Thursday 1 April 2010

Swedish films (and Hasse Ekman) in New York

Today the tickets are released for the big retrospective of Swedish cinema from 1913 to 2010 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. A lot of good stuff will be screened, from the early, great film by Victor Sjöström, Ingeborg Holm (1913) to the equally great Flickan (The Girl 2009). And three films by Hasse Ekman will also be screened, Ombyte av tåg (Changing Trains 1943), Banketten (The Banquet 1948) and Flickan och hyacinter (The Girl With Hyacinths 1950). Not anyone of my two favourites, but they're still among his very best. I do feel partly responsible since I had lunch with Richard Peña, the Program Director of Lincoln Center, last year and then told him about Hasse Ekman (and other secrets of Swedish cinema). And now the good people of New York will get to see some of it in late April - early May.