I remember seeing a television commercial for classical music records which was frequently on American television in the 1970's. It played a shot from this movie while selling "Mozart's Love Theme from Elvira Madigan." I never bought the records, but I always wanted to see the movie. Mozart's beautiful music with a pretty, young blond Swedish woman chasing butterflies on a sunny day in a park seemed a great scene to me. I assumed it would be a great movie.
Let me say that my wife and I generally enjoy period pieces and romantic movies. Give us any Jane Austen/Charlotte Bronte movie and we're enthralled. We also love the art-house films of the 50's and 60's. We've seen all of Federico Fellini's movies and many by Ingmar Bergman. Theoretically, we should have been the perfect audience for this film.
My wife made it through the first 25 minutes and then said "I'm going to bed". I tried to convince her to stay and promised her that it would get better, "It had too." I suggested, but to no avail. I stayed through the whole movie, waiting for something interesting to happen. I'm still waiting.
The scene in the television commercial of the blond young woman chasing butterflies, is not just one scene in the movie, it is the whole movie. It is a scene repeated over and over again. Okay, that's not totally true, there are a few other things that happen in the movie, for example, the woman sits listening to a string quartet.
It is just that the story doesn't really progress and the characters and their feelings remain mysteries. This is really a quite lifeless and drab romance. There is no real feeling here, just pretty images of wooden mannequins set to music. It gets pretty dull quickly and at the 25 minute mark, you too, might feel like going to bed.
Let me say that my wife and I generally enjoy period pieces and romantic movies. Give us any Jane Austen/Charlotte Bronte movie and we're enthralled. We also love the art-house films of the 50's and 60's. We've seen all of Federico Fellini's movies and many by Ingmar Bergman. Theoretically, we should have been the perfect audience for this film.
My wife made it through the first 25 minutes and then said "I'm going to bed". I tried to convince her to stay and promised her that it would get better, "It had too." I suggested, but to no avail. I stayed through the whole movie, waiting for something interesting to happen. I'm still waiting.
The scene in the television commercial of the blond young woman chasing butterflies, is not just one scene in the movie, it is the whole movie. It is a scene repeated over and over again. Okay, that's not totally true, there are a few other things that happen in the movie, for example, the woman sits listening to a string quartet.
It is just that the story doesn't really progress and the characters and their feelings remain mysteries. This is really a quite lifeless and drab romance. There is no real feeling here, just pretty images of wooden mannequins set to music. It gets pretty dull quickly and at the 25 minute mark, you too, might feel like going to bed.