Swedish DVDs

[martin]

There's a wiki entry for women in Swedish film. The page is in Swedish but the list of directors is useful.

Go to paragraph "Spelfilmsregissörer" for directors of fiction, "Dokumentärfilmsregissörer" for documentarists, "Animatörer" for directors of animation.

Some of these are quite old or no longer among us (Zetterling), but there are some younger directors. A few others off the top of my head: Lena Hanno, Maria von Heland, Ulrika Bengts, Beata Gårdeler. Lena Hanno directed the film Falling Beauty which has been released on DVD with English subs.

[repeat]

Ulrika Bengts is Finnish! I also seem to remember Lisa Siwe's I taket lyser stjärnorna (Glowing Stars) getting highly positive reviews as well. For some reason or another the Swedes seem to excel in dramas about the growing pains of young girls.

Edit: That reminds me of one more director who is directly relevant to the original poster's question, namely Christina Olofson, known as a political activist for female filmmakers in Sweden. Her well-received Hannah med H (international title A Different Way) was released on DVD with English subs, but it's long out of print already. (Unfortunately can't recommend that personally either, as it's been sitting in my kevyip for almost a decade now!)

[martin]

Of course Ulrika Bengts is Finnish. My mistake. I have I taket lyser stjärnorna on blu-ray (it has English subs). I saw it a couple of years ago and it's pretty good, warm and heartfelt, although I have much more vivid memories of the Norwegian film Få meg på for faen ("Turn Me On, Dammit!") by Jannicke Systad Jacobsen (another female director). Both films are about young girls (aged 14 and 15 respectively), but somewhat different.

Another Swedish director is Lisa Langseth. She's made two feature films, both featuring the "new" star Alicia Vikander in leading roles (known from Anna Karenina and A Royal Affair). I have Till det som är vackert (2009) on DVD but it's on my kevyip. It has English subs. She also made Hotell (2013).

[CR2]

WOW. Thanks fellas, this is way more than I was expecting. I knew this forum usually comes through. A TON of those names sound really really good but I unfortunately still can't find anything subtitled by a bunch of them (And it's a shame about those OOPs). Just a question though, I looked up both the Siwe & the Langseth you mentioned, and neither listing on Discshop has the releases listed as being English subbed (Daavaadee however correctly lists that they are) I'd love to know if there's any other films I'm looking up by these women on Discshop that have English subs but don't include that in the listing (Would love to see "Eat Sleep Die" as just one example, but it's not subbed) Teresa Fabik's work sounds up my alley as well (and her work is subbed), but Mia Engberg's work, "The Reunion", and Maria Blom's work, etc. etc. all say they aren't subtitled on discshop. Mind you, I'd take just about any of what you've mentioned in your past few posts, it ALL sounds great, so if any of these are actually English subbed and the listings are wrong, please let me know.). I love coming of age stories about young women , told by women (They are so rare in the States, so I think it's even more obvious I've been really missing out on some of these), so this seems, as I expected already, the perfect country to associate myself with more.

Also, if anyone has anymore, please keep them coming!

[RobertB]

Belleville Baby by Mia Engberg looks like it has subtitles in English and French, but no such luck with Eat Sleep Die or The Reunion. This is judging from the back of the covers as posted on http://www.ginza.se" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. They don't show the back of Masjävlar by Maria Blom but the product info says it doesn't. I expect you know by now that the word you are looking for is "text"=subtitles.

[Raymond Marble]

Last night I spent some time trying to order the soundtrack for Vi är bäst! from Ginza. I live in America and, like a typical American, am mostly useless with non-English languages, so this endeavor required some fumbling on my part. Google Translate did not want to cooperate with the site, and my guesswork didn't lead me anywhere, either--I've successfully ordered stuff from untranslated French, Thai, and Japanese websites, but apparently Swedish is too much for me. I didn't even get so far as to figure out that Ginza doesn't ship to America, as older posts in this thread imply.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a website where I can order this and have it shipped to America? Note that it is the vinyl soundtrack I'm after and not the DVD. Worst case scenario there are some listings for it on eBay, but they're all exponentially more expensive than what Ginza is charging.

[repeat]

Bengans ships all over the world, but the LP is full price there. The new Ginza checkout process is even more idiosyncratic than the old one - when you click on "international" with the credit card symbols on the left, you'll get a different set of English-language input gadgets including with a list of countries (they only ship to Europe).

[JabbaTheSlut]

The Reunion DVD does Have English subtitles.

[martin]

The new Swedish Widerberg 6-disc dvd box set is pretty good: nice transfers, probably 6 or 7 hours of decent bonus features (documentaries, interviews, short films, making-of's, etc.), plus commentary tracks for three films, and a pretty good booklet printed on thick glossy paper with relevant reprints of newspaper articles among other things.

Everything has English subs except the commentary tracks and a few minor bonus features like trailers and such. Victoria (1979) has English audio and only Swedish subs (not forced).

The booklet (40 pages or so) is in Swedish only.

Booklet example:

[L.A.]

Gösta Ekman Box Set coming from Studio S

[L.A.]

Probably not but just in case; there wouldn't happen to be a DVD for Barabbas (Alf Sjöberg, 1953)?

[RobertB]

No, sadly not. Don't think it's ever been released on DVD. Hets (1944) is avaiable on DVD from SF. Should be OK, but doesn't have English subtitles. Fröken Julie (1951), Karin Månsdotter (1954) and Domaren (1960) have been released by Sandrews on DVD, likely to have English subs (I can investigate if you want me to) and can probably be found second hand. But Sandrews often did bad releases of old films, so I wouldn't bother, unless you are desperate.

Edit - just noticed you are in Helsinki. Hets has Finnish subs. But according to the Stockholm library Fröken Julie only have subtitles in Swedish, Norwegian and English. That is probably the case for all the Sandrew titles.

[mff]

Most of the time, if it's classical cinema, (unless it's Bo Widerberg, Ekman or Bergman), then there probably won't be a dvd of it. If there ever has been one, then it's probably out of print now.

You'd think that they would at least release (and re-release) some stuff by Troell, Sjöman, Sjöberg, Sjöström and Stiller but nope. It's a disaster.

[L.A.]

No, sadly not. Don't think it's ever been released on DVD. Hets (1944) is avaiable on DVD from SF. Should be OK, but doesn't have English subtitles. Fröken Julie (1951), Karin Månsdotter (1954) and Domaren (1960) have been released by Sandrews on DVD, likely to have English subs (I can investigate if you want me to) and can probably be found second hand. But Sandrews often did bad releases of old films, so I wouldn't bother, unless you are desperate.

Edit - just noticed you are in Helsinki. Hets has Finnish subs. But according to the Stockholm library Fröken Julie only have subtitles in Swedish, Norwegian and English. That is probably the case for all the Sandrew titles.

Thanks for your reply.

Hets (1944) should have Finnish subs and is most likely still in print I think. Fröken Julie (1951), Karin Månsdotter (1954) and Domaren (1960) are part of Sandrews' Svenska Filmpärlor series and they have Swedish and English (at least some of the titles) subtitle options. Also worth mentioning are Älskande par / Loving Couples (1964) and the controversial Syskonbädd 1782 / My Sister, My Love (1966), the Swedish DVDs are English-friendly.

Btw, do you know if the DVD of Bo Widerberg's Ådalen 31 (1969) is still available? I understand this is one of Stanley Kubrick's favorite films.

[JSC]

Just to add a few more English-friendly releases from Sandrews.

Dear John (1964) dir. Lars Magnus Lindgren
Black Palm Trees (1968) dir. Lars Magnus Lindgren
Night Games (1966) dir. Mai Zetterling
Ni Ljuger (1969) dir. Vilgot Sjoman
En handfull kärlek (1974) dir. Vilgot Sjoman

The quality of these discs is passable if not stellar.

Project X Distribution also put out a great r1 release of
Mai Zetterling's Flickorna (1968)

[RobertB]

Btw, do you know if the DVD of Bo Widerberg's Ådalen 31 (1969) is still available? I understand this is one of Stanley Kubrick's favorite films.

No such luck. It is in one of the two boxed sets with his films "Bo Widerberg - En filmografi". I do not own this box. SF claim the films in the box have been digitally restored. The information I can find online is that the box only has Swedish subtitles. This would be a let down if true. Several of the films did have English subtitles on the old DVD releases.

The other boxed set "Widerbergboxen" is supposed to have English subtitles. But this box costs a lot more, and doesn't have his better known films. But it does have Joe Hill (1971), so it's not without interest. Last month a Blu-ray of his children's film Fimpen (1974) was released in Germany. But even as a kid I wasn't very impressed with this film.

[L.A.]

^ Thank you for the information. Good thing you reminded of the Widerbergboxen, should probably get this asap.

[Brevity]

Btw, do you know if the DVD of Bo Widerberg's Ådalen 31 (1969) is still available? I understand this is one of Stanley Kubrick's favorite films.

No such luck. It is in one of the two boxed sets with his films "Bo Widerberg - En filmografi". I do not own this box. SF claim the films in the box have been digitally restored. The information I can find online is that the box only has Swedish subtitles. This would be a let down if true. Several of the films did have English subtitles on the old DVD releases.

Recently got this set (very cheaply through CDON's Finnish site), and yes, aside from additional Danish on Elvira Madigan (which also doesn't have the unified menu design of the other discs, so I guess it's probably an older release), Swedish subs only. I'm not familiar with the old discs (or the films) but on a quick glance most of these also have a pixelated look, some poorer than others.

Also stumbled upon these: SF seems to have released two volumes of Ingrid Bergman's Swedish films for her centenary last year.

Vol. 1: Munkbrogreven (1935), Intermezzo (1936), Dollar (1938), Juninatten (1940)
Vol. 2: Swedenhielms (1935), Valborgsmässoafton (1935), En kvinnans ansikte (1938), En enda natt (1939)

These have English subs as well as Swedish, according to the back covers. Will have to order them one of these days as they're currently 10 Euros apiece at CDON.

[bluecoronet]

I would love to order these Ingrid Bergman Sets mentioned, which are in Swedish with English subtitles

Vol. 1: Munkbrogreven (1935), Intermezzo (1936), Dollar (1938), Juninatten (1940)
Vol. 2: Swedenhielms (1935), Valborgsmässoafton (1935), En kvinnans ansikte (1938), En enda natt (1939)

Can anyone recommend a website(s) that will ship to the USA? Thanks.

[kompromiss]

Also stumbled upon these: SF seems to have released two volumes of Ingrid Bergman's Swedish films for her centenary last year.
Vol. 1: Munkbrogreven (1935), Intermezzo (1936), Dollar (1938), Juninatten (1940)
Vol. 2: Swedenhielms (1935), Valborgsmässoafton (1935), En kvinnans ansikte (1938), En enda natt (1939)

These are actually re-releases, remastered and with english subtitles.
The original boxsets were released circa 2010, had swedish subtitles only and were in cardboard slipcases.
The disk "En kvinnans ansikte (1938)" has two additional films (with english subtitles):
- Short film "Kort möte med familjen Rossellini" (1953, 5 min) - features Rossellini family during the shooting of "Viaggio in Italia".
- Segment from 1967 film "Stimulantia" - "Smycket" ("The Necklace") (1967, 25 min) - starring Ingrid Bergman and directed by Gustaf Molander
(who also directed five films in this 2-volume collection, including "Intermezzo" and "En kvinnas ansikte").

[htdm]

Can anyone recommend a website(s) that will ship to the USA? Thanks.

I'm also interested in any recommendations for reliable Swedish vendors of these sets.

[Berzeli]

Can anyone recommend a website(s) that will ship to the USA? Thanks.

I'm also interested in any recommendations for reliable Swedish vendors of these sets.

You're kind of fucked in this regard, none of the major retailers ship to the US. However Papercut does, downside being that they sell things at or above RRP and you have to add fairly hefty shipping on top of that. To make things even better, they don't carry any of the Ingrid Bergman sets. You should be able to send them an email at info@papercutshop.se and ask them for it though (make sure to stress the point of there being two versions of the set so that you get the ones with subtitles).

[htdm]

Cheers for that

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Laserdisken is a possible alternative. They're Danish but they stock a lot of Swedish releases, including both of the Bergman sets. The price for each is 149 DKK (about US$24) and both are listed as the 2015 reissues with English subs. Shipping is based on weight and isn't that cheap (the rates are here), but I'd compare anyway. The big caveat is I haven't used them myself in many years and I couldn't find anything out there in the way of recent reviews from non-EU customers.

[L.A.]

The Bergman sets 9,95€ apiece at CDON. Both 22,85€ delivered, best purchase of the week.