Troell, Jan

International Dictionary of Film and Filmmakers, (2000) by John C. Tibbetts

TROELL, Jan

Nationality: Swedish. Born: Limnhamm, Skane, 23 July 1931. Career: Teacher, Sorgenfri primary school, Malmo, for nine years; made short documentaries about life in Malmo, 1960–65; made epic-length chronicles of Swedish history and contemporary life, including Har har du ditt liv ( Here Is Your Life ), 1966, and the two-part saga Utvandrarna ( The Emigrants ) and Nybyggarna ( The New Land ), 1970; later films abroad include Zandy's Bride (1974), Hurricane (1979) in Bora Bora, and Ingenjor andrees luftfard ( The Flight of the Eagle ), 1982; returned to documentary filmmaking with his most ambitious project to date, Sagolandet ( The Fairytale Country ), an eighty-hour chronicle of Swedish contemporary life, 1988. Awards: State Prize, Swedish Film Institute, for Johan Ekberg ; Grand Prix, Oberhausen, for Stopover ; Golden Bear, Berlin Film Festival, for Who Saw Him Die? ; four Academy Award nominations for The Emigrants , and a Best Foreign-Language Film Academy Award nomination for The Flight of the Eagle.

Films as Director:

1960

Stad

1961

Baten ( The Ship ); Sommartag ( Summer Train ); Nyar i Skane ( New Year's Eve in Skane )

1962

Pojken och draken ( A Boy and His Kite ) (with Bo Widerberg); Var i Dalby hage ( Spring in the Pastures of Dalby )

Jan Troell

1964

De gamla kvarnen ( The Old Mill ); Trakom ( Trachoma ); Johan Ekberg

1965

Portratt av Asa ( Portrait of Asa ); Uppehall i myrlandet ( Stopover in the Marshland ) (episode in Four by Four )

1966

Har har du ditt liv ( Here Is Your Life )

1968

Ole dole doff ( Who Saw Him Die? ; Eeny Meeny Miny Moe )

1970

Utvandrarna ( The Emmigrants ); Nybyggarna ( The New Land ; Unto a Good Land )

1974

Zandy's Bride

1977

Bang!

1979

Hurricane

1982

Ingenjor andrees luftfard ( The Flight of the Eagle )

1988

Sagolandet ( The Fairytale Country )

1991

Il Capitano

1996

Hamsun

1997

En Frusen dröm ( A Frozen Dream )

2000

92,8Mhz-drömmar: söder ; Så vit som snö

Other Film:

1963

Barnvagnen ( The Baby Carriage ) (Bo Widerberg) (lighting cameraman)

Publications

By TROELL: book—

Jan Troell (portrait and interview), Swedish Film Institute (Stockholm), 1975.

By TROELL: articles—

"John Simon on Jan Troell," interview in Film Heritage (New York), Summer 1974.

"Filmmaking in Sweden," in Interview (New York), no. 1, n.d.

"Mordare med kaniner I bagaget," in Chaplin (Stockholm), vol. 33, no. 5, 1991.

"Att sätta en stenbumling I rörelse," in Chaplin (Stockholm), vol. 38, no. 3, 1996.

On TROELL: book—

Cowie, Peter, editor, Sweden (Screen Series, Vols. 1 and 2), Stockholm, 1970.

On TROELL: articles—

Landau, Jon, " The New Land ," in Rolling Stone (New York), 6 December 1973.

Crist, Judith, "A Repast of Things Remembered," New York , 27 May 1974.

Steen, Brigitta, "An Interlude with Jan Troell," Thousand Eyes (New York), 4 March 1976.

Monaco, James, "Look Back: Zandy's Bride ," Millimeter (New York), 8 April 1976.

Gilliatt, Penelope, " Hurricane ," in New Yorker , 23 April 1979.

Chase, Chris, "At the Movies: Jan Troell Calm about Oscar Bid," New York Times , 8 April 1983.

Thomas, Kevin, " Here Is Your Life Launches UCLA Jan Troell Retrospective," Los Angeles Times , 8 January 1990.

Garrett, Robert, "The Journey Outward: The Films of Jan Troell," Boston Globe , 16 February 1990.

Hedling, O., "Carlsson mot May," in Filmhäftet (Stockholm), December 1993.

* * *

"We are the last dinosaurs of Swedish film," lamented Ingmar Bergman to Jan Troell in 1983. At the time neither could yet claim to be an elder statesman—Bergman was sixty-five at the time and Troell was only fifty-two—but both had lived and worked long enough to find themselves somewhat estranged from their own profession. Frequently cited as Sweden's two greatest filmmakers, they have much else in common. Both are fiercely independent artists, trained in film and television, who have made their slow and patient way as chroniclers and critics of the history, myths, and institutions of their native land.

As director, photographer, and editor of his films, Troell has retained an unusual degree of control for most of his career. His films are invariably pictorially beautiful, stylistically conservative, and moderately paced. Excepting an occasional foray into contemporary life, his subjects have been mostly historical in nature.

Troell's first projects drew upon his experiences as a boy and later as a teacher in his native town of Malmo, in the southernmost province of Skane. Baten ( The Ship , 1961) was a documentary about the last journey of the SS Malmo , which for many years had carried passengers to Copenhagen. Sommartag ( Summer Train , 1961) was a nostalgic tribute to an Osterlen locomotive. And Nyar i Skane ( New Year's Eve in Skane ) recalled the Scanian plains of his childhood.