Pelle the Conqueror

Bille August co-adapted and directed Pelle the Conqueror out of an ambition to make an epic film.

The film, based on the 1910 novel of the same name by Martin Andersen Nexø, was a co-production by Danish and Swedish companies. As the story had both Danish and Swedish elements, cooperation between producers in both countries had practical benefit.[5]

The screenplay, by director Bille August, Per Olov Enquist, Max Lundgren, and Bjarne Reuter, adapted only the first Boyhood part of Nexø's four-volume work.[6] August decided to film the novel, considered essential reading in Denmark, and he wanted to make an epic film.[3]

For the title role, Pelle Hvenegaard, who was 11, was cast after August and the crew auditioned 3,000 children. August decided on Hvenegaard, who he said demonstrated concentration, patience and self-control.[3] The boy was coincidentally named after the character in Nexø's book, as are many boys in Denmark, given the decades-long popularity of the book.[7]

The film marked the first collaboration between production designer Anna Asp, who had previously worked on Offret (1986), and August, who had attended a Stockholm school of photography with her.[8] Asp said that in designing the house seen in Pelle the Conqueror, she wanted to evoke a prison, and thus built the walls and painted them black and white.[9]

Filming took place for nearly six months. Its budget of $4.5 million, secured from the Danish and Swedish film institutes, made it one of the most costly films made in the Scandinavian countries.[3]

Max von Sydow received praise for his performance and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Pelle the Conqueror was released to critical acclaim in the U.S.[11] Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars, comparing it to Jan Troell's The Emigrants (1971), saying Max von Sydow's Oscar nomination was "well deserved" and the novice Pelle Hvenegaard "never steps wrong."[7] Vincent Canby, writing for The New York Times, called it "a vividly re-created, minutely detailed panorama of a particular time," and said it was a "scandal" that Von Sydow did not win Best Actor at Cannes.[10] Peter Travers, writing for People, said that Von Sydow exhibited "wrenching simplicity and power," but the film "is maddeningly mediocre."[13] Swedish director Ingmar Bergman told August he saw the film seven times, subsequently choosing August to direct the film The Best Intentions.[14]

Mark Chalon Smith, writing in The Los Angeles Times in 1993, praised the film as faithful to the novel and said "Cinematographer Jorgen Persson ... captures several memorable images of the starkly beautiful Danish terrain."[12] Time Out wrote "Despite occasional lapses into sentimentality, the film is saved by its performances and its uncluttered depiction of harsh impoverished lives," particularly praising von Sydow.[15] In 2004, The New York Times placed the film on its list of "the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made."[16] Sarah Lutton, writing for the British Film Institute, named Pelle the Conqueror one of "10 great Danish films" and called Von Sydow "extraordinary."[17] Von Sydow later also called it "a very beautiful film."[18] The film holds an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 25 reviews.[19]

Pelle the Conqueror won the Palme d'Or at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival[20] The film also won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, 1988;[21] it was submitted to the Academy by the Danish government, giving Denmark its second consecutive win after Babette's Feast.[22] The Oscars ceremony also marked Max von Sydow's first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.[23]

• Elkington, Trevor Glen (2005). "Costumes, Adolescence, and Dogma". In Nestingen, Andrew K.; Elkington, Trevor Glen (eds.). Transnational Cinema in a Global North: Nordic Cinema in Transition. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3243-9.
• Ettedgui, Peter (1999). Production Design & Art Direction. Focal Press. ISBN 0-240-80400-7.
• Hjort, Mette (21 November 2007). "I. Denmark". In Hjort, Mette; Petrie, Duncan J. (eds.). The Cinema of Small Nations. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-3092-9.
• Hjort, Mette (2010). "On the Plurality of Cinematic Transnationalism". In Durovicová, Nataša; Newman, Kathleen E. (eds.). World Cinemas, Transnational Perspectives. New York and London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-86998-4.