05 October 2006

Stockholm 750 years - War and Peace


Chopped part of Vädersoltavlan ("The Sun Dog Painting")
(Storkyrkan/The Cathedral, Stockholm)

Stockholm City Museum again!

'A Journey in Time - Stockholm's 750th anniversary' - an exhibition guiding the visitors through the history of Stockholm.

The journey starts in 1252 (when Stockholm first was mentioned as a town) on the small island sited between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea where Birger Jarl (a jarl were at the time the second most important person in a region or in the country after the king. Jarl and the English earl have similar etymological background) built a small citadel.
Then the exhibition continues through the winding alleys of the little town to the fine streets and splendid palaces of Sweden's European prosperity.

Stockholm during the Middle Ages
Different tableaus depict the different centuries and decades with important events illuminated.

The city of industry where trams, buses and motor-cars demanded space and new roads to travel on.

In the 1950s one can take to the air from Bromma; Stockholm had become part of a wider world with the subway, after international patterns but much later than in other big cities, in Stockholm being built step by step.

FILM:

After this: 'War and Peace' by King Vidor with among others Henry Fonda, Audrey Hepburn and Anita Ekberg.
A costume-film with a somewhat theatrical way of acting. It is as if the director Vidor thought that people in the upper-classes in those days spoke and acted as if they were actors in a play.
Another 'problem' in the movies of the time is that all people speak English, both the Russian general and Napoleon Bonaparte but of course with a small accent indicating from where they originate.

In the end, a quite fascinating movie in spite of all my critic remarks. A classic 'grand-film'.









(Bild på Jubileumsmynten i guld kopierat från: http://www.falcoin.se/media/Moderna%20jubileumsmynt/2000%20KR%202002%20Stockholm%20750%20%C3%A5r%20%283%29.jpg)
(Photo 'Vädersolstavlan'/'The Sun Dog Painting' taken from:
 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/V%C3%A4dersoltavlan_cropped.JPG)
(Picture medieval Stockholm taken from:http://www.jernkontoret.se/globalassets/stalindustrin/stalindustrins-historia/stockholm-1574b.jpg/HugeThumbnailh)
(Bild på 'Staden på vattnet' kopierat från: http://img.tradera.net/images/154/251740154_46597dc1-2882-4b09-a5da-5d43d2814282.jpg)

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