VividSimon Simply Perfect

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

WilliamCrocodile Down the tenements, watching the train below, she's waiting for him. Here he comes and it's suddenly summer. On the dusty playground, he leaves her, she runs after him, he comes back, he hugs her, and it's suddenly summer. In the park, eyes meet, first sight. Through the window-pane, leaning on his silhouette, she searches for his perfume. Down on his knees, his face on her belly, he closes his eyes, and it's suddenly summer. On the countryside platform, alone in the morning,she stands, and looks away, she is suddenly summer. Against the mist,against the bitter wine of the grown-ups,against their renunciation and everything we have lost, they kiss, each the other's world entire, and are for ever, summer.This movie is a jewel.

lasttimeisaw Swedish auteur Roy Andersson's feature debut at the age of 27, who has only made 5 films so far (mainly due to a 25-year hiatus from 1975-2000 of directing feature film, he has made many shorts though during the spell), his latest work A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE (2014), is a prestigious Golden Lion winner.A Swedish LOVE STORY, centres on the puppy love between two teenagers Pär (Sohlman) and Annika (Kylin), and broaches tenderly their incipient sexual awakening. Set in the sun-drenched urban and sun-dappled rural Sweden, its colour scheme and raw warmth seem to contradict the typecast impression of Scandinavian landscape, a tinge of unusualness can be sensibly discovered through the non-existent narrative and its time-capsule pop references of the time: transistor radio, leather jackets, moped, smoking cigarettes (to emulate a sophisticated mien of adults), and pop songs aplenty. The intimacy and spontaneity between the two young leads suffice to induce a pleasant if to a certain extent, lackadaisical state of awareness. Ann-Sofie Kylin imbues her naturalistic pizazz potently in her laconic register and feline appearance (her captivating blue eyes in particular), and Rolf Sohlman, not a conventionally handsome boy, but his gauche precociousness scintillates great chemistry with Kylin.However, a tongue-in-cheek savour of Andersson's shrewd perception of the contemporary society lies in the adulthood, Pär's father Lasse (Tellfelt) is a working-class garage owner whereas Annika's father John (Norström), is an ambitious refrigerator salesman, and the relationship between him and Annika's mother Elsa (Weivers) is constantly under the strain. Another prominent character is Annika's Auntie, Eva (Lindblom), a single woman, who has just been released from the convalescent hospital in the beginning and forever struck by a lugubrious melancholy since she cannot find any footing in real life.The subplots of adults resolve half-heartedly around Pär and Annika's growing affections, until the last act, the puppy love has been sidelined to a a dinner party with both families in the countryside house of Lasse, where cone-shaped paper hats and crayfish bibs are taking the centre stage, the frictions of different views of the world inconveniently emerge, between the two patriarchs. A cynical and chagrined John bursts into a hysterical but also dead serious rant in the foggy morning and an impending tragedy seems to be in the offing. After reaching the emotional peak of despair and chaos, Andersson knowingly finishes off his confident debut with apparent levity but leaves behind an acrimonious taste of social critique which elevates the film above its central teenage affair, a sturdy and unique piece of work from an up-and-coming young filmmaker.

Ilikemoviesloll Roy Anderson is one of the absolute best directors of Sweden along side Bergman. He proves that in this perfect movie. A Swedish Love Story is my all time favorite Swedish movie, and not just because 99 % of the Swedish movies are complete garbage.This film gives a honest view of the teenage-love compared to the adult-love. Where the youth love is almost problem free, where the teenagers have communications-issues and the adults have problems that they are some what stuck in their relationship.. Roy creates a beautiful contrast there. Another thing that is very nicely captured are the class differences between Pär and Annika's family's. The dialog in the movie is also very simple and are likely to happen in real life. And at last the music, the perfect music in this film, and for that we will have to thank Björn Isfeldt! It is a shame that this film haven't got more attention like Bergmans movies.

drjukebox I actually didn't see this movie when it came out, although I was 13 at the time. I just saw it for the first time. I have heard good things about it, so I watched until the end. It is told slowly and beautifully, as we would expect from this director. The boy, the girl and their teenage love are the story. As a backdrop, we have dysfunctional adults, parents, relatives, friends and others, none of who seems to enjoy life even one bit. That is one of the problems with the film. If it is understood that this is depicted from the children's point of view, then it is perhaps OK. But except for the young couple, they're all cardboard, one-dimensional.I always felt this kind of movie has pretensions of realism, that it was made as a protest/alternative to the usual Hollywood fare, to "acting",to cinema as an escape. But it is only realistic to a very limited extent - the central love story. I frankly can't see it as any closer to "reality" than Sound of Music. Some see streaks of dark humor here. I must admit I cannot see that at all. It wouldn't hurt if it had been played as a comedy. I think that would be the only excusable way you could portray a group of people, a neighborhood, a nation this way - with a sense of humor. A modern successor to Andersson is Lukas Moodysson, equally adept with directing children but unable to direct people past adolescence with any depth. And last, folks, this is not a representative view of Sweden at any point in time, although some (including a few Swedes) claim it to be. It was never like this. I know, because I was there.