Pelle the Conqueror [Blu-ray]

Overview

Long but rewarding, the Danish-Swedish Pelle the Conqueror is based on the early passages of Martin Andersen Nex?'s four-volume novel. Pelle (Pelle Hvengaard) is the son of a 19th-century Swedish farmer (Max Von Sydow). Seeking escape from their poverty-stricken surroundings, father and son emigrate to Denmark. Upon arrival, however, they are treated like indentured servants, leading to a profound ideological turnaround for the impressionable Pelle. In the original novel, he ended up embracing Communism, but Nex?'s political overtones are soft-pedalled in the film, which concentrates on the close, indestructible relationship between Pelle and his father. Directed by Bille August, Pelle the Conqueror won the 1988 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/30/2017
UPC:	0859686006154
Original Release:	1987
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Film Movement
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:30:00
Sales rank:	29,819

Special Features

Commentary by FIlm Scholar Peter Cowie; New Essay by Terrence Rafferty

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Pelle Hvenegaard	Pelle the Conqueror
Max von Sydow	Pappa Lasse
Erik Paaske	Farm Foreman
Björn Granath	Farmhand Erik
Astrid Villaume	Mrs. Kongstrup
Troels Asmussen	Rud
John Wittig	Schoolteacher
Anne Lise Hirsch Bjerrum	Actor,Karna
Lena Pia Bernhardsson	The Sow,Soen
Kristina Tornquist	Actor
Buster Larsen	Ole Koller
Lars Simonsen	Actor
Thure Lindhardt	Actor
Benjamin Holck Henricksen	Actor
Nis Bank-Mikkelsen	The Clergyman
Kristina Törnqvist	Anna
Sofie Gråbøl	Jomfru Sine / Miss Sine
Axel Strøbye	Kongstrup
Troels Munk	Læge
Morten Jorgensen	Actor
Karen Wegener	Mrs Olsen
Stefan Nilsson	Composer

Technical Credits

Bille August

Bille August	Director,Screenwriter
Per Holst	Producer
Lars Kolvig	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Pelle the Conqueror is that rare instance of a film winning the approval of the oft-times demanding jury at Cannes (where it won the Palm d'Or) and the generally conservative members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who honored it with an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It is, in short, a serious work of art that is also accessible and universal in its appeal. Pelle (Pelle Hvenegaard) and his father, Lasse (Max Von Sydow), are a co-dependent pair. Lasse, an older widower with few employable skills, is forced to work under degrading conditions in his new home on a Denmark farm, and while the young Pelle watches his father's humiliations, he comes to understand his own need to for independence. It's a coming-of-age story with a bitter difference; Pelle must grow up before he even reaches puberty or else he'll be mired in the same meager existence as his Pappa. Writer/director Bille August doesn't rush this story, allowing occasional rays of hope to beckon Lasse and Pelle to a better life. Lasse courts a local woman until her husband, presumably lost at sea, shows up, while Pelle is taken in by the farm owner's kindly wife until she stabs her husband in a jealous rage and decides to care for him instead. The film has the feel of the classic Italian postwar neorealist dramas, honestly presenting the everyday lives of downtrodden people without apology or excuse for their miserable conditions.