The Swedish film director Lasse Hallstrom

The Swedish film director, actor Lasse Hallström, twice the Oscar nominee, was born in Stockholm in the first month of the summer of 1946. His mother Karin Luberg is a well-known writer, and although her father worked as a simple dentist, he devoted all his free time to filming a video on an amateur camcorder.

Creative way

Lasse Hallstrom, whose films are now widely recognized and popular, tried to imitate his father in everything. Therefore it is not surprising that the director started his career as a clip maker. Hallstrom filmed videos for the mega-pop group ABBA. According to his confession, their joint work and pastime left a significant imprint on his future work.

The first significant debut of the director in the big cinema is the film "My Doggy Life", in which Lasse appeared in two roles - the director and co-author of the script. This teenage retro tragicomedy in 1985 became world famous and received two nominations for the most prestigious in the world cinema award "Oscar". The picture was created based on the autobiographical novel by Reidar Jönsson, the whole plot of which is built on the child's perception of the surrounding reality: memories, disappointments, fantasies. Therefore, the plot as such is particularly significant in the cinema is not, and a brief narrative of the storyline will not give a true picture of the picture. The whole film is saturated with subtle humor, kindness, light nostalgia at times long gone and quiet sadness about the unfulfilled first love.

sources of inspiration

Directed by Lasse Hallström, analyzing his development in creative terms, he called his earliest comic films Milos Forman, thanks to which he learned to look more closely at people, to see a comedic shade literally in any life situation. In order to comprehend the wisdom of working with actors, the director carefully and repeatedly revised the works of the great master John Cassavetes. But his main inspiration Lasse Hallström calls the unrivaled Chaplin, who was not afraid to combine drama with comedy, comedy and lyrics.

Hollywood debut

In 1993, Lasse Hallstrom literally broke into Hollywood with the tragicomic melodrama "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?", In which young, but already famous Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio starred. The bitterly strangling ribbon of the Swedish director was shot based on the novel of the young writer Peter Hedges, the plot of the picture tells about the routine of the provincial town of Endor. The picture, about the recognition of world film critics, closely echoes the project of Emir Kusturica "Arizona Dream". Six years later, Lasse Hallstrom was nominated for an Oscar for the retro drama "Rules of winemakers."

A significant milestone in his career

Romantic melodrama "Chocolate" Lasse Hallstrem shot in 2000. According to the creator, the project is an amusing fairy tale about the everlasting confrontation between the new and the traditional and the importance of enjoying life. The picture is based on the same name by Joanne Harris, a British writer. The main roles were played by Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche, naminated for the embodiment of the character of the beauty Vianne Rocher on Golden Globe and Oscar. In the film, the director's wife, actress Lena Olinn, acted as the second actor in the role of Josephine Muscat. After the success of "Chocolate", the director made several more pictures, included in the list of cult film masterpieces of the beginning of the XXI century: "Hachiko: The Most Faithful Friend", "Kazanova", "The Mystification".

Without excessive sentimentality

No less significant work of the director is the melodrama "Dear John", which famous film critics accused of having all the necessary components for the box office. Indeed, Lasse Hallström, whose films were previously filmed without speculative sentimentality, in the movie "Dear John" collected war, love between an exemplary girl and a bad guy, suffering from autism and lymphoma of heroes, canonical separation due to war, beauty of the surrounding nature, swimming in The ocean in the rain and beautiful kisses. The melodrama starred starring young stars of the factory Greene Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried. According to the director, they managed to transfer to the screen "chemistry", which arose between the main characters. Actors encouraged the director, communicating with them, Lasse acknowledged that he felt younger.

Sentimental film about the cultural dialogue between cultures

During the creation of the next masterpiece of Hallstrom's "Spice and Passion", the director was assisted by two legendary figures in the history of American TV and cinema - Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, who acted as producers. The three of them performed casting, edited the script and consulted, scanning the footage. Imagine a more suitable director for the cinema about France, a mixture of cultures, emigrants, love and overcoming is impossible. Lasse Hallström, whose creative style has long been formed, was ideally suited for the post of director in the film adaptation of the story written by Richard Morais. In the film "Spices and Passion" Lasse follows his creative tradition - gracefully raising current problems, entertaining, while simultaneously teaching the viewer. The picture was really multinational - Americans, invested by oligarchs of the United Arab Emirates, filmed a film about Indians in France in the title role with an English movie star thanks to the Swedish director. For a complete picture, only the Russian antagonist was missing, but, fortunately, he did without it.