Rating: 
Summary: One of the most exquisite movies ever made !
Review: The color photography is simply ravishing .The glorious love story is a portrait of a real event of 1900 between and officer and a circus artist .
One of the ten best romantic pictures ever made .
An artistic triumph for the swedish director Bo Widerberg and undoubtly his masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Poetic beauty
Review: this film has a very poetic beauty about it. it was shot with an innovative (at the time) system tha played on the field - in photographic terms - and blurred the background to emphasise the faces of the very beautuful cast. The style was later copied in countless shampoo commercials of the 70's. Th story is simple and is apparently based on the real events of a noble swedish army officer who defects and escapes with a circus girl. He's also married. The story is very remiscent of Romeo and Juliet The two live blissfully and there are truly beautiful scenes of the lovers enjoying theri escape and loving life to the point that they decide not to risk seeing the end of their bliss. The music of the film also set it apart. The score is based on the Andante from Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 21 and the allegro from Vivaldi's concerto L'Amoroso. The music is extremely well suited to describe this joyous yet melancholy love story and transalates the beauty of the scenery into music. Indeed, to get a flavor of the film I suggest ordering these pieces of music first.
Rating:
Summary: Poetic beauty
Review: this film has a very poetic beauty about it. it was shot with an innovative (at the time) system tha played on the field - in photographic terms - and blurred the background to emphasise the faces of the very beautuful cast. The style was later copied in countless shampoo commercials of the 70's. Th story is simple and is apparently based on the real events of a noble swedish army officer who defects and escapes with a circus girl. He's also married. The story is very remiscent of Romeo and Juliet The two live blissfully and there are truly beautiful scenes of the lovers enjoying theri escape and loving life to the point that they decide not to risk seeing the end of their bliss. The music of the film also set it apart. The score is based on the Andante from Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 21 and the allegro from Vivaldi's concerto L'Amoroso. The music is extremely well suited to describe this joyous yet melancholy love story and transalates the beauty of the scenery into music. Indeed, to get a flavor of the film I suggest ordering these pieces of music first.
Rating:
Summary: unabashedly romantic ... an old fashioned valentine
Review: This is the most //romantic// movie I've ever watched. The love scenes are tender and sensual without resorting to nudity. Elvira and Count Sixten Sparre's doomed affair (he's married with children) is captured in the lush colors and sounds (bees humming) of a Danish summer. Their acting is subtle, natural and restrained. And they're nice to look at too :) Elvira
looks like an angel with her flowing yellow hair while Sixten's darker looks complement her.
The dialogue is wonderfully poignant. In one scene, Sixten tells his army friend, "I can't fight any more. I live in the women's world now." The friend admonishes him: "She's distorted your vision." Sixten replies: "Isn't that what love is? To see the world through another's eyes?" In another scene, the friend asks Elvira: "Are you happy? Because I know one ... two ... three people who aren't." He's referring to Sixten's wife and children. Elvira, beautiful and defiant, says "I need him too." Love this answer!!!
The foreshadowing is particularly effective.
Elvira and Sixten's picnic begins with laughter and high spirits, but then Elvira accidentally overturns the wine decanter. They both look at one another helplessly, aware of the omen.
This romance is tame compared to today's standards as it contains mild kissing and very little else, but the smoldering fire between the leads will not disappoint you.
I'll never forget this film!!!
Rating:
Summary: As beautiful as advertised
Review: This really is a beautiful movie, exquisite in detail, gorgeously filmed, directed with great subtlety and intensely focused. Nothing wasted or thrown away here. Everything counts. We feel the forebodings of tragedy first in the straight razor in Sixten's hand as he caresses the back of Elvira's head, and then again there is the knife on their picnics, stark, solid, sharp steel in the paradise of their love. Note too the camera shots on her belly. The child touches her stomach. She vomits from eating flowers...To really appreciate this movie it should be understood that it was filmed in the sixties and it represented to that audience something precious and true. Note the anti-war sentiment seemingly tangential to the story of the film, but nonetheless running as a deep current underneath. He was an army deserter, like those in the sixties who fled to Canada to avoid the draft and the body bags in Vietnam. Note his confrontation with his friend from the regiment, a scene that many in the sixties lived themselves. He gave up everything for love, but it really is her story, her choice. She chose a man with a wife and two children, a soldier. She had many other choices, as the friend reminded her, but for her he was the "last one." What they did was wrong, but it was indeed a summer of love, the cold northern winter in the distance, ripe red raspberries and mushrooms to eat and greenery everywhere and the sun brilliant and warm; and then in the next to the last scene with the children when she faints as the child pulls off the blindfold of the game and is surprised to face Elvira's belly, there is just a little snow on the ground, perhaps it is from the last winter, not completely melted. If you can watch this without a tear in your eye and a melancholy feeling about the nature of human love, you have grown too old. Theirs was a forbidden love, like that of Romeo and Juliet, a tragic love, doomed from the start, which is why the ending of the movie is revealed in the opening credits. Those who think a story is spoiled by knowing the ending, know not the subtle ways of story, of great tales that are told again and again. Knowing the ending only sharpens the senses and heightens the appreciation. Pia Degermark who plays Elvira, who is a tightrope walker, a girl of gypsies, has beautiful calves (which is all we see of her body), a graceful style and gorgeous eyes, made up in the unmistakable style of the sixties, very dark with long heavily mascara'ed eyelashes. And she is a flower child, a fairy child of the forest, drawn to things earthy and mysterious, to a strong young man and a fortune teller who finds for her only small black spades in her future. In life we chase after butterflies. Sometimes we catch one.
Rating: 
Summary: Romance In The Countryside of Sweden....
Review: This review refers to the Fox Lorber DVD edition of "Elvira Madigan"(World Class Cinema Collection).... In this 19th century romantic/drama we find two lovers, seemingly without a care in the world,romping and playing in the beautiful forest and they are the focus of this Swedish gem. We soon learn they are escaping from their lives, and all they want is to be left alone, in their own world..one of love. He is deserting his post as an Army Lieutenant, she a young and beautiful famed tightrope walker. Abandoning their families and careers,these romantics see nothing but the love and affection they share for each other. As the story progresses, and we are treated to some of the most gorgeuos photography throughout, their idyllic dreams begin to fall apart. Life on the run is not all they dreamed it would be for them. They are tired, hungry, and trying to avoid the world that is trying to find them.Eventually they must make a decision that has tragic consequences. It's a beautiful, but tragic romance, not too far removed from "Romeo and Juliet" although may at times,seem a bit over the top and may remind you of those commercials, in slow motion with the lovers running into each others arms.It is however,a good story, well acted and directed,wonderful costumes, beautifully photographed, and with a great sound track including works from Mozart and Vilvaldi. From 1967,the director is expertly subtle and although these two lovers are often spontantious in their passion, you will know how they feel without the ususal R rated love scenes. Just a beauty of a film, directed by Bo Widerberg and photographed by Jorgen Persson. The film and crew were nominated for several international awards and Pia Degermark(Elvira)won the hearts of the judges of the Cannes Film Festival(and may steal yours as well) and was awarded Best Actress. It's a nice DVD as well. Letterboxed in what appears to be the academy ratio(1.33:1) it presents a very good picture. The exquiste cinematogrpahy of the fields, the forests and the countryside have beautiful colors. The film in Swedish will default to English subtitles, but you may delete them if you wish.(You don't see that choice too often). There are filmographies and awards and some production credits. The sound is in Stereo and is very good. A nice addition to your romance or foreign film collection...enjoy.....Laurie
Rating: 
Summary: Could inspire a romantic weekend without the ending....
Review: When everyone was swooning over Elvira Madigan in 1967, I was none the wiser and had just arrived on the planet. So, thinking it would be fun to watch a movie from the year I was born, I bought this movie. After reading all the reviews, I was pretty excited to watch it. I mean..."the most beautiful movie." What on earth could it be like? Yes, it was beautiful in many scenes, but at times the filming seemed a bit sloppy (editing in about three places), and in just a few scenes where the camera seems to be spinning, it made me a bit dizzy. The Mozart music was quite funny because it kept playing like a ghost from the past, haunting the movie. The music will also haunt you after you finish watching this movie. In fact, you should have it memorized! (Look up ASIN: B0000041LF here at Amazon and you can listen to 1. Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major ("Elvira Madigan") K. 467. The philosophies presented in this romantic drama were somewhat unsettling and shallow. But then again, they were retelling a tragic story. I kept thinking, "Is there no other way to solve this problem?" In a way, the characters start on a journey to paradise and end up on their way to hell, so to speak. Could eating all that fruit have been symbolic of paradise or the Garden of Eden. The scenery was however quite lovely and the boat floating on the river was so dreamy. The story is based on a true account of a double suicide. The story is of a Swedish Lieutenant (Sixten) and a Danish Circus performer (Elvira Madigan) who commit suicide in a forest in Denmark in 1859. The Lieutenant is married and has children and yet Elvira says she needs him too. They speak very little about his wife, but his friend does confront Elvira and for me, that showed her true character when she still could not give Sixten up. To me, that is not love...that is selfishness. In the opening scenes, you know this is going to be an artistic movie, with images which will make you think about what they mean. For that aspect, I enjoyed the movie. When Sixten and Elvira are running in a field chasing butterflies, I could not help thinking how they so wanted to be free from responsibility, to reinvent themselves, to change from one form to the other. To be free. In a way, they act like children in the first part of the movie and then get more serious as the movie progresses. While this movie is a good distraction from real life and is very romantic (look for the note that floats...that is quite creative!), it lacks character development and I did not feel that I knew Sixten and Elvira well enough to really want them to be together or feel they deserved to keep their love alive. I wanted them to just split up and go back to the lives they had before they became so unhappy. The comment, which made me think the most in this movie, was Sixten's observation about love. He explained it as seeing the world through the eyes of the person you find irresistible. For me, love is a decision to care about someone and stay with them no matter what. Perhaps if he had known what true love was, he would have stayed with his wife, and Elvira could have found a nice single guy and had children of her own. This type of "insane" love is perhaps infatuation at best. That heady feeling which you can still have when you are in love, but then when you love...your brain is again in gear. The whole idea of running away with someone else's husband is just shameful to me and I think the suicide is also Elvira's idea. They tell you that there is going to be a suicide right at the beginning of the movie and I think that was not a good idea. They told the ending and it was distracting to think that all the fun they were having would just be a waste. Scenes of Elvira walking in the sunlight and the beach scene and other dreamy scenes make it worth watching. There is really nothing beyond kissing, which is very mild. Jeff Shannon's review is excellent.;>. Just by the way. One of the best I have ever seen! Such style and creativity. He is right, this is a "lightweight film." It is fun to watch a foreign film, but you have to give it your full attention and read all the subtitles. Fortunately, they don't talk all the time or that would have been exhausting to have to read every single word! Well, they had to have time to play Mozart. I just wish they had used more of his music instead of the same song over and over again. I think there was a point to it, I am still thinking about that one! I think everyone will just wish they could run away too, but with someone they are married to would be nice. If it inspires anything in you, it will be to get back to nature and plan a romantic weekend with the person you love.
Rating:
Summary: A stunningly beautiful film!
Review: When this film was originally released, it was called "possibly the most beautiful film ever made." It certainly ranks among the top few, for thegorgeous cinematography alone. It tells the tale of a young circus performer in the late 1800s, who runs away with her lover, a married officer. Mozart's stunning music (does anyone ever call it anything but the Elvira Madigan theme anymore?) is the perfect background for its beauty. A scene as ordinary as bees humming in a lush golden wheatfield is only one of the frames that make you catch your breath at its astonishing loveliness. Yet there is an underlying sense of impending tragedy that threads all through it, and winds its way to a heart-rending conclusion. This is a feast for the senses, and worth seeing again and again. END
Rating:
Summary: A stunningly beautiful film
Review: When this film was originally released, it was called by many critics "possibly the most beautiful film ever made." It certainly ranks among the top few. Bo Widerberg's tale of a young circus performer who runs away with her married lover, a military officer, takes place during a golden summer in the late 19th century. Mozart's haunting background music (does anyone ever call it anything but the Elvira Madigan Theme now?) is the perfect background for the gorgeous cinematography-- a scene as ordinary as the hum of bees in a lush gold hayfield is only one of the frames that make you catch your breath at its astonishing beauty. Yet there is an underlying sense of impending tragedy that threads all through it, and winds its way to a heart-rending conclusion. This is a feast for the senses, a film that will always be a great classic of cinematography. END
Rating:
Summary: A stunningly beautiful film
Review: When this film was originally released, it was called by many critics "possibly the most beautiful film ever made." It certainly ranks among the top few. Bo Widerberg's tale of a young circus performer who runs away with her married lover, a military officer, takes place during a golden summer in the late 19th century. Mozart's haunting background music (does anyone ever call it anything but the Elvira Madigan Theme now?) is the perfect background for the gorgeous cinematography-- a scene as ordinary as the hum of bees in a lush gold hayfield is only one of the frames that make you catch your breath at its astonishing beauty. Yet there is an underlying sense of impending tragedy that threads all through it, and winds its way to a heart-rending conclusion. This is a feast for the senses, a film that will always be a great classic of cinematography. END
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