Elvira Madigan / written and directed by Bo Widerberg.

9798886070538

[United States] : The Criterion Collection, [2023]

1 videodisc (90 minutes) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in.

Bo Widerberg reached new heights of visual lyricism with the sublime retelling of a real-life nineteenth-century romantic tragedy. Bound by their all-consuming desire, a young circus tightrope walker and a lieutenant with a wife and children forsake everything to be together and escape to the countryside, only to see their lovers' idyll gradually give way to poverty and desperation. With its painterly, sun-dappled images and indelible use of Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 21, this 1960s art-house sensation is the most ravishing expression of Widerberg's recurring theme of the tension between individual freedom and social responsibility.

Images / Video & Film

Swedish

December 07, 2023

Screenwriter, director, Bo Widerberg; director of photography, Jörgen Persson; sound, Sven Fahlén; music, W.A. Mozart, Antonio Vivaldi.

Pia Degermark, Tommy Berggren, Lennart Malmer, Cleo Jensen, Nina Widerberg.

Blu-ray, wide screen (1.66:1 aspect ratio); monaural; requires Blu-ray player.