L'Assassin candide

The two main actors (Hans Alfredsson and Stellan Skarsgård) make top performances in this movie about Evil personalized. It´s also a movie about Sweden in the late 30´s with poverty and pre-war nazism close at hand.

The directing (by Hasse Alfredson) and the cinematography (by Rolf Lindström and Jörgen Persson) are excellent. During the whole movie the audience can hear the bittersweet tones of Verdi's Requiem. Not also the actors makes this movie to a masterpiece. Maria Johansson is brilliant as the lame girl. But the best performance of them all is made by Stellan Skarsgård as Sven - "The Idiot" (because of his harelip). Skarsgård's performance may be the best throughout the whole history of Swedish film.

Sven and the other farmers over the countryside of Skåne, in southern Sweden, have to endure the mental torture from the factory owner in the district, The Evil Man, played by Hasse Alfredson himself. But after enough suffering, Sven gets enough and with the angels of vengeance he walks over the fields to kill The Evil Man, the factory owner. All this to the music of Verdi's Requiem. This scene may be one of the strongest ever throughout the FILM HISTORY. See this movie, but carefully, do not hesitate.

If only the Lumiere brothers could have seen this...

This is indeed Stellan Skarsgård's tour de force, playing Sven the fool. Playing a mentally disabled person is a challenge but Skarsgård manages it with grace, like Leonardo di Caprio in 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape'. The movie actually offers quite a few wonderful characterizations from some of the supporting actors as well, like Per Myrberg as the good-hearted farmer, Lars Amble as Bengt the driver or Carl Billquist as the maitre d'. The award for Best Swedish movie of the year was quite well deserved.

This is one of the best Swedish movies of all(which many agrees with) and Stellan Skarsgårds performance is really worth an Oscar, although i can't understand why some people call this a comedy. This is a sad drama about a gentle poor boy and an evil. Hans Alfrdsons script(based on his book) is solid and his direction great and he is also good as the evil man. This is a movie which a lot of people has seen in Sweden but almost no one outside of Sweden, which is sad because i think everyone in the world should take their time and see this wonderful movie which makes you cry and think. Watch out for Gösta Ekman as a driver.

As others have remarked, this may be the best movie to come out of Sweden. It both enrages and soothes, as it follows the oppression and uprising of the main character.

While it covers the tribulations and triumphs of the main characters perfectly, it's about so much more. It has a big heart and reminds you that overcomplicating things can lead us astray, whereas the purity of simplicity is sometimes what we should strive for, and it's a lesson in the corrupt nature of power.

The production may seem plain at first, but you'll soon realize that it's pitch perfect. Unfortunately I didn't see this movie before now - I, like every man, could have done well with the additional ballast that this piece of art provides.