NYT: Screen: 'Obsession,' Swedish Import:34th Street Has Movie of Madman's Memory
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Screen: 'Obsession,' Swedish Import:34th Street Has Movie of Madman's Memory
By VINCENT CANBY
Published: August 29, 1968
THE young hero of "Obsession," identified only as "You," hikes alone through the beautifully photographed, gray-brown, summer landscapes of Lapland. As he walks, he remembers an earlier trip along the same route with his sweetheart, a pretty, high-strung Jewish refugee.
Although the young man manages to think in well structured chronologically ordered flashbacks, it soon becomes apparent that he is out of his mind. The earlier hike, which had started out as an idyll, ended with the girl's drowning, which may or may not have been murder prompted by the young man's jealousy.
"Obession" is a lovely looking movie, but it is also a superficial drama, guided not by its own internal logic but by the arbitrarily imposed logic of its director, Gunnar Hoglund, who also wrote the screenplay with Bosse Gustafson. The Swedish film, with English subtitles, opened here yesterday at the 34th Street Theater.
Mr. Hoglund tries hard but unsuccessfully to translate into cinematic terms the kind of subjectivity that may only be possible in very personal prose. His camera sees the land and feels the coolness of the Arctic air, but it never records the passion of "You," played by Matthias Henrikson.
The girl (Maude Adelson) also is an enigma, except for one fleeting moment when Hoglund allows us to enter her head. As she watches a Laplander notch the ears of a reindeer, she automatically recoils into a concentration camp memory. Never illuminated, however, is the meaning of her Jewishness and its effect on her lover.
"Obsession" is a very earnest little picture, but watching it is like listening to a stranger recount a dream. It has some vivid moments, but its points of reference remain as secret as prenatal memories.
OBSESSION, screenplay by Gunnar Hoglund and Bosse Gustafson; directed by Mr. Hoglund; produced by Georg Eriksson and Lars Werner; an O.R.P. Company release Presented by Vernon P. Becker and Mel May. At the 34th Street East Theater, east of Third Avenue. Running time: 104 minutes.
"You" . . . . . Matthias Henrikson
Leni . . . . . Maude Adelson
The Other Man . . . . . Lars Lind
The Tourist . . . . . Guy De La Berg
By VINCENT CANBY
Published: August 29, 1968
THE young hero of "Obsession," identified only as "You," hikes alone through the beautifully photographed, gray-brown, summer landscapes of Lapland. As he walks, he remembers an earlier trip along the same route with his sweetheart, a pretty, high-strung Jewish refugee.
Although the young man manages to think in well structured chronologically ordered flashbacks, it soon becomes apparent that he is out of his mind. The earlier hike, which had started out as an idyll, ended with the girl's drowning, which may or may not have been murder prompted by the young man's jealousy.
"Obession" is a lovely looking movie, but it is also a superficial drama, guided not by its own internal logic but by the arbitrarily imposed logic of its director, Gunnar Hoglund, who also wrote the screenplay with Bosse Gustafson. The Swedish film, with English subtitles, opened here yesterday at the 34th Street Theater.
Mr. Hoglund tries hard but unsuccessfully to translate into cinematic terms the kind of subjectivity that may only be possible in very personal prose. His camera sees the land and feels the coolness of the Arctic air, but it never records the passion of "You," played by Matthias Henrikson.
The girl (Maude Adelson) also is an enigma, except for one fleeting moment when Hoglund allows us to enter her head. As she watches a Laplander notch the ears of a reindeer, she automatically recoils into a concentration camp memory. Never illuminated, however, is the meaning of her Jewishness and its effect on her lover.
"Obsession" is a very earnest little picture, but watching it is like listening to a stranger recount a dream. It has some vivid moments, but its points of reference remain as secret as prenatal memories.
OBSESSION, screenplay by Gunnar Hoglund and Bosse Gustafson; directed by Mr. Hoglund; produced by Georg Eriksson and Lars Werner; an O.R.P. Company release Presented by Vernon P. Becker and Mel May. At the 34th Street East Theater, east of Third Avenue. Running time: 104 minutes.
"You" . . . . . Matthias Henrikson
Leni . . . . . Maude Adelson
The Other Man . . . . . Lars Lind
The Tourist . . . . . Guy De La Berg
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