Widerberg, at 37, has directed four other films, but this is the first to have success overseas. Within Sweden, he is considered the best of the young directors, but outside he has always had to labor in the shadow of Ingmar Bergman's international reputation.
Widerberg's "Raven's End" (1965), a success at the New York Film Festival and even an Oscar nominee, was never distributed nationally in the U.S. But "Elvira Madigan" has changed the pattern and may establish Widerberg as a hero of younger filmgoers, who identify more quickly with Godard's brisk irreverence than with Bergman's theology. After great success in New York, it will open its second U.S. engagement at the Playboy Theater on Friday.
Elvira Madigan, as every Swedish school child can tell you, was a beautiful young tightrope performer who, in the summer of 1899, abandoned her family circus to run away with Count Sixten Sparre. He, in turn, deserted from the Army and left behind a wife and two children. For a summer they lived happily, and when their funds were exhausted in the autumn, they went on a final picnic and committed suicide.
Their story has been close to the hearts of the Swedes ever since and there is a famous ballad about Elvira:
She was dainty, sweet and tender, She was pretty as a jewel; Neat her foot, her waist was slender, But, alas, her fate was cruel.
The story of the young lovers was first made into a Swedish movie 20 years ago. But Widerberg wanted to tell it in modem terms, and he has. Like "Bonnie and Clyde" (which, curiously enough, it resembles very much), "Elvira Madigan" works by juxtaposing visual beauty and temporary happiness with a strong sense of approaching tragedy.
For Elvira, Widerberg wanted an unknown actress, and discovered Pia Degermark, a 16-year-old schoolgirl, in a newspaper picture showing her dancing with Sweden's crown prince. ("Traditionally it's supposed to work the other way around," Widerberg observed, "and it's the crown prince who's supposed to discover the girl in the paper.")
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