European Union Film Festival
Their Frozen Dream
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In Flight of the Eagle (1982) Swedish director Jan Troell dramatized an 1897 balloon expedition to the north pole that ended in disaster for three Scandinavian explorers. Fifteen years later, on the 100th anniversary of the event, he created this hour-long documentary, using diaries, logs, letters, and footage from his earlier film to retell the riveting story of those foolhardy adventurers, who died in the arctic cold months after their balloon crashed and whose remains weren’t found until 1930. Like the work of Ken Burns, the film is impeccably paced, and the ghostly images from the explorers’ posthumously developed photographs underscore both their resolve and the poignance of their quixotic mission. (TS) (6:00)
A Summer by the River
A pair of stories based on characters from Luigi Pirandello. Directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (The Night of the Shooting Stars). (8:15)
The title character of this 1997 Danish historical drama is a familiar one, the beautiful but insatiable woman who can’t remain faithful, and while Anneke von der Lippe is gently appealing as Barbara, she never quite communicates the passions governing her behavior. Yet the scenery is spectacular: director Nils Malmros presents the treeless landscape of Denmark’s Faeroe Islands in studied, painterly images, stressing its similarity to the expanses of sea and sky. These images never quite flow together cinematically, but Malmros has a good feel for the life of this secluded outpost, where a ship’s arrival is a major event in the islanders’ lives. (FC) (6:00)
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Barbara film still.
