Edvard Munch (TV 1974)

Following a rough chronology from 1884 to 1894, when Norwegian artist Edvard Munch began expressionism and established himself as northern Europe's most maligned and controversial artist, ... See full summary »

Director:

Peter Watkins

Writer:

Peter Watkins

Stars:

Geir Westby, Gro Fraas, Kerstii Allum

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Following a rough chronology from 1884 to 1894, when Norwegian artist Edvard Munch began expressionism and established himself as northern Europe's most maligned and controversial artist, the film also flashes back to the death from consumption of his mother, when he was five, his sister's death, and his near death at 13 from pulmonary disease. The film finds enduring significance in Munch's brief affair with "Mrs. Heiberg" and his participation in the café society of anarchist Hans Jaeger in Christiania and later in Berlin with Strindberg. Through it all comes Munch's melancholy and his desire to render on canvas, cardboard, paper, stone, and wood his innermost feelings.

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Plot Keywords:

death | artist | melancholy | expressionism | desire | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Fantasy | History | Mystery

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Details

Country:

Sweden Norway

Language:

French English Norwegian German Swedish Danish

Release Date:

12 November 1974 (Norway)

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$4,473 (USA) (24 June 2005)

Gross:

$43,539 (USA) (10 March 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Norsk Film, Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK), Sveriges Radio

Technical Specs

Runtime:

210 min 174 min (theatrical)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Narrator: I felt as if there were invisible threads between us. I felt as if invisible threads from her hair still twisted themselves around me. And, when she completely disappeared there, over the ocean, then I felt still how it hurt, where my heart bled, because the threads could not be broken.

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Connections

Referenced in Scream: The Inside Story (2011)

User Reviews

Conventional Originality

The color and composition of the film -- with its grays, asymmetries, elongated figures -- seem to be modeled on Picasso's blue period rather than on Edward Munch's own work. But Picasso goes oddly unmentioned, perhaps because an allusion to Picasso might somehow qualify Munch's own artistic radicalism. This investigation of the painter as creative genius who destroys himself with drink and tobacco in an urban garret deploys all the familiar stereotypes about originality, over and over again. The director presents Munch as haunted by the image of the death by consumption of his sister and by his only partially fulfilled sexual desires. The film is beautifully self-indulgent and rather too long.