Main Cast: Geir Westby, Gro Fraas, Johan Halsbog, Lotte Teig, Gro Jarto
Release Year: 1976
Country: NO/SE
Run Time: 167 minutes
Plot
The troubled life and career of one of Norway's most celebrated artists is examined with documentary-style realism in this biography from celebrated filmmaker Peter Watkins. Edvard Munch (Geir Westby) was born in 1863 into a well-to-do and privileged family, but he had a unhappy upbringing; his mother and his younger sister died when he was at an impressionable age, and his father was cold, judgmental, emotionally distant, and unsupportive of his ambitions. As a young man, Munch fell in with the Scandinavian bohemian community and developed an appetite for alcohol, which further distanced him from his father. Munch also began an affair with a married woman he called Mrs. Heilberg (Gro Fraas), and his obsessive need for her had a seismic effect on his personality. Munch took up painting, but rather than follow the pattern of realism that was common at the time, Munch used unusual color schemes and distressed textures on his canvases to help convey the darker emotions he longed to express. Between his unusual techniques and pervasive themes of death, illness and eroticism, Munch's work was frequently lambasted by critics and gallery patrons alike, and he briefly exiled himself in Germany, where alongside Swedish playwright August Strindberg he struggled to find an appreciative audience for his challenging visions. Edvard Munch was filmed in the style of a documentary, with characters often addressing the camera as if being "interviewed" and hand-held cameras adding an informal and realistic tone. The film was produced for Norwegian television, but a shortened version was later prepared for international theatrical release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Cast
Geir Westby - Edvard Munch
Gro Fraas - Fru Heiberg
Johan Halsbog
Lotte Teig - Tante KarenBjolstad
Gro Jarto - Laura Catherine Munch
Rachel Pedersen - Inger Munch; Berit Rytter Hasle - Laura Munch; Gunnar Skjetne - Peter Andreas Munch; Kare Stormark - Hans Jaeger; Iselin von Hanno Bast - Dagny Juell; Eli Ryg - Oda Lasson; Alf Kare Strindberg - August Strindberg; Peter Watkins - Narrator; Knut Khristiansen; Nils-Egar Pettersen
Credit
Grethe Hajer - Art Director, Ada Skolmen - Costume Designer, Peter Watkins - Director, Erik Daeli - Lighting, Cato Bautz - Lighting, Willy Bettvik - Lighting, Odd Geir Sæther - Cinematographer, Kenneth Storm-Hansen - Sound/Sound Designer, Bjorn Hansen - Sound/Sound Designer, Asmund Huser - Sound/Sound Designer, Peter Watkins - Screenwriter
Edvard Munch is a 1974biographical film about the NorwegianExpressionistpainterEdvard Munch, written and directed by Peter Watkins. It was originally created as a three-part miniseries co-produced by the Norwegian and Swedish state television networks NRK and SVT, but was subsequently gained an American theatrical release in a three-hour version in 1976. The film covers about thirty years of Munch's life, focusing on the influences that shaped his art, particularly the prevalence of disease and death in his family and his youthful affair with a married woman. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn't entered into the main competition.[1]
Like Watkins' other films, Edvard Munch uses a docudrama approach; scenes from Munch's life are re-enacted by a large cast (mostly Norwegian non-professional actors), but there is also a voiceover narration by Watkins, and there are moments when the characters speak directly to camera, as if being interviewed about their own lives or their opinions of Munch. Some of the dialogue was improvised by the cast, especially in the interview segments. To convey the hostile response Munch's work often received during his lifetime, Watkins recruited Norwegians who genuinely disliked the paintings.[citation needed]
Distribution and responses
After its initial broadcast, the film was briefly an international success[citation needed] but was not widely available for many years afterward. Watkins has said that network officials tried to suppress its distribution, and tried to bar it from competition in the Cannes Film Festival, because they disapproved of its use of non-professional actors and anachronistic dialogue.[citation needed] After NRK relinquished rights to the film in 2002, it gained a wider international release.
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