Elvira Madigan

Star Review

In many ways, Bo Widerberg is the Swedish François Truffaut. Starting out as a critic, he attacked the work of the country's most famous film-maker, Ingmar Bergman, for shunning everyday reality. Yet, having practised what he preached in early features like The Baby Carriage (1962) and Love 65 (1965), Widerberg adopted a more lyrical approach for this commercially successful period piece. Indeed, Elvira Madigan could be described as a variation on Truffaut’s Jules et Jim, with a disapproving society (instead of a romantic rival) preventing the happiness of a pair of star-crossed lovers. Thommy Berggren and Pia Degermark are superb as the married army officer and teenage tightrope artist willing to risk everything for their illicit passion. But while Jorgen Persson's luminous cinematography is invariably cited as the main reason for the enduring appeal of this fact-based melodrama, Widerberg captures the small humiliations of poverty with as much fidelity as the colours of summer, which are made all the more enchanting by the accompaniment of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21.

David Parkinson on 7th May 2005

View all 90 of David Parkinson’s reviews

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Film Description

An aristocratic Swedish cavalry lieutenant abandons his wife, children and the army to run away with a beautiful, free-spirited circus performer. As summer turns to winter however, their idyll is remorselessly dissolved. Mozart's piano concerto no. 21 provides the soundtrack to this beautiful, powerful and haunting tale of doomed love. Pia Degermark won Best Actress at Cannes in 1967 for her portrayal of Elvira.

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Widerberg's gentle and sad period love story wears well, not least in its canny use of Mozart's 21st piano concerto, so influential that classical CDs now routinely la... more >

Widerberg's gentle and sad period love story wears well, not least in its canny use of Mozart's 21st piano concerto, so influential that classical CDs now routinely label the piece 'the Elvira Madigan concerto'. < less

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Cast

Pia Degermark, Thommy Berggren

Technical Details