Purely Joyful Movie!

hyped garbage

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Blistering performances.

The Swedish film Under solen was shown in the U.S. with the title Under the Sun (1998). It was directed by Colin Nutley. The film is set in rural Sweden in 1956.Rolf Lassgård plays Olof, a gentle 40-year-old farmer who has lived alone since his mother's death. The only way he can think of to meet a woman is to put an ad for a housekeeper in a newspaper. A woman answers the ad, and eventually comes to the farm. Helena Bergström plays the beautiful Ellen Lind, who has never been on a farm, and would seem to be an unlikely candidate for the job. However, for her own reasons, she takes the position and appears to do it well. Certain important facts become clear early in the movie. Olof isn't stupid, but he can't read. That's never explained. Were there truly people in rural Sweden at the time who hadn't been taught to read? Possibly Olof had gone to school, but was dyslexic.Olof's inability to read is a key plot element, because this disability allows his friend Erik to take advantage of Olof's trusting nature. Erik--played by Johan Widerberg--has worked on a cruise ship and is far more worldly than Olof. I didn't think Widerberg carried off the tricky job of being Olof's trusted friend. He portrayed Erik as obviously devious and scheming, and, in reality, I think Olof would have seen through this supposed friendship. Naturally, the plot produces an inevitable triangle, although not in the obvious way one would expect. That's what makes the movie interesting.Some points worth noting: Gunilla Röör plays the newspaper receptionist who helps Olof with the ad. She's an interesting actor, and I wish she had been given more than just this cameo role at the beginning of the film."Under the sun" sounds like a French or Italian movie--there's not that much sunshine in Sweden. However, the title refers to the Biblical quotation, "There is nothing new under the sun."Every so often, director Nutley cuts away to a fighter jet performing maneuvers in the sky above the farm. We would expect a bird, not a fighter jet. (Once, it is a bird, but only once.) There's an interesting thread on IMDb about the symbolism of the fighter jet.The musical score is beautiful, but the music is Celtic, not Swedish. There are some similarities between Celtic and Swedish music, but why not use Swedish music?We saw this film on VHS (believe it or not), although I think it's available on DVD. It would work somewhat better on a large screen, because of the beauty of the sky and the countryside. It's an unusual movie, and possibly not for everyone, but I enjoyed it and recommend it.

This WONDERFUL, beautiful, lovely film have been my all-time favorite movie ever sense the first time I saw it a couple of years ago.Olof is a lonely farmer somewhere in Sweden who have been living alone ever since his parents died. In secret he puts in an ad in the paper where he asks for a housekeeper but of course we all understand that what he really wants is a woman to love. One day Ellen shows up... A mysterious, beautiful woman who before summer is over have stolen Olofs heart. ... And seriously annoyed his best friend.This is truly a great movie! The pictures are fantastic and shows of the very best of hot, Swedish summers and sweet love between two very different people.

Given that this film has very recently been released on DVD, I am curious as to whether the long-standing rumours regarding Blockbuster's alleged censorship of movies (a la Walmart) are applicable to this release.SPOILER alert (sort of...)The trailers that are included with the DVD show a couple of scenes that "make sense", but that were not in the film. First there is a clip where Olaf's young friend makes a remark to him about him no longer being a virgin, and second, there is a quick clip of Olaf and Ellen making love in the rain, with him pleading, "teach me, teach me". I can assure you that neither scene was in the DVD -- but around the time they would have been applicable, there were several moments that were sort of "herky-jerky", and seemed to skip ahead into the scene. What also seemed strange is that Blockbuster marked the film as "Youth Restricted", but what was shown in the movie was incredibly tame, i.e., there was nary a nipple even shown.So my question is, did anybody else notice this? Or did I just happen to get a DVD that just happened to be "smudged" at the only sexy scenes in the movie?

This film touched my heart. Set in rural Sweden in the mid '50s and beautifully telling the tale of shy, reluctant love, the jealousy between friends and the claustrophobic agony of illiteracy, the film leaves you with the hope that just sometimes the innocent might prevail over the cunning. As a bonus, on top of the psychological subtlety that Nutley handles so well, you are also treated to the beauty of a landscape still remembered and missed.Nutley elegantly suggests outcomes of actions without overstating it, like when he lets one of his characters mention that he signed on as a crew member of Andrea Doria – which went under in 1956, the year described in the film.Paradoxically, no Swedish director has ever succeeded in describing the soul of the Swedish people or painting the beauty of the Swedish countryside as brilliantly – or lovingly, for that matter - as Colin Nutley has.