Mannen från Mallorca (Bo Widerberg, 1984)

For the genre fans outside Sweden Bo Widerberg might be best known for his sensational and violent 1976 cop thriller The Man on the Roof, in my opinion THE best movie ever to come from Sweden, an ultra-realistic, satirical and very spectacular story about a sniper who takes revenge on the government - especially the police force. Like always, Widerberg is a radical and the story isn’t black and white, there’s a lot of grey zones in his masterpiece. Eight years later he’s back with Mannen från Mallorca (The Man from Mallorca), which never reached the same international fame, but you can be sure it’s of the quality. Loosely inspired by a sex-scandal (which also inspired Mikael Marcimain’s 2012 drama-thriller Call Girl) a few years earlier, where some high ranking politicians was said to be involved in a prostitution ring, Mannen från Mallorca might be our best (not many title to compare with though) conspiracy thriller.

Inspectors Jarnebring (Sven Wollter) and Johansson (Tomas Von Brömssen) is the first men to arrive at the scene of a robber and Johansson follows the robber, but loses him inside a school. The robbery itself is just a routine case, but when some of the people involved - directly and indirectly - starts to die, our heroes slowly understands they’re dealing with something bigger. They suspect a staff of the Swedish secret service, SÄPO, to be involved - but when he suddenly has the best alibi ever they understand there’s something even more fishy going on…

To quote someone on IMDB: “The best political thriller you never heard of”, and it might be true - at least for you outside Sweden. While it’s a quite famous film here, it’s still in the shadow of The Man on the Roof, and that’s a fucking pity. I would even say the acting is more even in this film, with very solid performances from Wollter (for the international audience known for his part as the old viking king in The 13th Warrior) and Von Brömssen. Håkan Serner, who also ruled in The Man on the Roof, plays a similar part here, and he’s brilliant. Ernst Günther’s part, Dahlberg, was suppose to be played by Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt, but his health at the time prevented that - but Günther is great also - like a mix between a bored bureaucrat and a walrus. You’ll understand when you see him. As always Widerberg also casted some odd people in supporting parts - Hans Villius, a famous TV-host and speaker as the perverted politician, the, at the time, famous magician Johnny Lonn as a some shady government henchman and of course Karin Bergstrand, Widerberg’s neighbor, who also played a confused old neighbor in The Man on the Roof! And lets not forget Ingvar Hirdvall, who played the sniper in The Man on the Roof, playing a similar, anonymous - but extremely cold and evil - man in this one.

The script never answers all the questions it raises, but it also gives the movie a sense of uncomfortableness. You never know who will turn against you. At the end one the most skeptical characters suddenly starts believing the conspiracy theory and one of the believers - it’s hinted - tries to plant disbelief in another character. The ending is chilling in it’s simpleness. A few words and you understand how big this is and how much this small - in comparison - scandal affects the Swedish society. It always gives me goosebumps.

Rumour says David Fincher got some inspiration from Mannen from Mallorca when directing Se7en. I don’t know so much about that, but there’s two excellent chase scenes - a bit more realistic because it’s a Swedish production, but enough thrilling to compete with international productions. I really hope someday someone will buy the rights from SF and give it a proper DVD- or blu-ray release. Olive Films have bought a lot of Widerberg’s films to release on blu during 2014, including The Man on the Roof, so lets hope those will sell well and give them a reason to release more Swedish films from the time when Swedish film still was worth watching.

Comments

[Megatron]

"Like always, Widerberg is a radical and the story isn’t black and white, there’s a lot of grey zones in his masterpiece."

You can say that again....one of the best films ever made in sweden, grey zones just add to the darkness of this film.

"Loosely inspired by a sex-scandal (which also inspired Mikael Marcimain’s 2012 drama-thriller Call Girl) a few years earlier, where some high ranking politicians was said to be involved in a prostitution ring,"

Yeah, lets not forget, based on the novel by the original whistleblower Leif GW Persson, who told the media that his boss was investigating high ranking politicans with connections to callgirls, pimps and teenage hookers.

Even to this day we know very little.....as always in the greatest country of all....hahhahhahha

"Mannen från Mallorca might be our best (not many title to compare with though) conspiracy thriller."

A part from some feature films like Sista kontraktet/The Last Contract (1998) with Mikael Persbrandt, some TV-series like Blueprint (1992), Apelsinmannen (1990), there should be a great more productions......but I think things will change in the future, writers within nordic noir might have written a few that might be adapted to film.

"As always Widerberg also casted some odd people in supporting parts - Hans Villius, a famous TV-host and speaker as the perverted politician,"

Yeah, Villius was great, Widerberg would surpass this odd choice with Pernilla Wahlgren in Ormens väg på hälleberget/The Serpent's Way (1986).

"And lets not forget Ingvar Hirdvall, who played the sniper in The Man on the Roof, playing a similar, anonymous - but extremely cold and evil - man in this one."

Yeah, he is menacing here......calculating, the hatchet man, who must do a cover up, just like Kurtwood Smith in Flashpoint (1984) or Will Patton in No Way Out (1987).

"The script never answers all the questions it raises, but it also gives the movie a sense of uncomfortableness. You never know who will turn against you. At the end one the most skeptical characters suddenly starts believing the conspiracy theory and one of the believers - it’s hinted - tries to plant disbelief in another character."

I always felt the script was very uneven but so was the book....Mårten Blomqvist goes through the script writing in his biography about Widerberg.

Widerberg was bipolar, had diffculty working with Leif GW Persson, script never really finished.

It doesn´t matter, like you said, the paranoia seeps through everything in this film.

"The ending is chilling in it’s simpleness. A few words and you understand how big this is and how much this small - in comparison - scandal affects the Swedish society."

Yeah, question is....was it based on reality?

Carl Lidbom wrote some really hard antiterrorist laws, but was affected by the Geijer scandal?

Who knows....

"I really hope someday someone will buy the rights from SF and give it a proper DVD- or blu-ray release. Olive Films have bought a lot of Widerberg’s films to release on blu during 2014, including The Man on the Roof, so lets hope those will sell well and give them a reason to release more Swedish films from the time when Swedish film still was worth watching."

Yeah with lots of extras....and where the hell is the big fancy schmancy edition of Elvira Madigan (1967) ???!!!!

Come on Criterion, Masters of Cinema, anyone....!!!!!

Great review and yes, more people should see this one.....do a review of I lagens namn/In the Name of the Law (1986).

[Tobe]

Two of my favourite movies of all time are this one and Man on the roof.
The acting, and just the gritty reality makes these two movies superior to all other swedish movies in my book.
I am glad that Gunther made the part as the chief. I would have struggled to not see Lindstedt as Beck if he had done the part.

Widerberg appearently liked to cast same people in different movies. Karin Bergstrand as you said, and then we have the man they chase in the yellow Volvo. He was a cop in Man on the roof who wanted to SYSTEMET but instead got shot, thats life. And the guy who actually shoots Hirdwall in the shoulder in the Man the roof plays a ABAB guard in this movie.

I only have one remark to this movie, and that is the terribly fake engine sound of their Volvo 240 in the car chase. Everything other than that is perfect.

I am actually quite guttered that we didn´t get more movies or a television series with Wollter and Brömsen as a team. They were a perfect match as Swedish cop buddies.

I am not certain but i think this was one of the great Håkan Serners last roles before he took his life.

Thanks for the review.

[Fred Anderson]

Yeah, I recognized both the Volvo-man and the guard but I couldn't understand where I've seen them! Thanks for letting me now!

I had no idea Håkan Serner committed suicide. Do you know why?

I think Lindstedt could have been able to transform himself to play Dahlberg, but I like Gunther also.

[Tobe]

I read somewhere that he was in a deep depression around that time.

And later on i read this. Another tragedy for that family. http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article10208351.ab

Håkan Serner was a one of a kind actor. In both of these movies he played really laid back and almost boring characters atleast on paper, but he made them very interesting.

You are right about Lindstedt. He was such a great actor but i am still glad Gunther did the part.

Another thing a picked up from this movie. The character "Vindeln" was seen many years later in another production made after a Leif G.W novel. The series was called Death of a pilgrim. Would be interesting to know who this "Vindeln" really is in real life.

[Fairportfan]

Interesting that it's from the director of "Man on the Roof" - reading the summary on IMDB caused me to wonder if this might be based (as "Man" was) on a "Martin Beck" novel that i'd somehow missed.

[Fred Anderson]

It's easy to think so, it's the same style and atmosphere - but this one is based on a book by Leif GW Persson, "Grisfesten". Same kind of social criticism. Both are great movies! :)