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
I feel the need to work with my wife, Lena Olin, again.
I discovered the 7th art at home when I was kid, through Charlie Chaplin's movies and those of my father who shot documentaries. He was my biggest influence. So I took his camera and started shooting.
I can't go back and label myself as an outcast because I was a pretty well-adjusted kid, but I can certainly relate to the feeling of being an outsider.
I am always more interested in performance and character depiction, and my direction says as much.
I always try to preserve my cinematographic style, even while I work in the US. I wish to always be European.
I always need a couple of highlights to really spark the passion for a project.
But now I wish I could back to Stockholm to make international films there.
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.