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MOVIE CRITIQUE:
This beautifully filmed 1998 Swedish movie, just now making its way around this country, was adapted from the novel "The
Little Farm" by H. E. Bates of Britain and more than capably directed by Colin Nutley.
The title rather inexplicably comes from the Old Testament Book, Ecclesiastes, where the phrase "under the sun"
occurs numerous times throughout, such as in Chapter One, verse three: "What does a man gain by all the toil at which
he toils under the sun?" and, again, Chapter One, verse nine: "What has been is what will be, and what has been
done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun."
The reference of the first verse to toiling under the sun has an obvious relationship to farming, but this movie, other
than a few choir practices and the occasional appearance of the preacher as a minor character, is not at all overtly religious.
Like many foreign-language films, this movie has not had a wide release so you may be able to find it at your video rental
counter by the time you read this review. During a year that is widely viewed as a critical disappointment by many of the
nation's movie critics, I still have found great pleasure in the many "small" films that have snuck in with little
fanfare to the cinema art houses and, occasionally, even in wider release. "Under the Sun" joins the list with such
earlier small gems as "Innocence," "Hearts in Atlantis," "Bread and Tulips," "Tortilla
Soup," and, especially, "The Deep End" and "Memento."
I rejoice in these small movies in that, even with their defects, each shines a light on a small portion of life that
is of great interest and done with intelligence, charm, wit, and beauty. I will fondly remember these films long after I have
forgotten all the splashy pyrotechnics of this past summer's offerings of mindless, plot less, witless films that Hollywood
always seems to think we need.
"Under the Sun" has all the filmed beauty of the legendary Swedish films of years past.
The major story line flaw in this movie is that we never do get to understand the woman and what motivates her. She starts
out as a woman of mystery and she ends up as a woman of mystery. Too bad. I would have liked to have known her better. It
would have made this a better movie, a better story, and a much better and more understandable romance.
That and the fact that "Under the Sun" is nearly a very long two hours in length makes me wish that some other
scenes had been deleted and more added about her motives and her personality.
However, given many of our other choices in life, going to see "Under the Sun" would certainly be one of your
better options for cinematic entertainment. This movie is worth going out of your way to see.
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MOVIE SYNOPSIS:
Olof (Rolf Lassgard, and his name says it all!) is a farmer in the north of Sweden in the years after World War II. Warplanes
ominously fly over his picturesque farm at the onset of the Cold War. Meanwhile, the natural beauty of the land provides visual
comfort and nourishment to both him and us, as this movie is gloriously well-filmed.
These are the long summer days near the Arctic Circle where the sun shines until well after nine in the evening and those
who wish to get a good night's sleep must draw the shades to keep out the sunlight.
Olof is moderately well off as his mother, who had died some nine years before, has left him with a modest inheritance.
He is also by nature a frugal man with an American car as his sole luxury. Olof is a good and kind and decent man who sings
in the church choir and goes about his business quietly. Never married and more than a little shy, Olof has, as they say,
never "known" a woman. To be blunt about it, he is a virgin.
He is a reasonably intelligent man in the slow, methodical, plodding manner common to those who live by their wits off
the land. Unfortunately, he has never learned how to read, and this has placed him in a difficult situation in a world that
is becoming more and more modernized and mechanized. In spite of that car, his farm is still plowed the old-fashioned way
with two friendly but massive plow horses which Olof delights in bringing down to a small lake at the end of the day for a
drink and to cool off.
Olof depends on his younger friend, Erik (Johan Widerberg), to read what is necessary for him as well as to go into town
to do whatever shopping is needed. Erik has been all over the world as a merchant marine. He has even spent some time in America,
where he learned how to comb his hair like his idol, the then-rising singing star Elvis Presley.
Living at home in northern Sweden is boredom personified for this cynical youth with only girls like his current flame,
Lena (Linda Ulvaeus), to interest him. His life revolves around bedding women, betting the horses, and tooling around in his
American car with the top down.
Olof trusts Erik implicitly even though we learn that this trust may not always be warranted. He had earlier even used
some of his inheritance to invest in a racehorse with Erik as his partner. He never knows, but in his naiveté he also never
questions, whether or not this has been a good idea. Erik is constantly short of cash and is always hitting Olof up for a
loan so it is easy to assume the worst about this supposed partnership.
Olof has recently turned forty and has been living alone in his farmhouse for many years since the death of his mother.
Since he has few social graces other than his innate goodness, he decides that the only course of action to get a wife would
be to advertise for a "housekeeper", which, for him, means an application, or audition, if you will, of any willing
women for accepting him as a potential husband.
He visits the offices of the local newspaper staffed by a very comely newspaper receptionist (Gunila Roor) one day to
place the ad by dictating it to her. Terms such as "young and attractive", his being "39 years old", with
his "own car", and "Picture requested" give off the correct signals. (At this point I must question the
wisdom of casting such an attractive ad receptionist, as all during this time I was wondering whether or not she herself was
available.)
The next week both Olof and the receptionist are pleased and surprised to find two replies, the first of which does not
read very well and, besides, offers no picture. The second letter, however, is accompanied by the picture of a very lovely
woman with the comment that she will be at the railroad station several days later and would like to meet him.
At the appointed time Olof is at the train station all dressed up in his Sunday finest waiting for the train to pull in.
When it does, to his surprise and ours, a gorgeous blonde steps off to meet him. The befuddled Olof drives this vision of
loveliness home, not knowing what to say and saying even less correctly. His situation is made all the more embarrassing because
she is so beautiful that he just can't keep his eyes off her.
He gives this well-dressed, svelte lady, Ellen (Helena Bergstrom), a tour of his somewhat dreary and decidedly antiquated
farmhouse. It has, after all, needed a "woman's touch" for many years. His feelings for her make his reticence all
the more endearing as he is obviously like a little boy in a candy shop. He allows her the choice of bedrooms and she picks
his mother's former bedroom on the second floor.
The next morning he is all the more surprised to hear that she wants to stay as he is prepared to drive her back to the
train station. Ellen quickly and more than satisfactorily settles into the farmhouse routine and gradually takes over management
of the farm after she has cleaned the farmhouse itself to a sparkling sheen. She is a good cook as well and Olof is giddy
with puppy love for her.
So the story moves along with Olof falling ever more deeply in love with Ellen and Ellen making herself all the more indispensable
to him with her assumption of more and more of the organizational and financial duties of running the farm. Somehow, to everyone's
surprise, especially Olof himself, they end up complimenting each other beautifully. So his love interest develops into a
full-fledged business partnership as well.
For obvious reasons, Erik is not at all happy with Ellen's assumption of the finances of the farm. Furthermore, he does
miss their former trips together to the race track. Being the "odd man out" in this new relationship, not to mention
being somewhat surprised and jealous of his older friend's new love life, Erik sets out to sabotage the relationship by researching
and then exposing Ellen's heretofore unmentioned past.
After all, there has to be an explanation for a woman this beautiful and this sophisticated to pull up stakes somewhere
else in order to try and start a new life in the provincial farmland of northern Sweden.
It's nice to root for the good guy to win at love in cases like this even though your head tells you that there must be
more to it. Maybe we men have been brainwashed into believing that beautiful, sophisticated blondes with hidden motives can't
be good people, too, although this is only part of it.
It is far too easy to assume that the ulterior motives of someone like Ellen must, of necessity, be bad. It's also more
of a class thing as the two leads have such different backgrounds that we find it hard to see long-lasting romance come out
of such minimal societal commonality.
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