Big farmer Germund is planning a wedding for his daughter Marit with the local farmer boy, Mats. Everything seems to be going according to plan. But one day Marit meet with fiddler Jon, a bastard who enchants youth with his violin. Everything is just like the old reliable drawings. Folkmusic, barn dance photos, fights, rough fists groping the heroines bosoms, grand environmental images, the fresh fragrant of scouring-soap and lots of rustic atmosphere. In Mai Zetterling as farmer's daughter the director Gustaf Edgren has found the personified Swedish summer night, as both the seductive twilight and the sober dawn in her blond revelation. And Alf Kjellin as Jon in dark curly wig gives a solid interpretation of the fiddlers temperament and the abrupt shifts between melancholy and frivolity. Both Zetterling and Kjellin later moved on to become well known international film directors. "Driver dagg faller regn" was the first Swedish film to gross more than 1,5 million Swedish krona. It took more than ten years to break that box office record. Ingmar Bergmans "Smultronstället" (Wild strawberries) did in 1957.
7 Reviews
Forbidden love
kosmasp11 August 2022
No pun intended - when is love forbidden and why would we call it that? Of course it is the circumstances ... as in (almost) no one allowing our characters to live their love ... to embrace that love they have for each other. Which also makes for a great theme for a movie - watching two individuals trying to overcome society and many people ... and assaults of various kinds (no pun intended here either).
Considering the time this was made, it really has aged quite well to say the least. If you don't mind the black and white that is and the village setting ... and the pacing. Not trying to be funny - I naturally am. Just kidding, I really think this holds up really well. You still have to be able to suspend your disbelief and go with the flow. And cherish and empathize with the main characters ... and be able to stomach one tough scene. Thinking about the time this was made ... I can't imagine the censors in America would have let them shoot at least one scene that is quite ... well on the fence, with the attack and the mood it is setting.
Still this is tame compared to recent productions of course ... thankful to streaming services who provided this for us to watch.
Considering the time this was made, it really has aged quite well to say the least. If you don't mind the black and white that is and the village setting ... and the pacing. Not trying to be funny - I naturally am. Just kidding, I really think this holds up really well. You still have to be able to suspend your disbelief and go with the flow. And cherish and empathize with the main characters ... and be able to stomach one tough scene. Thinking about the time this was made ... I can't imagine the censors in America would have let them shoot at least one scene that is quite ... well on the fence, with the attack and the mood it is setting.
Still this is tame compared to recent productions of course ... thankful to streaming services who provided this for us to watch.
The spell of Nordic white nights.
minmagi506 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
A wonderful film in many ways.
The actors playing Marit and Jon are perfect for the parts. The chemistry between them works. You believe in their lovestory.
The film captures some of the themes and the good stuff from the book, which I have loved for 60 years. But I do miss quite a few things that are left out: Marit's and Jon's struggle to get eachother is way longer and more dramatic than portrayed in the film.
Marit is not fascinated by Jon's fiddle, like it seems in the film. It takes her a while to actually fall in love with Jon. In the beginning it's more gratitute towards him for saving her from being raped, it's pity, because he is so poor, lonely and misunderstood. What makes her fall in love is more, that Jon is not pushy and rough like f. I. Matts, who also almost tries to rape her.
Jon is gentle and caring - although he also is close to raping her - but stops, when she resists.
Jon's fear of the supernational and his own part in it - i. E. being the son of Strömkarlen - is part of HIS attraction to Marit, because she doesn't believe in it. She treats him like a normal man.
The two times Marit saves Jon from the angry mob is downplayed in the film, and that's too bad - because that was very dramatic. At least Jon seemed to be in mortal danger.
The forestfire is completely left out, which is a shame, because that is where Marit realizes, she loves Jon.
The fight between Father Germund and Jon is also left out.
I also miss the birth of their child.
There are so many layers in the novel - besides the lovestory between Marit and Jon: the culture in northeastern Sweden 1807 - 1830. What they eat, how they dress, that you can't go to church if you don't have the proper clothes (Jon). How they drink - LOTS of Snaps - all the time. Every man has his "pocketlark" as it was called. They drink in the morning - to get appetite - to heat up, as medicine, at dances - the men must have had a buzz all the time.
You learn about the work - both the men's and the women's.
The relationship between the sexes - that the young men can go courting the girls at night in their beds.......!!??
How the men fought all the time. And that was regarded normal. The women patched up their injures afterwards .......
Then of course details about the superstition at the time, which florished alongside the church: Strömkarlen, huldren, the wild hunt.
Nature plays a big part also: the stream with the deadly fall, the white nights of summer, the dark forests, the cliffs.
Glabo-Kalle has a much larger part in the film than the novel.
Mother Sigrid is completely left out.
In the novel Knut is still son at his father's farm.
But I still enjoy the film - thanks to Mai Zetterling and Alf Kjellin. They are fascinating as Jon and Marit.
The actors playing Marit and Jon are perfect for the parts. The chemistry between them works. You believe in their lovestory.
The film captures some of the themes and the good stuff from the book, which I have loved for 60 years. But I do miss quite a few things that are left out: Marit's and Jon's struggle to get eachother is way longer and more dramatic than portrayed in the film.
Marit is not fascinated by Jon's fiddle, like it seems in the film. It takes her a while to actually fall in love with Jon. In the beginning it's more gratitute towards him for saving her from being raped, it's pity, because he is so poor, lonely and misunderstood. What makes her fall in love is more, that Jon is not pushy and rough like f. I. Matts, who also almost tries to rape her.
Jon is gentle and caring - although he also is close to raping her - but stops, when she resists.
Jon's fear of the supernational and his own part in it - i. E. being the son of Strömkarlen - is part of HIS attraction to Marit, because she doesn't believe in it. She treats him like a normal man.
The two times Marit saves Jon from the angry mob is downplayed in the film, and that's too bad - because that was very dramatic. At least Jon seemed to be in mortal danger.
The forestfire is completely left out, which is a shame, because that is where Marit realizes, she loves Jon.
The fight between Father Germund and Jon is also left out.
I also miss the birth of their child.
There are so many layers in the novel - besides the lovestory between Marit and Jon: the culture in northeastern Sweden 1807 - 1830. What they eat, how they dress, that you can't go to church if you don't have the proper clothes (Jon). How they drink - LOTS of Snaps - all the time. Every man has his "pocketlark" as it was called. They drink in the morning - to get appetite - to heat up, as medicine, at dances - the men must have had a buzz all the time.
You learn about the work - both the men's and the women's.
The relationship between the sexes - that the young men can go courting the girls at night in their beds.......!!??
How the men fought all the time. And that was regarded normal. The women patched up their injures afterwards .......
Then of course details about the superstition at the time, which florished alongside the church: Strömkarlen, huldren, the wild hunt.
Nature plays a big part also: the stream with the deadly fall, the white nights of summer, the dark forests, the cliffs.
Glabo-Kalle has a much larger part in the film than the novel.
Mother Sigrid is completely left out.
In the novel Knut is still son at his father's farm.
But I still enjoy the film - thanks to Mai Zetterling and Alf Kjellin. They are fascinating as Jon and Marit.
The power of music
bchil10315 July 2001
This movie is based upon a prizewinning novel by the Swedish author Margit Söderholm and was elected 'film of the year' 1946 in Sweden. It tells the story about the impossible love between the poor folkmusician Jon and Marit, the only daughter of a rich farmer. It all sounds like something we have heard and seen before and it certainly is. But as we know, things can be done in different ways and it also goes for movies. Due to first class direction, excellent and convincing performance by the actors, the magnificent music, and beautiful pictures from the Hälsingland county in Sweden, this film becomes a little masterpiece. I've seen quite a lot of this type of movies and this one could easily be compared with Ophüls' "Liebelei". I give it a 9 and recommend it strongly.
A magic movie about love, life and the essence of Sweden
Catharina_Sweden22 March 2012
Warning: Spoilers
This is a very "Swedish" movie. If you want to understand us and our history - which for most people took place in what we call "allmogesamhället" = rural society - you should watch this movie! It is about our folk music, folk dances, folk tales, folk beliefs... about our wild nature, our hard winters, our strangely light and fair summer nights, our fairy stories, and our Christian faith.
It is also - and foremost - a great love story. One of the best that has ever been written! About a (comparatively) rich girl, who gives everything up to be able to live with the poor and despised man that she has fallen in love with. And it is about fatherly love, and about redemption, and the continuing of life in new generations...
To put it shortly: this movie is about life itself, and it is hardly possible to make a better movie, that would render so much happiness and hope and the feeling of meaning of life!
It is also - and foremost - a great love story. One of the best that has ever been written! About a (comparatively) rich girl, who gives everything up to be able to live with the poor and despised man that she has fallen in love with. And it is about fatherly love, and about redemption, and the continuing of life in new generations...
To put it shortly: this movie is about life itself, and it is hardly possible to make a better movie, that would render so much happiness and hope and the feeling of meaning of life!
The magic of music, for good and for worse
clanciai17 June 2022
The magic of music is the chief lead of this exquisite masterpiece of rural life in northern Sweden in the early 19th century. According to the parish priest music is the devil's work bringing only curses and damnation, and he thinks he speaks of experience as he attributes the tragic death of the village fiddler with his love in the violent force of the river falls to the fact that he was a fiddler. The vicar takes care of the fiddler's son as a ward, and when the son also starts fiddling, he destroys the violin to avoid further curses. But nothing can withstand the power and magic of music. The boy grows up and finds another fiddle and starts fiddling, bringing joy to the local dancing parties. The music is perhaps the best part of the film. They were an entire team who put this music together, and it is the very pulse of life throughout the film, excellently composed and extremely appropriate to the rustic circumstances. When the two fiddlers play together at the Saturday barn ball, it's the sound of an entire string orchestra, although there are only two basic fiddles, but it doesn't matter - it only enriches the film. There is a great passion love story, the cinematography is magnificent throughout, the Swedish landscape is spellbinding in its irresistible romantic beauty, and the drama is timeless. Nothing binds the film to the early 19th century except the fact that it is clinically free of any modernism. The film is a joy of beauty all through, giving a penetrating insight into the fact that music opens up both the abysses of the human mind and heart and the necessity of exuberant joy and happiness, especially eloquently expressed in the dancing sequences.
The outcasts
ulicknormanowen12 June 2021
The restored copy of this magnificent movie is a wonder : the country landscapes (the hills, the -moody-river ,the forest) are a feast for the eye ; it looks like a legend ,(one of the scenes recalls "Jungfrukällan ",the virgin spring" which Bergman would transfer to the screen in 1959) , blending a repressive religion and superstitions (the river fairy ,the would be maleficent power of the violin which plays devil's music)who made Jon , whose parents elope when his mother was engaged,an outcast , an accursed ,a pariah.
Jon's violin plays a prominent part in the story ,and the sequences of the rustic ball are among the best I have ever seen ; Jon got a raw deal :his parents' sins (if one can call a sin the right to choose the man you love) fall on his head and he's the black sheep of the village where he's considered a protégé of the fairies ,a heathen young man .
Marit is a feminist at a time the word was not invented : it took a lot of guts to say no to an arranged marriage in front of the whole congregation .
Both she and Jon are against the whole world ,and the history of long ago is about to repeat itself.
"Driver dagg faller regn" (after dew, rain)is not a pessimistic work though ; it gets through a message of tolerance ,of forgiveness and of hope :" the river" ,like in Frank Borzage 's eponymous silent film (1928), becomes a character ,and brings doom and redemption.
The score is tremendous, integrating folk music , including one old song performed by Mai Zetterling,who was known in Western Europa.
Jon's violin plays a prominent part in the story ,and the sequences of the rustic ball are among the best I have ever seen ; Jon got a raw deal :his parents' sins (if one can call a sin the right to choose the man you love) fall on his head and he's the black sheep of the village where he's considered a protégé of the fairies ,a heathen young man .
Marit is a feminist at a time the word was not invented : it took a lot of guts to say no to an arranged marriage in front of the whole congregation .
Both she and Jon are against the whole world ,and the history of long ago is about to repeat itself.
"Driver dagg faller regn" (after dew, rain)is not a pessimistic work though ; it gets through a message of tolerance ,of forgiveness and of hope :" the river" ,like in Frank Borzage 's eponymous silent film (1928), becomes a character ,and brings doom and redemption.
The score is tremendous, integrating folk music , including one old song performed by Mai Zetterling,who was known in Western Europa.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
