Andersson gets warm welcome at home

by Annika Pham

28/09/2007 - Back on the silver screen seven years after Songs from the Second Floor, Roy Andersson’s You, the Living [trailer, film focus] took sixth place in the Swedish Top 10 last weekend, and admissions yesterday passed the 10,000 mark from 28 screens.

The film benefited from very strong reviews across the national press, as well as from last Tuesday’s announcement by the Swedish Film Institute of the film’s selection for the Oscar race.

Two other Swedish films stayed in the domestic top five last weekend. The mainstream feel-good movie Wonderful and Loved by All by Hannes Holm kept its fourth position after five weeks, still playing on 80 screens through Walt Disney Motion Pictures, and the smaller film Ett öga rött by first time director Daniel Wallentin is also keeping strong at number five for Sonet Film.

The new relationship drama To Love Someone by Åke Sandgren (Truly Human), opening today in Sweden, could also make it to the Top 10. The film, scripted by the experienced Kim Fupz Aakeson, stars Rolf Lassgård as a man who feels always threatened by his wife’s former husband. The film is produced and released by Nordisk Film.

Other European films opening today include two SF-released titles – Norwegian animated film Elias and the Royal Yacht and French film Hunting and Gathering [trailer] – and the German/Austrian documentary Our Daily Bread [trailer] (Folkets Bio).

In neighbouring Denmark, Thomas Vinterberg’s first Danish film in almost a decade, A Man Comes Home [trailer], didn’t quite manage to win local audiences back and slid from fourth to seventh place in its second weekend. His counterpart Ole Bornedal – who was also absent quite a while from the big screen before making two films in a row, The Substitute [trailer] and Just Another Love Story [trailer] – was more successful. Both films released by SF Filmcompagniet have passed 180,000 admissions, and Just Another Love Story, still playing in 67 screens, hasn’t moved from its fourth place at the Top 10 in five weeks.

With Your Permission [trailer], the new comedy by actress-turned director Paprika Steen, is today’s biggest local release in Denmark with 40 prints. The dark comedy scripted by maverick Anders Thomas Jensen is produced and released by Nordisk Film had its international premiere in Toronto.