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Kristin Lavransdatter |
List Price: $29.95
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Description:
Based on a novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter tells a love story set against the backdrop of 14th-century Norway. After her childhood sweetheart is killed, Kristin (Elisabeth Matheson) enters a nunnery to postpone her arranged marriage to a man she doesn't love. On a trip to town, she meets Erlend (Bjørn Skagestad), who is immediately smitten with her. Though she discovers that Erlend is in disgrace, she falls in love with him and they find themselves in carnal embrace. Against all social and religious forces, they struggle to make their love possible. Directed by Liv Ullmann (director of Private Confessions, star of Ingmar Bergman's Persona and Cries and Whispers), the movie benefits from its richly realized depiction of medieval life. Despite her limited status in this world, Kristin is no blushing maiden; when she repels an attempted rape by bashing her attacker's head with a stone, her face has the fury of a warrior queen, and her passion for Erlend is all-consuming. Kristin Lavransdatter may be too reverential toward its source material to have any consistent vigor as a film, and it's a bit of a soap opera (the religious intensity at times verges on the Gothic), but at its best it has a rawness that captures the pain and joy of life (and love) in brutal circumstances. Beautifully filmed by the great cinematographer Sven Nykvist (whose credits range from Autumn Sonata to Sleepless in Seattle). --Bret Fetzer
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