Danish/Swedish Masterpiece
Added 1/1/2008
"Pelle the Conqeror" won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film back in 1988 and that, for me, is generally a category that warrents a look. Pelle did not fail me because it is an outstanding movie. It's a sort of "Giants in the Earth" with a shorter emigration trip. A man somewhat up in years travels from Sweden to Denmark with his young son (roughly 10-12 years old). The goal is a better life than what they left behind in Sweden (along with their recently deceased wife/mother). As the ship lands, many are hired right off the boat but there is little interest in the combination of two males; one too old and the other too young. They eventually get a job but one in which neither employer nor employee got what they were looking for.
Pelle is the young lad and it is through his perspective that most of the movie emerges and what a series of events we see. There are many relationships, insults and injuries, deaths and drownings, love and hatred, joys and sorrows in this 2 1/2 hour movie. Yet, with all that happens, it seems to move along very well. The writer/director Bille August deserves great praise (and the Oscar) for weaving together a snapshot of life in this small community that Pelle and his father find themselves. The character development and the humanity on display create a most compelling series of vignettes. The final scene fortells the movies title in a way in which we can believe. As we anticipate Pelle's future, we can't help but remember his recent past.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Great film - Poor DVD
Added 9/15/2007
That this excellent film is now no longer available doesn't surprise me. I rated it four stars only because the quality of the DVD transfer was poor - the film deserves much better treatment. Perhaps a new edition is being prepared, with better picture and sound. This version offers two stereo soundtracks, but both of them feature the dialogue dubbed into English. The original Swedish/Danish soundtrack is available only in Mono.
Nevertheless the film is streaked with brilliance. The cinematography by the great Jonas Persson is a masterpiece of four-season rural life in turn-of-the-century Denmark. The makeup and costumes are evocatively authentic and - more importantly - truthful. And the performances, down to the smallest part, are movingly genuine. Max von Sydow's performance is once again the centerpiece of the film, and he occupies the position with absolute authority and power. His portrayal of a man who never wins is by turns funny, scary, and ultimately heartbreaking. He presents us with a human being whole, which few living actors can do.
Bille August promised to film the rest of the "Pelle" saga by Anderson-Nexo. It's too bad that Hollywood enticed him away from his promise.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Pelle the Conquerer
Added 7/9/2007
August's Oscar-winning coming-of-age drama portrays the grim realities of late-19th-century peasant life by following the tightly knit relationship between father and son with honesty and heart-wrenching verisimilitude. Begrman regular Von Sydow is terrific as the elderly Lasse, giving a performance that is at once stoic and crushingly sad. Hvenegaard holds his own, too, as Pelle, a pre-pubescent boy who learns to adopt a fiercely independent stance--by watching his father's daily humiliations. Long but deeply rewarding, "Conqueror" is a film about bleak lives and mutual human reliance that subtly manages to rise above nihilistic despair.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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so good that you can see your whole life differently
Added 5/3/2007
This is an absolutely wonderful historical film, about a time barely 100 years ago. Father and son are poverty striken and alone, seeking their fortune in a new country that is primitive, prejudiced, and brutal. As they struggle, Pelle is coming of age, observing the world around him with an acute and sensitive intelligence. His father is old and will be left behind, to die.
This is a masterpiece of social realism. As such, it lifted me out of my mundane concerns and brought me into an entirely different milieu and time, which was a welcome yet frightening experience. Only the greatest films and art can do this kind of leeching into one's heart. It is completely believable.
If there are any criticisms I have, it is the film's heavy-handedness, such as the punishment meted to the horrible philandering husband. In this, it resembles The Jungle, with its political propaganda not too far below the surface.
Warmly recommended.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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One of the best films about immigration and father - son relationship
Added 4/20/2007
If any film ever deserves a sequel, "Pelle the Conqueror" is it. In the admirable winner of both the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, Max von Sydow (in his only Oscar nominated performance) is Lasse, a Swedish middle- aged widower who takes his young son Pelle from impoverished ninetieth century Sweden to Denmark in search and hope of finding a better life. Because of his age and lack of any specific job skills, Lasse is forced to become a laborer on a farm, with Pelle helping him out. You know, when my family and I first came to America in 1991, one of our new friends, himself a "new American" told us one thing that I always remember, "No matter what, every immigrant is going to eat a lot of dirt, some - more, some- less". Lasse and Pelle of Billie August's superb drama had been served plenty of that meal - they had to sleep in a former chicken coop, they are poor, Pelle is bullied by kids at the local school. Lasse meets a nice local woman whose husband has been lost at sea and wants to marry her but the husband returns... Lasse and his son will go through many of cruelties and indignities together but they always remain devoted to each other. Their relationship is not only of a son and his father but also of two loyal friends. In the end, Pelle has realized that the farm is no place for him, and I want to know what happens to him and to his father next - but there is no sequel for this involving, moving, and simply magnificent movie yet.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Danish/Swedish Masterpiece
Added 1/1/2008
"Pelle the Conqeror" won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film back in 1988 and that, for me, is generally a category that warrents a look. Pelle did not fail me because it is an outstanding movie. It's a sort of "Giants in the Earth" with a shorter emigration trip. A man somewhat up in years travels from Sweden to Denmark with his young son (roughly 10-12 years old). The goal is a better life than what they left behind in Sweden (along with their recently deceased wife/mother). As the ship lands, many are hired right off the boat but there is little interest in the combination of two males; one too old and the other too young. They eventually get a job but one in which neither employer nor employee got what they were looking for.
Pelle is the young lad and it is through his perspective that most of the movie emerges and what a series of events we see. There are many relationships, insults and injuries, deaths and drownings, love and hatred, joys and sorrows in this 2 1/2 hour movie. Yet, with all that happens, it seems to move along very well. The writer/director Bille August deserves great praise (and the Oscar) for weaving together a snapshot of life in this small community that Pelle and his father find themselves. The character development and the humanity on display create a most compelling series of vignettes. The final scene fortells the movies title in a way in which we can believe. As we anticipate Pelle's future, we can't help but remember his recent past.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Great film - Poor DVD
Added 9/15/2007
That this excellent film is now no longer available doesn't surprise me. I rated it four stars only because the quality of the DVD transfer was poor - the film deserves much better treatment. Perhaps a new edition is being prepared, with better picture and sound. This version offers two stereo soundtracks, but both of them feature the dialogue dubbed into English. The original Swedish/Danish soundtrack is available only in Mono.
Nevertheless the film is streaked with brilliance. The cinematography by the great Jonas Persson is a masterpiece of four-season rural life in turn-of-the-century Denmark. The makeup and costumes are evocatively authentic and - more importantly - truthful. And the performances, down to the smallest part, are movingly genuine. Max von Sydow's performance is once again the centerpiece of the film, and he occupies the position with absolute authority and power. His portrayal of a man who never wins is by turns funny, scary, and ultimately heartbreaking. He presents us with a human being whole, which few living actors can do.
Bille August promised to film the rest of the "Pelle" saga by Anderson-Nexo. It's too bad that Hollywood enticed him away from his promise.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
Pelle the Conquerer
Added 7/9/2007
August's Oscar-winning coming-of-age drama portrays the grim realities of late-19th-century peasant life by following the tightly knit relationship between father and son with honesty and heart-wrenching verisimilitude. Begrman regular Von Sydow is terrific as the elderly Lasse, giving a performance that is at once stoic and crushingly sad. Hvenegaard holds his own, too, as Pelle, a pre-pubescent boy who learns to adopt a fiercely independent stance--by watching his father's daily humiliations. Long but deeply rewarding, "Conqueror" is a film about bleak lives and mutual human reliance that subtly manages to rise above nihilistic despair.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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