Tears of Stone (1995)

About the Icelandic composer Jon Leifs (1899-1968) who spent much of his life in Germany before WWII. The film begins in the 1930s after he has married the daughter of an industrialist, ... See full summary »

Director:

Hilmar Oddsson

Writers:

Sveinbjörn I. Baldvinsson, Hilmar Oddsson

Stars:

Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson, Ruth Olafsdottir, Winfried Wagner

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson	...	Jón
Ruth Olafsdottir	...	Annie (as Ruth Ólafsdóttir)
Winfried Wagner	...	Ræðumaður
Ulrich Tukur
Cilia Marianne Úlfsdóttir	...	Snót yngri (as Cili Marianne Ulfsdóttir)
Guðlaug Ólafsdóttir	...	Fríða (as Guðlaug Elísabet Ólafsdóttir)
Thomas Brasch
Heinz Bennent	...	Herr Richtof
Ingrid Andree	...	Fräu Ricthof
Bergþóra Aradóttir	...	Líf
Sigrún Lilliendahl	...	Snót eldri
Manuela Konopka
Benedikt Erlingsson
Gerry Wolf
Kurt Veth

Storyline

About the Icelandic composer Jon Leifs (1899-1968) who spent much of his life in Germany before WWII. The film begins in the 1930s after he has married the daughter of an industrialist, Annie, who is also a concert pianist. This era was frustrating for Leifs because his works were seldom performed.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama

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Details

Country:

Iceland Germany

Language:

Icelandic German

Release Date:

15 September 1995 (Iceland)

Also Known As:

Tears of Stone

Filming Locations:

Germany

Box Office

Budget:

ISK 140,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tónabíó, Peter Rommel Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Spoofed in Áramótaskaup 1996 (1996)

User Reviews

A representative slice

I was not at all familiar with Leifs before watching this movie. Knowing it was based on his life I expected it to be a fairly typical biopic, following him from his childhood, through his difficult life, ending up with him as an old man. While it does adhere to many traits common in biopics, I enjoyed that it only focused on one part of his life, instead trying to make that slice represent him as a person. From the character you see, you can guess how he ended up in the situation he was in, and though you only see him living in the difficult time of the second world war, you get a picture of what kind of person he was - both his good sides and his bad.

The most impressive part of the movie was how much they achieved with what I assume was a quite limited budget. Despite having most scenes being set in cities like Reykjavik and Berlin, there are hardly any shots of the cities themselves. Instead of letting this be an open wound, they opted for a more creative approach, using the darkness of night time and interesting cinematography to hide the fact. While not always successful, it makes the movie much more interesting.

My biggest gripe with the movie might be due to the print of it I saw - but the image quality seemed to be quite bad, and with a yellow tint that I hope was not intentional.