Would like to add that the acting by every single person on-board this production was superb. At times I thought I was looking through a hole in the wall of a real house or fly on the trunk of a tree in the wilderness. I felt I was transported back to those raw times of middle-late 19th century.. Nonetheless, ALL actors were superb. I live and work in Sweden by the way. I am American with Swedish ancestry and so I find myself coming the full-circle. When I watch these films in Swedish language I feel their culture very strongly through the acting. You will notice that a lot of the film is quiet with the exception of hard or soft glances. This is extremely Swedish and was probably extremely typical of early Smålandska culture. Moberg and Troell did an excellent job of making the general "shyness" or "reserve" nature of these swedish immigrants come through in the acting. This is why I see first-hand how excellent the roles were played out. I know my country and now I have lived here in Sweden for about 10yrs. I can also imagine that the ACTUAL hardships of communicating in the new land was 100 times more difficult than we saw in the film. I know how hard it was for me to learn to converse in Swedish (English is spoken by most here but I always preferred to use their language in their country). It was not easy AT ALL even for me. I just cannot imagine how difficult and even impossible it must have been for those early Scandinavian settlers. Amazing...just amazing. Anyway, I love these two films and now I must go back and read the series IN SWEDISH :)
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tolbs1010
9 years ago
Thank you for that. I enjoyed your personal take on these films.
I have not seen them yet but just ordered the Criterion blu ray set that comes out in February. These testimonials make me feel good about that purchase.
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