Themes: Eccentric Families, Sibling Relationships, First Love
Main Cast: Anton Glanzelius, Anki Liden, Manfred Serner, Melinda Kinnaman, Tomas von Bromssen
Release Year: 1985
Country: SE
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
In 1959 Sweden, young Ingemar (Anton Glanzelius) lives with his dying mother and his nasty older brother. He survives all of life's knocks by comparing himself to those who are worse off--such as Laika, the little Russian space dog who was rocketed to his death and had nothing to say in the matter. Ingemar begins to identify with Laika more and more as his mother's health deteriorates, at times dropping to all fours and baying at the moon. When his mother is advised to get some peace and quiet away from her children, Ingemar is sent to live with his loveable uncle and aunt. For the first time, the boy is surrounded by relatives and classmates who pose no threat and who genuinely like him. He even has a sexual awakening. When his mother dies, he no longer rationalizes his misfortunes by comparing himself to those less fortunate; from now on, he can conjure up pleasant memories of his summer away from home to sustain him through the hard times. My Life as a Dog (Mitt Liv Som Hund) is based on the autobiographical novel by Reidar Jonsson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
It's no mistake that the main character in Mitt Luv Som Hund (1985) is named Ingemar Johansson: the film is set in the same year, 1959, that a Swedish boxer of the same name won the world heavyweight champion title from Floyd Patterson. Like his namesake, the film's fictional boy named Ingemar Johansson (Anton Glanzelius) is also a scrappy fighter, both literally and metaphorically. Ingemar climbs into the ring to learn boxing (only to be resoundingly beaten by a girl and thus experience his first sexual impulses) but his primary struggles are with poverty, neglect and abuse, challenges he faces by using his vivid imagination. Rather than being off-putting, the humorous, almost nostalgic tone of Mitt Luv Som Hund blends surprisingly well with the film's frank, dark story and situations, leaving a disquieting but simultaneously funny impression, a tribute to the skill with which the film is rendered by director Lasse Hallstrom. One of the most acclaimed films of 1985 and a success with underdog-loving American audiences at urban art house venues, Mitt Liv Som Hund won Best Foreign Language Film awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and the Golden Globes, as well as earning Oscar nominations for the script and Hallstrom. Its success propelled the largely unknown Swedish director to international prominence, after over a decade as a filmmaker of romantic comedies and one concert film, ABBA: The Movie (1977). The comedy-drama fit snugly into Hallstrom's preferred type of material, which typically dealt with social iconoclasts struggling to achieve happiness in spite of their eccentricities which, as fondly depicted by the director, are almost always much less bizarre than those of their "normal" peers. Hallstrom's deft and unsentimental touch continued to serve him well as he capitalized on the success of Mitt Luv Som Hund by directing several similarly-themed Hollywood pictures such as Once Around (1991), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), and The Cider House Rules (1999). (The latter featured a main character and several cute young orphan boys who could've been Ingemar's American cousins.) The English language translation of Mitt Luv Som Hund, My Life as a Dog, was also the title of a short-lived American television series spin-off of the film in the 1990s. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Cast
Anton Glanzelius - Ingemar Johansson
Anki Liden - Ingemar's Mother
Manfred Serner - Erik
Melinda Kinnaman - Saga
Tomas von Bromssen
Ing-Marie Carlsson - Berit the Artist's Model; Kicki Rundgren - Aunt Ulla; Lennart Hjulström - Konstnaren, The Sculptor; Christina Carlwind - Mrs. Sandberg; Ralph Carlsson - Harry; Didrik Gustavsson - Mr. Arcidsson; Vivi Johansson - Mrs. Arvidsson; Jan-Philip Hollstrom - Manne; Arnold Alfredsson - Manne's Grandfather; Fritz Elofsson - Glassworks Master; Per Ottosson - Tommy; Johanna Udehn - Lilla Grodan; Susanna Wetterholm - Karin; Leif Erickson - Farbor Sandberg; Viveca Dahlen - Woman in Laundry; Klimpen; Magnus Rask - Fransson; Tony Rix
Credit
Susanne Falck - Costume Designer, Inger Pehrsson - Costume Designer, Lasse Hallström - Director, Christer Furubrand - Editor, Susanne Linnman - Editor, Björn Isfält - Composer (Music Score), Povel Ramel - Songwriter, Agneta Jalemo - Makeup, Helena Olofsson-Carmback - Makeup, Lasse Westfelt - Production Designer, Rolf Lindström - Cinematographer, Jörgen Persson - Cinematographer, Waldemar Bergendahl - Producer, Ann Collenberg - Producer, Erik Spangenberg - Producer, Per Berglund - Screenwriter, Brasse Brannstrom - Screenwriter, Lasse Hallström - Screenwriter, Reidar Jonsson - Screenwriter, Reidar Jonsson - Book Author
Mischievous 12-year-old Ingemar (Anton Glanzelius) gets into all sorts of trouble, which drives his mother (Anki Lidén) crazy; Ingemar does not know that his mother is in fact terminally ill. When he and his older brother become too much for her, they are split up and sent to live with relatives. Ingemar ends up with his maternal uncle Gunnar (von Brömssen) and his wife Ulla (Kicki Rundgren) in a small rural town in Småland. Gunnar and Ingemar bond over Povel Ramel's recording of "Far, jag kan inte få upp min kokosnöt" (a free rendition of the original song).
In the town he encounters a variety of characters. Saga (Kinnaman), an assertive tomboy his own age, likes him, and shows it by beating him up in a boxing match. Among the more eccentric residents is Fransson (Magnus Rask), a man who continually fixes the roof of his house, and Mr. Arvidsson (Didrik Gustavsson), an old man living downstairs who gets Ingemar to read to him from a lingerie catalog.
Later, Ingemar is reunited with his family, but his mother soon takes a turn for the worse and is hospitalized. He and his brother go to stay with their uncle Sandberg (Leif Ericson) in the city, but his wife thinks the boy is crazy. After his mother passes away, he is sent back to Småland.
Mr. Arvidsson has died in the interim; Gunnar and Ulla now share the house with a large Greek family. Gunnar welcomes him and consoles him as best he can, but the house is so crowded, he has Ingemar live with Mrs. Arvidsson in another house. Meanwhile, Ingemar becomes the object of contention between Saga and another girl. When they start fighting over him, he grabs onto Saga's leg and starts barking like a dog. She becomes upset by his strange behavior and gets him into the boxing ring. During the bout, out of spite, she tells him that his beloved dog (which he had thought was in a kennel) was actually euthanized. This, along with his mother's death, is too much for him and he locks himself inside Gunnar's one-room "summer house" in the backyard. The time spent here forces Ingemar to reflect on the death of his mother, the loss of his dog and a changing world. Ingemar uses the experiences of others and of his own personal loss to reconcile a life which is sometimes tough.
The movie ends with the radio broadcast of a famous heavyweight championship boxing match, between Swede Ingemar Johansson and American Floyd Patterson. When Johansson wins, the whole town erupts with joy, but the now-reconciled Ingemar and Saga are fast asleep together on a couch.
Throughout the film, Ingemar tells himself over and over that it could have been worse, reciting several examples, such as a man who took a shortcut onto the field during a track meet and was killed by a javelin and the story of the dog Laika several times, the first creature sent into orbit by the Russians (without any way to get her back down).
