Anja Breien

Anja Breien

Nacimiento : 1940-07-12, Oslo, Norway

Historia

Anja Breien (b. 1940) was educated at the French film school L'Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC), graduating in 1964, after first having studied french at the University of Oslo, as well as having had her start in the movie-business working as a script supervisor on Nils R. Müllers film Det Store Varpet in 1961. She made her directorial debut with the short film Growing Up in 1967, based on a medieval legend. The short was later to become part of the portmanteau film Days From A Thousand Years in 1970. Her feature film debut was the criminal drama Rape in 1971, which received favorable reviews, and has in recent years been released on DVD as part of the 'Norwegian Classics'-line. Breien's second film followed in 1975, and has since become one of the most commented and analyzed films in Norwegian cinema history: The cheerful and decidedly feminist comedyWives became a box-office success, and made editor of International Film Guide, Peter Cowie, refer to Breien as a dogme-director twenty years ahead of time. The film also spurred to popular sequels; Wives - Ten Years After (1985) and Wives III (1995), examining the lives of the characters of the original film ten and twenty years on. Wives - Ten Years After was also awarded the Norwegian National Film Award Amanda for Best Film of 1985. After the critical acclaim and commercial success of the first Wives-film in 1975, Breien was firmly established as one of the leading directors in Norwegian cinema, a position she further cemented in the following years, directing critically hailed films like Games of Love and Loneliness (1977) and Heritage (1979), the latter of which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. Her 1981 drama Witch Hunt was selected for the Venice Film Festival, and the thriller Paper Bird (1984) further displayed Breien's proficiency across genres. In addition to directing numerous feature films of significance, Breien has also established herself as a director of perhaps equally important short and documentary films, through her entire career. In addition to her early short, more recent films such as Solvorn (1997), To see a Boat in Sails(2000), Untitled - Sans tître (2005), Etching (2009) and Yezidi (2009) have all been screened at international festivals, and received several awards. The documentary short To See a Boat in Sails (2000) was for instance awarded the Prix UIP Berlin at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2001, and also the award for Best Live Action Short Film at the Toronto World Wide Short Film Festival. While first and foremost recognized as a director, it must also be noted that Breien has extensive experience as a writer, and has written most of her own films over the years, be they either original screenplays or adaptations. She has also written screenplays for other directors, notably Ola Solum's Second Sight from 1994.  A subject of academic interest on every level, a pioneer among Norwegian female film professionals, and one of the still active longtime veterans of the Norwegian film industry, Anja Breien is revered and respected as one of the most influential and important directors in Norwegian film history, as well as one of Norway's most internationally recognized directors, with a career spanning five decades.

Perfil

Anja Breien

Películas

Crimes of the future
Herself
Through conversations with an array of Norwegian writers, filmmakers, psychiatrists, artists and more, Izquierdo investigates the impact of both the film and novel Sult by Knut Hamsun on generations of Norwegian culture and artistic practice, while exploring how it could speak about what it means to be an artist today.
The Art of the Impossible
Director/actor Eugenio Barba returns to Oslo, where he started Odin Teatret, to Opole, where Jerzy Grotowsky's " theatre of the poor" developed a new physical play style, to avoid communism's censorship. And to Holstebro, where Odin Teatrets presence has greatly influenced the city's development.
Etchings
Cinematography
A film poem - without words
Etchings
Director
A film poem - without words
Jezidi
Writer
Gaining unprecedented access to the heart of the Yezidi community, this revealing documentary unveils the ways of a Kurdish religious minority that has traditionally been surrounded by mystery. The elusive portrait of a world that seems to exist and survive outside the boundaries of time, abiding by its own set of eternal rules. A breathtaking journey into the soul at a population remorselessly hunted and persecuted that urges us to take a distance from our established viewpoint.
Jezidi
Director
Gaining unprecedented access to the heart of the Yezidi community, this revealing documentary unveils the ways of a Kurdish religious minority that has traditionally been surrounded by mystery. The elusive portrait of a world that seems to exist and survive outside the boundaries of time, abiding by its own set of eternal rules. A breathtaking journey into the soul at a population remorselessly hunted and persecuted that urges us to take a distance from our established viewpoint.
Untitled
Writer
A poetic film about a cruel theme, told in a way that doesn't make the spectators close their eyes.
Untitled
Director
A poetic film about a cruel theme, told in a way that doesn't make the spectators close their eyes.
Untitled
Writer
A man covers his head with several headscarfs, one by one... .
Å se en båt med seil
Director
A weathered face, an old man skiing in Rondane ... Neapolitan song, music over the snow - memories of childhood summers, a boat ... The landscape is snowy now - a boat here ... In the snow?
Solvorn
Director
Anja Breien came across a box of glass plate negatives that her grandmother had photographed, many of them with remote trigger. Breien made contact copies of them and discovered a poetic talent. This film is an attempt to get a piece of her grandmother's life, of family life? an attempt to grab a forgotten past. Can we remember others' memories?
Wives III
Writer
This mellow comedy is the third entry in filmmaker Anja Breien's "Wives" series and stars the same three actresses who appeared in the first two. This episodic film begins with flashbacks to the 1975 film Wives and scenes from 1985's Wives: Ten Years Later. Now ten more years have passed and they are comfortably ensconced in middle age. They have gathered to hold a surprise birthday for Kaja aboard an Oslo streetcar. The three haven't seen each other in ages and much of the story focuses on their discussions of their disparate lives. Every word, smile and tear they share affirms the depth of their lasting friendship.
Wives III
Director
This mellow comedy is the third entry in filmmaker Anja Breien's "Wives" series and stars the same three actresses who appeared in the first two. This episodic film begins with flashbacks to the 1975 film Wives and scenes from 1985's Wives: Ten Years Later. Now ten more years have passed and they are comfortably ensconced in middle age. They have gathered to hold a surprise birthday for Kaja aboard an Oslo streetcar. The three haven't seen each other in ages and much of the story focuses on their discussions of their disparate lives. Every word, smile and tear they share affirms the depth of their lasting friendship.
Second Sight
Writer
Maren, una niña, es la única sobreviviente de la Muerte Negra en su aldea noruega. Usando los instintos, el folklore, la suerte y los poderes clarividentes que le otorga el hecho de haber nacido con un "gorro de victoria", Maren sobrevive sola, esperando que otras personas descubran su difícil situación.
Smykketyven
Writer
Smykketyven
Director
Wives - Ten Years After
Writer
Ten years have passed since our three heroines' first outing in 1975. Now the women meet at yet another class reunion. Not surprisingly, they are still unwilling to call it a night after the party is over. Husbands and children must celebrate Christmas as best they can, while the women spend quality time drinking and taking stock of their lives.
Wives - Ten Years After
Director
Ten years have passed since our three heroines' first outing in 1975. Now the women meet at yet another class reunion. Not surprisingly, they are still unwilling to call it a night after the party is over. Husbands and children must celebrate Christmas as best they can, while the women spend quality time drinking and taking stock of their lives.
Paper Bird
Writer
The young Oslo lawyer Helen sees a man fall from a balcony, and realizes afterwards it's her father. Suicide or murder?
Paper Bird
Director
The young Oslo lawyer Helen sees a man fall from a balcony, and realizes afterwards it's her father. Suicide or murder?
The Witch Hunt
Writer
Having gone through many personal struggles, Eli (Lil Terselius) returns to her native village and begins to work on the farm of Ingeborg Eriksdotter (Anita Bjork), eventually tending a plot that once belonged to her family. But Eli has been gone a long time, and the opaque villagers see her as an outsider—she is suspicious from the start. The year is 1625, and stories of witches conjuring up evil are a part of the daily culture. Eli unwittingly makes matters worse for herself when she is able to cure the sick with herbs, and when she begins an affair with Aslak (Bjoern Skagestad) a farmhand—clearly she must have cast a spell on him. This all adds up to a witch hunt with a ready-made "witch." Eli, in the end, is officially accused of witchcraft by a devious bailiff, while Ingeborg makes every attempt to save her, and Aslak himself does not survive the stress—hardly a good omen for the outcome of the trial.
The Witch Hunt
Director
Having gone through many personal struggles, Eli (Lil Terselius) returns to her native village and begins to work on the farm of Ingeborg Eriksdotter (Anita Bjork), eventually tending a plot that once belonged to her family. But Eli has been gone a long time, and the opaque villagers see her as an outsider—she is suspicious from the start. The year is 1625, and stories of witches conjuring up evil are a part of the daily culture. Eli unwittingly makes matters worse for herself when she is able to cure the sick with herbs, and when she begins an affair with Aslak (Bjoern Skagestad) a farmhand—clearly she must have cast a spell on him. This all adds up to a witch hunt with a ready-made "witch." Eli, in the end, is officially accused of witchcraft by a devious bailiff, while Ingeborg makes every attempt to save her, and Aslak himself does not survive the stress—hardly a good omen for the outcome of the trial.
Heritage
Writer
Gathered at a funeral for a successful business man, the testament is to be read. They will all inherit, with a big IF; if the family company is to be joint run by all the heirs.
Heritage
Director
Gathered at a funeral for a successful business man, the testament is to be read. They will all inherit, with a big IF; if the family company is to be joint run by all the heirs.
Games of Love and Loneliness
Writer
This co-production between Norway and Sweden is the first film that Anja Breien has made since Wives. She has adapted a novel by Hjalmar Soderberg. who also wrote 'Gertrud' from which Carl Dreyer's last film was made, and Doctor Glas' (made into a film by Mai Zetterhng) Games of Love and Loneliness, concerns the manners and mores of Scandinavian society between the years 1897 and 1912. A young journalist, Arvid, falls in love with a girl but won't commit himself to marrying her. She marries an older and richer man and he's pushed into marrying the girl he's been sleeping with. He meets his first love again, and she leaves her husband to have an affair with him, but he still cannot bring himself to leave his wife. Although Anja Breien has changed the character of the girl to make her less of a femme fatale and more of an emancipated woman, the film's central concern is the young man who cannot make up his mind what to do with his life.
Games of Love and Loneliness
Director
This co-production between Norway and Sweden is the first film that Anja Breien has made since Wives. She has adapted a novel by Hjalmar Soderberg. who also wrote 'Gertrud' from which Carl Dreyer's last film was made, and Doctor Glas' (made into a film by Mai Zetterhng) Games of Love and Loneliness, concerns the manners and mores of Scandinavian society between the years 1897 and 1912. A young journalist, Arvid, falls in love with a girl but won't commit himself to marrying her. She marries an older and richer man and he's pushed into marrying the girl he's been sleeping with. He meets his first love again, and she leaves her husband to have an affair with him, but he still cannot bring himself to leave his wife. Although Anja Breien has changed the character of the girl to make her less of a femme fatale and more of an emancipated woman, the film's central concern is the young man who cannot make up his mind what to do with his life.
Wives
Writer
Three old friends meet at a school reunion, and after trading the current details of their lives, the women come to realize how much they are dominated by their respective husbands’ needs and demands. Aching for a taste of freedom, the three decide to go off on a brief holiday spree together, away from jobs and families. 'Wives' is a delightful, ironic look at how a new generation of women was beginning to rebel against social conventions and gender expectations.
Wives
Director
Three old friends meet at a school reunion, and after trading the current details of their lives, the women come to realize how much they are dominated by their respective husbands’ needs and demands. Aching for a taste of freedom, the three decide to go off on a brief holiday spree together, away from jobs and families. 'Wives' is a delightful, ironic look at how a new generation of women was beginning to rebel against social conventions and gender expectations.
Murer rundt fengslet
Director
A short film about the prison system and the incarcerated, seen from the inside as well as from the outside. Norwegian director Anja Breien's short is a response to the headlines of its time.
Rape
Writer
It's winter in a suburb. A housewife is brutally raped. A young woman becomes a victim of attempted rape. The Police tighten noose on Anders, a young road worker who was seen on the site in both cases. The two women think they recognize him in the lineup, and police investigators use all their strength to solve the case. Anders is a common and simple individual. He could be any youth. The meeting with the ongoing investigation and the solid judiciary, forces him out of a seemingly monotonous, habitual life and forces him to react and think.
Rape
Director
It's winter in a suburb. A housewife is brutally raped. A young woman becomes a victim of attempted rape. The Police tighten noose on Anders, a young road worker who was seen on the site in both cases. The two women think they recognize him in the lineup, and police investigators use all their strength to solve the case. Anders is a common and simple individual. He could be any youth. The meeting with the ongoing investigation and the solid judiciary, forces him out of a seemingly monotonous, habitual life and forces him to react and think.
Dager fra 1000 år
Director
An episode film initiated by Erik Borge, the fresh director of Norwegian Film, giving fresh film makers a chance of being seen by a big audience. Anja Breien, Egil Kolstø and Espen Thorstensons got the chance with very diverse films.An episode film initiated by Erik Borge, the fresh director of Norwegian Film, giving fresh film makers a chance of being seen by a big audience. Anja Breien, Egil Kolstø and Espen Thorstensons got the chance with very diverse films.
17th of May - A film regarding rituals
Director
Norway's National Day on 17 May has over the years evolved to be a day marked by rituals and phrases which may no longer have as much content for most people. The film shows us some of these rituals we know so well, so we can chuckle over May 17.
Ansikter
Director
A film about faces, about expressions, about situations. The film is based on a poem by the Danish poet Poul Borum. The recordings are made in the Munch Museum in Oslo and based on the faces of Munch's pictures.
Vokse opp
Director
The film is based on a legend that goes back to 1349, when the black plague reached Norway after ravaging in Europe. Legend of a little girl, the sole survivor plague in the isolated mountain village Justedalen. The girl closely linked to nature and becomes like a wild bird, says the legend.
Et øye på hver finger
Kvinne i sengen
A surveillance radar is to be placed at the Norwegian coastline. Three soldiers volunteer to guard it, but only so that they can have a party afterwards.
Det store varpet
Brothers Ola and Jon waiting for his father's new boat to go out fishing for herring. The father has invested a lot of money in the boat and is hoping for the big catch, but Ola is heartbroken and goes on a drinking binge.
Gamle
Director
A documentary short about elders in Norway.
Fjellet
Director
A short essay from Anja Breien about her father
Mine søsken goddag
Director
We get to follow Arne Bendik Sjur into his imaginary world. This artist wants his graphics to touch men's lives, our anxiety, and our foreignness towards each other. Some of the anxieties of expressionist art can be found in his works, together with witchcraft and imagination.
Herbergistene
Director
A political short from Norwegian director Anja Breien.