Edvard Munch (1974) (TV)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Peter Watkins

Writer:

Peter Watkins (writer)

Release Date:

12 November 1974 (Norway)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

Following a rough chronology from 1884 to 1894, when Norwegian artist Edvard Munch began expressionism...

Plot Keywords:

Expressionism | Fjernsynsteater | Artist | Painter | Character Name In Title

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Geir Westby	...	Edvard Munch
Gro Fraas	...	Fru Heiberg
Kerstii Allum	...	Sophie Munch - 1868
Eric Allum	...	Edvard Munch - 1868
Susan Troldmyr	...	Laura Munch - 1868
Ragnvald Caspari	...	Peter Andreas Munch - 1868
Katja Pedersen	...	Inger Munch - 1868
Hjordis Ulriksen	...	Housemaid - 1868
Inger-Berit Oland	...	Sophie Munch - 1875
Amund Berge	...	Edvard Munch - 1875
Camilla Falk	...	Laura Munch - 1875
Erik Kristiansen	...	Peter Andreas Munch - 1875
Anne-Marie Daehli	...	Inger Munch - 1875 (as Anne Marie Dæhli)
Johan Halsborg	...	Dr. Christian Munch - 1884
Gro Jarto	...	Laura Catherine Munch - 1884

Also Known As:

Edvard Munch (USA)

Runtime:

210 min | USA:174 min (theatrical version)

Country:

Sweden | Norway

Language:

French | English | Norwegian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16

Company:

Norsk Film

Amazing

I just watched this movie last night and I came to this site to see how many awards this movie won. I was shocked when I saw that this was a TV movie that has apparently won no awards whatsoever! The movie is absolutely brilliant and completely mesmerizing.

Rather than just detailing the chronology of the artist's life, the film tells Munch's story by juxtaposing his excruciating emotional, sexual, and spiritual conflicts against his quiet and composed public facade. Raised in a Puritan middle-class Norwegian family, Munch rebelled early on by joining a group of Bohemian artists that met nightly to discuss the strict but hypocritical rules of Norwegian society which prized marriage and purity on the one hand while allowing legalized prostitution (supervised by the local police department) on the other. Munch's mother died when he was very young and before dying, made him and his sister promise to always be good, follow Jesus, and turn away from earthly desires. The movie tries to show how his early experiences caused a lifelong tension between sexual desire, unfulfilled love, emotional trauma, and spiritual guilt that created extreme anxiety and depression that, in turn, becomes a part of Munch's art. He tries to either excise or describe his pain through his art, I'm not sure which.

The movie layers multiple sounds and sights to create the story. So, for example, when Munch has his first sexual encounter with the love of his life, who is a married woman, the scene shifts back and forth between images of him kissing his love on the neck and mouth and scenes of his mother coughing up blood and being supported by her sisters as she dies. In many scenes of the movie, when he is painting, you hear a piano playing in a bar with all the bar noises and overlaying that sound is the sound of Munch weeping after he lost his love, all the while showing him attacking the canvas violently as he paints.

As others have said, the painful story of Munch's life and art is also interlaced with information about the society he lived in and stories from the news. So throughout the movie, you hear news snippets like when Hitler was born or when a revolution breaks out in Venezuela or a story about a riot in London. There are interviews with factory workers who work 16 hour days or prostitutes who are trying to support their families. There are a lot of details about the sexual revolution of the Bohemians and the painful affairs that resulted from that. There are quite a few bar discussions about Marxism, women's rights, censorship, and art. You just can't imagine people having these kinds of discussions today. One of Munch's mentors was jailed after he wrote a book that was considered too provocative for proper society. Munch also had exhibitions shut down because they were considered improper and immoral.

I strongly recommend this movie. I'm wondering if I'll ever see anything like this again.