Elvira Madigan

Birth: Dec. 4, 1867, Sweden Death: Jul. 1, 1889, Fyn, Denmark Born Hedvig Jensen in Flensburg, Germany, to Danish-Norwegian parents. She took the stage name Elvira Madigan from her stepfather, John Madigan, the owner of the circus where she performed as an acrobatic dancer. In late Spring of 1889, while touring with the troupe through Sweden, she met and fell in love with Sixten Sparre, a cavalry lieutenant in the Swedish Army. She was 21, he was 34. He was also married with two children. They kept their romance a secret until June, when Sparre suddenly deserted his family and his post and fled with Elvira to Denmark. They stayed on the island of Taasinge for two weeks before their money ran out. On July 1, 1889, the couple packed a picnic basket and walked deep into the Neorreskov, a nearby forest. After having a final meal and making love for the last time, Sparre shot Elvira and then himself with his service revolver. They were buried together in the Landet Churchyard. The saga of these doomed lovers slowly entered romantic mythology, leaving a key question unanswered: Did Elvira willingly enter a suicide pact with Sparre, or was she the victim of his ruthless obsession? Her sister and friends claimed she was not the romantic type and yearned only for a life away from the circus, which she apparently hoped Sparre would provide. As for her paramour, he was known as something of wastrel, prone to expressing cynical thoughts in his journals while piling up gambling debts. And the positions in which the bodies were found leaves open the possibility that Sparre killed Elvira while she slept. Such clues have had little influence on the popular imagination, which still views the affair as a tragic case of "love on the run". It was the subject of an award-winning film, "Elvira Madigan" (1967), by Swedish director Bo Widerberg. The soundtrack features the Andante from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21, now popularly known as "Elvira Madigan's Theme." Newlywed brides still place flowers on Elvira's grave, to make up for the wedding bouquet she never got. Taken from Findagrave

With all art we need to think about the basics: the subject as presented; how the object is constructed; and lastly context

The film looks gorgeous - yellow sunlight, woods with light streaming down (or was that my wishful thinking?), the colour red - as a recurring motif. The acting seems verisimilitudinous, and focusses primarily on the couple. The camera shows time passing often with lingering shots of nature and simple actions. We are enthralled when we see her walking on the tightrope between two trees. And here we begin to see that this might be a story of context. The film was made in 1967 the year before the summer of love - hippie thinking was reaching a zenith. George Harrison met Ravi Shankar in 1967. However in reality this year also saw another film love affair depicted somewhat differently - Bonnie and Clyde. The contrast between the two is ionteresting. In Elvira stravation is not depicted very truthfully - starvation does not equate to eating flowers and then puking in a feminine nice way! B&C show violence more like it is - fictious no doubt, but at least attempting to protray the viciousness.

Beautiful film very sunny, beautiful lady -in the film - tragic love - but hey, could they really not travel to Germany and try their luck? Is life really THAT hard?

Did she jump or was she pushed? Do I care? Nah! I'll remember the image of a lovely blond with sixties mascara freely frolicking, but not much else. Oh, maybe I'll remember Mozart's piece he didn't write for the film! [Reviewed by Nuthatch]

I began the film with high hopes. All the reviews looked promising - here was a beautiful love story I could settle down to have a good blub over. How wrong I was! I spent most of this film wondering why on earth these two people were together, and wondering what Elvira saw in a man who had left his wife and kids without any means of support and doomed them both to a life of constant running by deserting the army. Perhaps if we had seen a blossoming romance or scenes of how difficult their lives had been before they ran away then I might have been convinced; but as it was they might as well have just been strangers who met in a field one day and out of the blue struck up a romance (in fact I spent the first half an hour thinking that this was exactly what happened).

Being unmoved by the romance of the piece, I spent much of the latter part of the film feeling disgusted at the supremely selfish and naive attitude of the protagonists (especially Sixten leaving a wife and kids in a time in history when there would have been little support available for her), and a little incredulous that they could possibly feel that suicide was the only way for them to go! I was left feeling that I had arrived at the film 40 years too late, and that I might only have appreciated it if I had watched it in the 60s when it would have fitted beautifully with the sentiments of "all you need is love" and to hell with the consequences. Perhaps being female also clouds one's judgement as I couldn't help but feel sorry for the (presumably older and uglier) wife at home. Writing this review a couple of weeks down the line the impressions I am left with are largely of sunshine, a becoming blonde, and general dissatisfaction at a film, the specifics of which have largely faded from my memory. [Reviewed by Stonechat]

This film evoked for me the same sort of feeling as the long summer holidays when I was at school. There was a sense that it was too good to last!! It seemed as if the two lovers were from the start aware of the time-limited nature of their love. The predominant colours of the film were vivid green and yellow, colours of sunshine and trees in full leaf, but every so often there appeared a touch of blood red, such as spilt wine - a warning of the end to come. The end was as inevitable as the end of summer because Sixten and Elvira's love was a forbidden one and was indulged at the expense of family and other commitments and without the blessing of society. The two lovers had forsaken everything, including their livelihoods, for their love and had no way back into society and no means of support once their money ran out. I was reminded of the tale of the ant and the grasshopper. Sixten and Elvira are like grasshoppers, living for the moment, heedless of the future. Is it significant that this film was released in 1967, the "Summer Of Love"? I enjoyed the film on a visual and musical level but found myself distanced from the characters and their predicament. The film had a dreamlike quality which perhaps echoed the nature of their love - a brief and beautiful interlude that had to end. [Reviewed by Nightjar]