Lampa is a student film that Roman Polanski has somewhat disowned on grounds he hasn’t chosen to reveal. It is nonetheless one of his most haunting works—and a clear influence on Steven Soderbergh’s best film, Bubble (2006). The title refers to the kerosene lamp by which a toymaker meticulously works in his shop, which is […]
Daily Archives: August 13, 2008
I have just added this entry to Part I of my list of the 100 Greatest Films from Germany, Scandinavia, Finland & Austria, which you will find elsewhere on this blogsite. From Nils Krok’s play, writer-director Victor Sjöström’s Ingeborg Holm is one of cinema’s earliest masterpieces, an overwhelming tearjerker about mother-love that strikes resonant chords […]
From Henrik Ibsen’s poem, Victor Sjöström’s Terje Vigen, from Sweden, is about a Norwegian sailor (Sjöström, robust, excellent), who, returning home, finds waiting for him, along with his wife, the fruit of his previous homecoming: an infant daughter. Terje Vigen “sobers down” as a result, rejecting a night of barroom comradery in favor of staying […]
Dennis Grunes 