Swedish film director, actor Lasse Hallström, twice Oscar nominee, was born in Stockholm for the first month of the summer of 1946. His mother Karin Lyuberg is a famous writer, and although his father worked as a simple dentist, he devoted all his free time to shooting videos on an amateur video camera.
Creative way
Lasse Hallstrom, whose films are now universally recognized and popular, tried to imitate his father in everything. Therefore, it is not surprising that the director began his career as a clip maker. Hallstrom filmed videos for the mega-pop band ABBA. According to him, their joint work and pastime left a significant imprint on his further work.
The first significant debut of the director in a big movie is the film "My Dog Life", in which Lasse appeared in two guises - 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 Academy Award in the world of cinema. The picture was created based on the autobiographical novel of Reidar Jonsson, the whole plot of which is based on a children's perception of the surrounding reality: memories, disappointments, fantasies. Therefore, the plot as such is not particularly significant in the cinema, and a brief summary of the storyline will not give a true idea of the picture. The entire film is saturated with subtle humor, kindness, bright nostalgia for the long gone and quiet sadness about the unfulfilled first love.
sources of inspiration
Director Lasse Hallstrom, analyzing his formation in a creative way, called Milos Forman's early comedy films as his source of inspiration , thanks to which he learned to take a closer look at people and see a comedic shade in literally any life situation. In order to comprehend the wisdom of working with actors, the director carefully and repeatedly reviewed the works of the great master John Cassavetes. But Lasse Hallstrom calls his main inspirer unsurpassed Chaplin, who was not afraid to combine drama with comedy, comedy with lyrics.
Hollywood debut
In 1993, Lasse Hallstrom literally burst into Hollywood with the tragicomic melodrama What Gilbert Grape Eats ?, which starred the young but already famous Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. The bitter-nagging tape of the Swedish director was shot based on the novel by the young writer Peter Hedgis, the plot of the picture tells about the routine routine of the provincial town of Endore. 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 The Rules of the Winemakers.
Significant career milestone
The romantic melodrama "Chocolate" Lasse Hallstrom shot in 2000. According to the creator, the project is a funny fairy tale about the eternal opposition of the new and the traditional and how important it is to enjoy life. The picture is based on the work of the same name by Joanne Harris, a British writer. The main roles were played by Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche, who was nominated for the embodiment of the character of the beautiful Vienne Rocher on the Golden Globe and Oscar. The film was shot by the wife of the director actress Lena Olinn, who played the secondary role of Josephine Muscat. After the success of "Chocolate", the director made several more films that were included in the list of cult film masterpieces of the beginning of the XXI century: "Hachiko: The Most Faithful Friend", "Casanova", "Hoax".
Without excessive sentimentality
No less significant work of the director is the melodrama Dear John, which eminent film critics accused in the presence of all the components necessary for the box office. Indeed, Lasse Hallstrom, whose films were previously shot without speculative sentimentality, in the movie “Dear John” brought together war, the love between an exemplary girl and a bad guy, autistic heroes and lymphoma of heroes, canonical separation due to the war, the beauty of nature, swimming in the ocean during the rain and beautiful kisses. In the melodrama, young young stars of the Dreaming Factory Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried starred. According to the director, they managed to transfer to the screen the "chemistry" that arose between the main characters. Actors inspired the director, communicating with them, Lasse admitted that he feels younger.
Sentimental film about the kitchen dialogue of cultures
During the creation of Hallstrom's next spice and passion masterpiece, the director was assisted by two legendary personalities in the history of American TV and film - Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, who acted as producers. The three of them conducted casting, edited the script and consulted, looking at the footage. It is impossible to imagine a more suitable director for a movie about France, a mixture of cultures, emigrants, love and overcoming. Lasse Hallstrom, 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 Passions”, Lasse follows his creative tradition - gracefully raising current problems, entertains, while at the same time teaching the viewer. The picture turned out to be truly multinational - the Americans, invested by the UAE oligarchs, made a film about the Indians in France in the title role with the British movie star through the efforts of the Swedish director. For the full picture, only the Russian antagonist was missing, but, fortunately, there were no.