyll collides with cold reality.

What's especially interesting to me is how a period film such as this reflects two periods: the historical one in which it's set, and the one in which it was made. The same story filmed in the 1950s, or in the 1990s, would look & feel very different! This film is clearly as much about the 1960s as it is about late 19th century Sweden. And as such, it provides a fascinating glimpse into a way of seeing & experiencing the world that must seem strange & foreign to many younger viewers -- stranger, perhaps, than the 19th century in which it's set.

It's not a film for those seeking a strong narrative, or probing psychological insight. Better to look on it as an exquisite tone poem ... perhaps a little too rich for some tastes, I'm sure. You can't watch too many films like this at once, any more than you could make a dinner out of dessert. But every once in awhile, it's good to simply indulge yourself. For those times, this film is highly recommended!

Movie Review: Too beautiful to live, too beautiful to truly love
Summary: 3 Stars

The film that launched a thousand copycat hairspray ads, and certainly more parodied than actually seen these days, Elvira Madigan is as light as a butterfly floating on the breeze - a beautiful to look at but short-lived tale of two doomed runaway lovers who, being Swedish, naturally end up committing suicide. Pia Degermark is beautiful, Thommy Berggren is a more beautiful Oskar Werner lookalike, the scenery is beautiful, the Mozart and Vivaldi soundtrack is beautiful, the photography is beautiful, the spilled wine that's the closest we get to seeing any blood is beautiful and even the one brief bit of vomiting onscreen isn't entirely ugly. It's pleasant enough and it's easy to understand its popularity, but it's too beautiful to truly love.

Movie Review: Favorite Movie of All Time
Summary: 5 Stars

I saw it when it came out, like others here and loved it- I took my wife to see it several years later, we are still married- and she hated it-

I still love it,( and we are still married) it is truly my favorite movie of all times- Gone with the Wind was Great, but the simplicity of this movie, and the timeless message about love and perhaps, excess, makes it a powerful lesson for this and all generations-

Movie Review: A lesson about fantasy and reality
Summary: 4 Stars

I saw this film once, in 1967 when it first came out, and I've never forgotten it. I was 21 years old, engaged, and totally enamored with love. The lovers were beautifully filmed, and their love was gloriously portrayed. But then reality intruded. Both the beauty of their love and the tragic ending have stayed with me - running through the grass chasing butterflies does not pay the bills or fill your growling belly; having a realistic plan for your life does that. It does not matter if you are gorgeous and madly in love, you can't avoid needing to work, face responsibility, and survive. I can't say that I always took the film's message to heart, but in the 40 years hence I have nonetheless reminded myself of it many times over. My 1967 love didn't last - reality intervened - but my second has lasted for 35 years. We mainly strool through the grass now, but we evolved from chasing butterflies by basing our love on its reality as well as its fantasy.

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Summary of Elvira Madigan [VHS]

The global art-house frenzy was in full swing when Elvira Madigan first made audiences swoon back in 1967. Set in an idyllic Danish forest in 1859 and loosely based on an actual double-suicide, this lushly photographed, quietly seductive film presents a richly romantic tragedy while suggesting that the most intense form of love resembles a kind of blissful insanity. The inseparable lovers in this case are a married Swedish army lieutenant named Sixten (Thommy Berggren) who's gone absent without leave, and the radiantly beautiful Elvira Madigan (Pia Degermark), a Danish tightrope walker who's abandoned her popular position in a traveling circus. Together they have no use for the distractions of the real world; they live only for each other, sharing simple pleasures, spontaneous intimacy, and a seemingly unlimited supply of wild berries, wine, and leisure time. As Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 dominates the soundtrack, Sixten and Elvira chase butterflies (and each other) through a peaceful meadow, at which point the movie practically oozes with romantic perfection. (When most people think of "art-house" movies of the 1960s, they're most likely thinking of movies such as this--although the lovemaking here is nothing if not tamely discreet.)

Swedish director Bo Widerberg wrote, directed, and edited this film and makes full use of Jorgen Persson's soft, sensual cinematography. Though its plot is almost nonexistent, the film is arrestingly beautiful and the almost-too-attractive actors bring naturalness and depth to their performances, elevating this tale of doomed love above the level of gushy sentiment. For all of its surface appeal, Elvira Madigan is an intelligent film, and Widerberg builds toward genuine tragedy without compromising the dream-like idealism of Sixten and Elvira's unconditional love. Widerberg also inserts a few hints of casual irony, as when Elvira sells a portrait of herself that was drawn by a "cripple" at a cafe in Paris; neither she nor the pawnshop owner recognizes the artist's signature as that of Toulouse-Lautrec! These little grace notes enhance this otherwise lightweight film, and while the tragedy never achieves Shakespearean proportions, this is nevertheless an alluring, introspective portrait of romance at its most sublimely emotional extreme. --Jeff Shannon

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