Gunnar Björnstrand

Acting

Gunnar Björnstrand

Born — Died

1909-11-13 — 1986-05-26

Place of birth

Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Known for

Acting

Credits

67 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Gunnar Björnstrand (November 13, 1909 – May 26, 1986) was a Swedish actor known for his frequent work with writer/director Ingmar Bergman. He was born in Stockholm. He appeared in over 120 films. Björnstrand at first had trouble finding work but got an engagement in Helsinki with his wife 1936-1938. Back in Stockholm he met Ingmar Bergman, at that time a mostly unknown theatre director. In the 1940s he got his first major film roles, making a breakthrough with the 1946 movie Kristin kommenderar. He was a versatile actor who could play tough and tender as well as comedy and tragedy. His daughter Veronica Björnstrand is also an actress. One of his most …

Known for

The Seventh Seal poster
8.1

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

The Seventh Seal

1957

Fanny and Alexander poster
7.8

As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.

Fanny and Alexander

1982

Wild Strawberries poster
8.1

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

Wild Strawberries

1957

Persona poster
8.1

A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.

Persona

1966

The Guldbagge Awards poster
5.5

The Guldbagge Awards is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the name Guldbaggen. The awards, first presented in 1964 at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm, are overseen by the Swedish Film Institute. It is described as the Swedish equivalent of the Academy Awards. The awards ceremony was first televised in 1981.

The Guldbagge Awards

1981

Autumn Sonata poster
8.0

After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.

Autumn Sonata

1978

Film credits

1980s · 3 titles

1970s · 7 titles

Autumn Sonata poster
8.0

After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.

Autumn Sonata

1978

Face to Face poster
7.2

A psychiatrist temporarily separated from her family begins to experience severe psychological distress while working at a mental hospital and returning to her childhood home. As her professional responsibilities and personal relationships intersect, she undergoes a breakdown that forces her to confront long-suppressed memories and fears. (Note: This entry refers to the 1976 theatrical feature film (approximately 135 minutes), created by condensing and re-editing the four-part Swedish television miniseries originally produced the same year.)

Face to Face

1976

Tabu poster
5.0

Solidarity with the border people. Equal rights for the sexual deviants. Kristoffer Lohman is a young solicitor who collects stories and knowledge of different perversions. This has affected and changed his own sexual life. Sara, a young well-behaved and adorned woman, becomes interested in Kristoffer's activity.

Tabu

1977

The Making of Autumn Sonata poster
7.0

This behind-the-scenes documentary follows the production of Autumn Sonata, capturing rehearsals, filming sessions, and discussions during the shoot. The film presents extended observational footage of the working process led by Ingmar Bergman and the principal cast and crew.

The Making of Autumn Sonata

1978

Lockfågeln poster
3.7

On his death-bed, Per Henrik Pistolekors must promise his father two things: first of all to kill king Gustav III, which his father hates. Second, to take his half-sister Annarella to Stockholm to find her a rich and noble husband.

Lockfågeln

1971

Charlotte Löwensköld poster
9.0

1830 Värmland, Sweden. Master Karl Arthur Ekenstedt comes to aid the Minister at Crosss Church. He falls in love with Charlotte Löwensköld, housekeeper in the rectory. They get engaged. Charlotte is full of life, energetic and practical. Karl Arthur struggle with his faith and God.

Charlotte Löwensköld

1979

Gustav III poster
9.0

Based on play by famous swedish author/playwright August Strindberg adapted for swedish TV in 70's. It's about the real life assassination on swedish king Gustav III who was killed by a lieutenant Jacob Johan Anckarström who acted on behalf of a group conspirators.

Gustav III

1974

1960s · 16 titles

Persona poster
8.1

A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.

Persona

1966

Through a Glass Darkly poster
7.8

Karin hopes to recover from her recent stay at a mental hospital by spending the summer at her family's cottage on a tiny island. Her husband, Martin, cares for her but is frustrated by her physical withdrawal. Her younger brother, Minus, is confused by Karin's vulnerability and his own budding sexuality. Their father, David, cannot overcome his haughty remoteness. Beset by visions, Karin descends further into madness.

Through a Glass Darkly

1961

Shame poster
7.5

In the midst of a civil war, a pair of former violinists in a tempestuous marriage oversee a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.

Shame

1968

Here Is Your Life poster
7.1

A working class teenager comes of age in 1910s rural Sweden, moving through a series of jobs and romances that gradually shape his future.

Here Is Your Life

1966

Winter Light poster
7.9

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

Winter Light

1963

The Devil's Eye poster
7.2

Don Juan is sent from Hell to Earth with a mission: to seduce a virgin in order to spoil her pure wedding. The mission becomes frantic when Don Juan falls in love for the first time in centuries.

The Devil's Eye

1960

My Sister My Love poster
6.5

Sweden, 1782. Jacob, a young noble, somewhat wild and vehement, returns from his studies in France. After his absence, he returns home happy, but is even happier of meeting his beloved sister Charlotte again. However, she has been promised to the Baron Alsmeden, a man of great influence at court, and this fact will awake a feeling like jealousy in Jacob.

My Sister My Love

1966

The Rite poster
6.9

Called to court on obscenity charges, a theatre troupe are forced to expose their neuroses and inner psychological torments.

The Rite

1969

The Girls poster
6.0

As they tour Sweden in a theatrical production of "Lysistrata", performing to often uncomprehending audiences, three women find their own lives and marriages mirrored in Aristophanes’s play. Soon, onstage drama, offstage reality, and surrealist fantasies begin to collide.

The Girls

1968

An Introduction to Ingmar Bergman poster
NR

Produced in 1968 for New York's WNET public television station and filmed by Gunnar Fischer, host Lewis Freedman visits director Ingmar Bergman during the production of SHAME. They discuss some of Bergman's major works leading up to SHAME as well as the just-released HOUR OF THE WOLF.

An Introduction to Ingmar Bergman

1968

Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie poster
7.3

The year is 1961 and Ingmar Bergman is making a movie. While planted on the scene as apprentice to Bergman, Vilgot Sjöman (director, I Am Curious–Yellow, 1967), suggests to Swedish Television that they take the opportunity to record with the acclaimed director. In August, Sjöman and the television crew begin to capture what would become a comprehensive five-part documentary on the making of Winter Light, offering views of script development, set construction and lighting, rehearsals and editing, as well as intimate conversations with Bergman and members of his cast and crew. Footage from the film’s Swedish premiere delivers immediate audience reactions and the critics’ reviews the following day.

Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie

1963

The Red Mantle poster
5.9

Seeking revenge against the rival clan responsible for the killing of his father, Hagbard calms down long enough to establish a truce. During a peaceful interlude, he falls in love with Signe, the daughter of the king of the rival clan. However, Hildegisl, who desires Signe's hand in marriage, disovers the young lover's plans to wed and sets out to bring about the end of Hagbard.

The Red Mantle

1967

Loving Couples poster
5.9

As three pregnant women wait to have their babies in a hospital in Stockholm at the outbreak of the Great War, they relive their childhood and youthful experiences.

Loving Couples

1964

The lift that went down into hell poster
8.5

A loving couple on an escapade, ending in a hotel room in the underworld. When the floor waiter shows up, the woman feel she has seen him before. And suddenly she discovers who he is.

The lift that went down into hell

1969

Blow Hot, Blow Cold poster
4.4

A quirky, but happily in love young Italian couple fall in with an older, but distinctly reserved Swedish couple whilst on vacation on islands off the coast of Southern Italy. Eventually the couples seem to warm to each other as the infectious youths bring the standoffish couple out of their shells. But there is a sinister reason for the Swedish couple's cold behavior and it may spell doom for them all.

Blow Hot, Blow Cold

1969

My Love Is Like a Rose poster
7.0

A middle aged doctor begins a relationship with a teenage girl. His best friend is dating the girls mother. A group of boys plan to blackmail the doctor or expose him as a pedophile.

My Love Is Like a Rose

1963

1950s · 18 titles

The Seventh Seal poster
8.1

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

The Seventh Seal

1957

Wild Strawberries poster
8.1

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

Wild Strawberries

1957

Smiles of a Summer Night poster
7.4

Early in the 20th century, middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman and his young wife, Anne, have still not consummated their marriage, while Fredrik's son finds himself increasingly attracted to his new stepmother. To make matters worse, Fredrik's old flame Desiree makes a public bet that she can seduce him at a romantic weekend retreat where four couples convene, swapping partners and pairing off in unexpected ways.

Smiles of a Summer Night

1955

A Lesson in Love poster
6.7

After fifteen years of marriage and mutual infidelity, a couple on the brink of divorce unexpectedly confront their unresolved love during a journey to Copenhagen. Blending farce with emotional reflection, the film is Ingmar Bergman’s first sustained venture into marital comedy.

A Lesson in Love

1954

The Magician poster
7.3

A traveling magician and his troupe arrive in a Swedish town in the 1840s, where their act is scrutinized by local authorities and a skeptical medical official. Their stay leads to a series of confrontations that test the boundaries between performance, belief, and deception.

The Magician

1958

Waiting Women poster
6.4

The four wives of four brothers share stories of their marriages as they wait for their husbands in a small, secluded cottage.

Waiting Women

1952

Sawdust and Tinsel poster
7.3

A number of complicated relationships develop between a circus ringmaster, his estranged wife and his lover.

Sawdust and Tinsel

1953

Dreams poster
7.0

Two women—a fashion executive and her young model—experience parallel romantic disappointments during a trip to Gothenburg, exposing generational differences in desire, illusion, and emotional endurance. A transitional work in Ingmar Bergman’s mid-1950s cinema.

Dreams

1955

Heaven and Pancakes poster
5.5

Sequel to Sjunde himlen (1956). Dr. Lovisa Sundelius (Sickan Carlsson) and radio host Willy Lorens (Hasse Ekman) have been happily married for a couple of years, but when Willy becomes a TV host with cutie Suss (Lena Granhagen) by his side, things start to fall apart

Heaven and Pancakes

1959

Swinging at the Castle poster
7.0

Love triangle between Svante, his fiancee Inga and Sophie, a girl from a rich family.

Swinging at the Castle

1959

Summer Place Wanted poster
4.6

Married couple have romantic interludes in the summer, she at their summer cottage, him in the apartment in town.

Summer Place Wanted

1957

Miss April poster
7.3

The banker Marcus falls in love with the young ballet-dancer Maj who works at the opera. To meet her he takes a job there but Maj is in love with Osvald Berg, the big star of the opera. To wake Osvald's interest for her she asks Marcus if he could play deeply in love with her. Plot summary by nL.

Miss April

1958

Gabrielle poster
5.6

While Bertil Lindström works at the Swedish embassy in Paris, his wife Gabrielle spends the summer alone in Sweden. After a phone call to her, he starts to think of all the things she can possibly be doing separated from him.

Gabrielle

1954

You Are My Adventure poster
6.3

Two journalists marry but the husband grows unhappy when he is left to take care of their child and she focuses on her career.

You Are My Adventure

1958

Oppåt med Gröna Hissen poster
4.8

A man and a woman are cheated on by their respective partners and decide to get their revenge.

Oppåt med Gröna Hissen

1952

One Fiancé at a Time poster
6.0

Lilian is engaged to engineer Arne. To make him more interested in her, she meets a few other men.

One Fiancé at a Time

1952

Crime in Paradise poster
7.0

While four men blow up a safe, a night watchman is accidentally killed. They get away with the loot. Ten years later, the stepson of the dead night watchman receives vital information.

Crime in Paradise

1959

Tull-Bom poster
5.7

Bureacratic customs officer searching for a missing girl.

Tull-Bom

1951

1940s · 13 titles

Music in Darkness poster
6.2

In postwar Sweden, a gifted young pianist’s life is transformed after a tragic accident leaves him blind. Struggling with bitterness, isolation, and the loss of his former world, he finds unexpected support and companionship from a compassionate young woman who helps him rebuild his sense of purpose. As their relationship deepens over the years, both must confront questions of pride, class, and emotional vulnerability in order to move forward.

Music in Darkness

1948

Caged Women poster
8.0

Cecilia is in hospital after being subjected to an attempt on her life. Her husband is called to the hospital. Cecilia deliriously mentions a mutual friend. The husband seeks out the friend.

Caged Women

1947

Appassionata poster
5.8

A classic melodrama about the famous pianist Thomas Dahlhoff.

Appassionata

1944

The Girl from the Third Row poster
5.7

A ring passes between a lot of different people, giving the bearer or someone close a new meaning to life. Actors, embezzlers, old ladies and cheated husbands all seem to gain temporary hope from misery and disillusionment.

The Girl from the Third Row

1949

It Rains on Our Love poster
6.8

A young couple, penniless, break into a summer cottage; the owner offers to rent to them but he has ulterior motives. By living together, the lovers must face their pasts and contend with the meddling neighbors and authorities.

It Rains on Our Love

1946

Jag dräpte poster
5.8

"I Slew" - Hospital drama of a doctor who thinks that he killed a patient on the operating table.

Jag dräpte

1943

Torment poster
7.1

Jan-Erik Widgren meets the lonely Bertha Olsson, a woman struggling with alcoholism. Though Bertha is already linked to Caligula, Jan-Erik's heartless teacher, she begins a relationship with the boy anyway. When Caligula learns that Jan-Erik is having an affair with Bertha, he begins to torture his student psychologically. He reserves his cruelest behavior for Bertha, however, which results in a tragic turn of events.

Torment

1944

Private Bom poster
5.4

The station-master Fabian Bom is a very meticulous person, and he makes sure that the trains leaves exactly - on the second. To him, nothing could be more important than duty, efficiency and punctuality, in fact, his sense of duty is clearly perverted. His beloved Plum-Plum, the major's daughter, is infatuated with army officers. To regain her attention, he joins the infantry. Bom becomes a soldier who loves the military training, long marches as well as hard labour as punishment. He meets Agnes, who falls madly in love with him.

Private Bom

1948

En svensk tiger poster
8.0

Johan Tiger is an actor in Stockholm during World War II. A British agent in Sweden discovers that Johan is a dead ringer for General Lucky and manages to lure him over to London with a role as Othello as bait.

En svensk tiger

1948

June Night poster
6.2

A woman flees to avoid rumors of promiscuity, but is trailed by a reporter who wants to expose her dark past.

June Night

1940

Father Bom poster
5.9

Fabian Bom, auctionist in a small town, one day finds a baby boy in a small crib that is for sale at an auction. He places the boy at an orphanage but returns the next day since he realizes that he misses the boy. Since a single man is not permitted to adopt a baby he arranges a marriage with a young woman, who really is the baby's mother.

Father Bom

1949

You Who Are About to Enter poster
4.6

Tomas Eckert, a civil servant, is subjected to a violated woman's revenge. It happens to be his boss's wife, Märta Palm. Tomas is accused of having abused Mrs.Palm. She also reveals that Tomas's wife is morphine addict. He collapses and is forced to accept early retirement, diagnosed "epilepsy with mental changes"

You Who Are About to Enter

1945

Snapphanar poster
6.0

In an occupied country, the people rise to throw off the occupants. This includes Jens the farmer and his three sons who successfully perform sneak attacks on the invading army.

Snapphanar

1941

1930s · 2 titles

Series credits

The Guldbagge Awards poster
5.5

The Guldbagge Awards is an official and annual Swedish film awards ceremony honoring achievements in the Swedish film industry. Winners are awarded a statuette depicting a rose chafer, better known by the name Guldbaggen. The awards, first presented in 1964 at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm, are overseen by the Swedish Film Institute. It is described as the Swedish equivalent of the Academy Awards. The awards ceremony was first televised in 1981.

The Guldbagge Awards

1981

Fanny and Alexander poster
8.3

Through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden.

Fanny and Alexander

1984

Charlotte Löwensköld och Anna Svärd poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Charlotte Löwensköld och Anna Svärd

1981

Face to Face poster
8.3

A psychiatrist temporarily separated from her family begins to experience severe psychological distress while working at a mental hospital and returning to her childhood home. As her professional responsibilities and personal relationships intersect, she undergoes a breakdown that forces her to confront long-suppressed memories and fears. (Note: This entry refers to the 1976 four-part Swedish television miniseries. A condensed theatrical feature edited from the same material was released separately in 1976.)

Face to Face

1976

Engeln poster
8.5

Bertil "Engeln" Engelbrecht is tired of working for his half-brother's detective agency. After being released from prison his girlfriend Maggie begs him to find another job. But leaving his prior work is harder than Bertil thought.

Engeln

1974

Någonstans i Sverige poster
6.8

In the end of 1939, the Soviet Union attacks Finland. In Sweden, 100.000 men are quickly drafted to guard the northeastern border. Men, who have almost no military training, are suddenly expected to behave as full-fledged soldiers. In one of the units we find 107 Andersson, 111 Loffe and a bunch of men with nicknames as Morsgrisen and Stora Norrland. After some months, the war in Finland is over, but World War II continues and the unit moves to the western border of Sweden, where the men have to stay for many years to come. Sweden is not at war, but some of the men are frightened that the Nazis will one day attack this country.

Någonstans i Sverige

1973

Skeppsredaren poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Skeppsredaren

1979