spiderwort
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@spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Jan 19, 2019 15:48:01 GMT
Sweet Land (2005, directed by Ali Salim). In a small Minnesota town shortly after the end of WWI, a mail-order bride arrives to marry Olaf, a Norwegian immigrant dairy farmer in a community of the same. When it is discovered she is German, anti-German sentiment from the war turns the people against the new couple. This was an indie film with a limited release but “Sweet Land” tells a sweet story. Well worth your while. ![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lZKadvsmw1Y/WhIYI2-2gLI/AAAAAAAAGCo/islKL6cQEqsHEOCGRhM-Ff-IHAA-TPcpACEwYBhgL/s640/LeKinkyTwilighters_SweetLand%2B11278.jpg)
This is one of my favorite films. It's a real beauty with so many wonderful performances and so much humanity. It's based upon Will Weaver's short story, "A Gravestone Made of Wheat," the title of his volume of short stories about that time and place. It's as beautiful as the film, if anyone's interested in reading it.
All the cast is great, but I particularly love Elizabeth Reaser as Inge, the young bride, and Lois Smith as Inge in her later years.
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Post by mikef6 on Jan 19, 2019 16:26:44 GMT
Sweet Land (2005, directed by Ali Salim). In a small Minnesota town shortly after the end of WWI, a mail-order bride arrives to marry Olaf, a Norwegian immigrant dairy farmer in a community of the same. When it is discovered she is German, anti-German sentiment from the war turns the people against the new couple. This was an indie film with a limited release but “Sweet Land” tells a sweet story. Well worth your while. ![](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lZKadvsmw1Y/WhIYI2-2gLI/AAAAAAAAGCo/islKL6cQEqsHEOCGRhM-Ff-IHAA-TPcpACEwYBhgL/s640/LeKinkyTwilighters_SweetLand%2B11278.jpg)
This is one of my favorite films. It's a real beauty with so many wonderful performances and so much humanity. It's based upon Will Weaver's short story, "A Gravestone Made of Wheat," the title of his volume of short stories about that time and place. It's as beautiful as the film, if anyone's interested in reading it.
All the cast is great, but I particularly love Elizabeth Reaser as Inge, the young bride, and Lois Smith as Inge in her later years.
I am glad to hear from you about this wonderful film. I had discussed it with jeffersoncody on another occasion (My Lovely Wife's paternal grandparents had been Norwegian immigrants who farmed in Wisconsin. Her father, like Olaf, would not buy a farm or car or tractor without being able to pay in full. No mortgage.). I'm happy to find someone else whose opinion I respect who has seen and appreciated this fine film.
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spiderwort
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@spiderwort
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Post by spiderwort on Jan 19, 2019 16:50:23 GMT
I am glad to hear from you about this wonderful film. I had discussed it with jeffersoncody on another occasion (My Lovely Wife's paternal grandparents had been Norwegian immigrants who farmed in Wisconsin. Her father, like Olaf, would not buy a farm or car or tractor without being able to pay in full. No mortgage.). I'm happy to find someone else whose opinion I respect who has seen and appreciated this fine film.
Thank you. And oh, yes. I read the short story and immediately started to make plans to turn it into a film, but Ali Selim beat me to it. And he did a wonderful job. I was always surprised and disappointed that more people didn't see it, that it sort of got lost and is now a bit forgotten. It deserves so much more. Thanks for sharing your personal connection to it; that only further demonstrates its virtues in terms of its ability to convey so beautifully a culture, time, and place that is unique and precious - a world, sadly, that is far less accessible today.
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Post by london777 on Jan 21, 2019 4:12:24 GMT
I have just watched one of the best films I have seen in the past twelve months. It is not about mail order brides or kidnapped brides but it is on a related theme, and I cannot see it fitting into any other topic, so I hope my friend pimpin will allow me to mention it here. Zelary (2003) dir: Ondrej Trojan is set during WWII. It is in three acts which seem to belong to different genres. The first act is set in Bratislava, Slovakia (though actually filmed in Brno, Czech Republic). Zelary is a student doctor. She and her doctor lover are active in the resistance to German occupation. He is caught and executed. She is whisked away to a remote and backward village for her own protection. As this elegant and somewhat fastidious urban creature would stick out like a sore thumb, she is ordered to marry a smelly peasant in the resistance as cover. I like Resistance movies but I always think "I could never do that. My legs (and bowels) would give way at the first challenge". I have never seen an agent's terror so well depicted. Of course, this makes their bravery all the more admirable. The second and much longer middle act shows how she "goes native", is accepted in the community, and valued for her medical skills, while her relationship with her protector evolves. She also experiences spiritual healing from the natural life and beautiful countryside on which the war does not directly impinge. The third act shows what happens when the village is liberated by the Red Army. It is not all jolly moonshine drinking and dancing. The Slovakian government and the dominant Catholic Church were willing collaborators with the Nazis during the war. This is not really emphasized in the movie but it does help to explain the events in the final act. It also explains why the protagonists have somewhat more freedom of movement than would be the case in a similar story set in, say, Poland or Belarus. The highest praise I can give a movie is that it reminds me of one of my favorite English novelists. (For example, I called the underworld in "Night and the City" "Dickensian"). The scenes of village life in Zelary remind me of Thomas Hardy: the rustic wedding with its beautiful folk music, the village idlers and idiots, and the "Wise Woman" with her herbal cures. There is also a touch of "Wuthering Heights" and "The Secret Garden" in the person of the village outcast, a boy who lives wild and communes with the animals. The film was shot in real time over the course of a year and this perhaps added to its beautiful photography. ![](https://www.alekinoplus.pl/ms_galeria/fotobase/36449_c.jpg) ![](http://www.moviematrix.de/mov/z/img/zelary_2003_06.jpg) ![](https://filmix.co/uploads/frames/94649/f74896-zhelyary-zelary-2003_original.jpg) ![](http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/1/12/MN-R-RA-Z.jpg/400px-MN-R-RA-Z.jpg)
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wanton87
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Post by wanton87 on Jan 21, 2019 5:53:06 GMT
A somewhat obscure selection, but since no one listed it, I will. Billy Two Hats (1974). That rancher Spencer, had a mail order bride, in the form a sweet, young, Sian Barbara Allen (I’ve always thought she was very pretty). This one stars Gregory Peck, and an in his prime Desi Arnaz Jr. I think it’s a pretty good movie overall, but I like westerns.
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