Toward the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Europe was teeming with new ideas and innovations of modernity formulated by writers, painters, and poets in a society at once attracted to serious intellectual challenges and disturbed by radical change. In conjunction with the exhibition Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul, the Department of Film and Media presents a small survey of films by and about Munch, as well as films based on the writings of equally famous fellow Scandinavian iconoclasts Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and Knut Hamsun—artists whose paths crossed during this particularly fertile period in the Nordic arts, and who in some instances shared artistic concerns. The works of these authors have been performed and interpreted ever since they first appeared. They continue to stir debate, and have inspired filmmakers in a variety of cultural settings to filter the texts through different artistic temperaments and eras, creating new, original works.
Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film and Media. With grateful acknowledgment to the Norwegian Film Institute.