Edvard Munch (film)

Infobox Film
name = Edvard Munch


image_size =
caption = DVD cover
director = Peter Watkins
producer =
writer = Peter Watkins
narrator = Peter Watkins
starring = Geir Westby
Gro Fraas
music =
cinematography = Odd Geir Sæther
editing = Peter Watkins
distributor =
released = 1974
runtime = 210 min. / 174 min. (USA)
country = Sweden / Norway
language = English/ Norwegian
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:90315
imdb_id = 0074462

"Edvard Munch" is a 1974 biographical film about the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch, written and directed by Peter Watkins. It was originally created as a three-part miniseries co-produced by the Norwegian and Swedish state television networks NRK and SVT, but has subsequently been released as a three-hour feature film. The film covers about thirty years of Munch's life, focusing on the influences that shaped his art, particularly the prevalence of disease and death in his family and his youthful affair with a married woman.

tyle

Like Watkins' other films, "Edvard Munch" uses a docudrama approach; scenes from Munch's life are re-enacted by a large cast (mostly Norwegian non-professional actors), but there is also a voiceover narration by Watkins, and there are moments when the characters speak directly to camera, as if being interviewed about their own lives or their opinions of Munch. Some of the dialogue was improvised by the cast, especially in the interview segments. To convey the hostile response Munch's work often received during his lifetime, Watkins recruited Norwegians who genuinely disliked the paintings.Fact|date=November 2007

Distribution and responses

After its initial broadcast, the film was briefly an international successFact|date=November 2007 but was not widely available for many years afterward. Watkins has said that network officials tried to suppress its distribution, and tried to bar it from competition in the Cannes Film Festival, because they disapproved of its use of nonprofessional actors and anachronistic dialogue.Fact|date=November 2007 After NRK relinquished rights to the film in 2002, it gained a wider international release.

Ingmar Bergman, the great Swedish filmmaker, called the film a "work of genius".Fact|date=November 2007

Cast

*Geir Westby as Edvard Munch
*Gro Fraas as Fru Heiberg
*Johan Halsbog as Dr. Christian Munch
*Lotte Teig as Karen Bjølstad
*Gro Jarto as Laura Catherine Munch
*Rachel Pedersen as Inger Munch
*Berit Rytter Hasle as Laura Munch
*Gunnar Skjetne as Peter Andreas Munch
*Kare Stormark as Hans Jæger
*Eli Ryg as Oda Lasson
*Iselin Bast as Dagny Juell
*Alf Kåre Strindberg as August Strindberg
*Eric Allum as Edvard - 1868
*Amund Berge as Edvard - 1875
*Kerstii Allum as Sophie - 1869
*Inger-Berit Oland as Sophie - 1875
*Susan Troldmyr as Laura - 1868
*Camilla Falk as Laura - 1875
*Ragnvald Caspari as Peter - 1868
*Erik Kristiansen as Peter - 1875
*Katja Pedersen as Inger - 1868
*Anne-Marie Dæhli as Inger - 1875

External links

*imdb title|id=0074462|title=Edvard Munch
*amg title|id=1:90315|title=Edvard Munch
* [http://museum.stanford.edu/view/documents/Munch_program_000.pdf Stanford Museum document on screening of film]