Lasse Hallstrom
Lasse Hallstrom
Lars Sven "Lasse" Hallströmis a Swedish film director and screenwriter. He first became known for directing almost all music videos by pop group ABBA, and subsequently became a feature film director. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for My Life as a Dogand later for The Cider House Rules. His other celebrated directorial works include What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Chocolat, The Shipping News, and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen...
NationalitySwedish
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth2 June 1946
CountrySweden
But I notice that there is a lack of darkness in my movies and I don't know where that comes from.
ABBA: The Movie; I got a lot of grief for working on that.
A film that is bleached tends to have a more realistic quality.
I love involving actors at all levels - and they have to know that I want to hear their contributions, with dialogue, with story suggestions, with script changes, whatever.
I made all their videos, apart from the last two, so if you ever see an Abba video on TV then it’s my stuff.
My key interest in choosing scripts is character-driven stories, because there are so many stories that sacrifice character for plot.
My father would tell anyone who would listen that this dentist thing he was doing was not his passion; cinematography was.
I really want to have actors contribute their own ideas, with phrasings and ideas on all levels.
I think I avoid stepping into sentimentality by trying to be as truthful as possible with performances.
I was always attracted by the European way of life, but I am deeply Swedish.
Cinema has become a global economy, totally international.
My films do have characters who have trouble escaping the world around them.
To make a movie charming, you have to be playful on all levels and open to ideas, and you have to have an idea for how to do that within the confines of the shooting schedule and editing and all that.
I imagined that it might be awkward to talk to your wife about her performance, so going into it I was a little nervous. But doing it was actually a wonderfully inspiring experience.