A Song for Martin (2001)

85% of critics liked it
(27 reviews)
69% of users liked it
(1,012 ratings)

After a number of big-budget international projects, writer and director Bille August scaled himself back with this intimate story about two people who find both love and tragedy late in life. Martin (Sven Wolter) is a well-known and highly respected classical composer and conductor in his early… More After a number of big-budget international projects, writer and director Bille August scaled himself back with this intimate story about two people who find both love and tragedy late in life. Martin (Sven Wolter) is a well-known and highly respected classical composer and conductor in his early sixties. While rehearsing for a concert, Martin becomes aquatinted with Barbara (Viveka Seldahl), the orchestra's concertmaster who is ten years his junior. While both Martin and Barbara are married, there is a strong mutual attraction between them, and after a brief affair they decide to divorce their respective mates and get married. Despite the objections of their children (all of whom are fully grown), Martin and Barbara wed, settling into a happy and productive relationship in Sweden. But five years later, while Barbara assists Martin with his latest project, she notices his memory seems to be failing him, and his personality is beginning to shift. A doctor diagnoses Martin's condition as the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, and as his condition worsens, Martin finds it more and more difficult to write the music that means so much to him. Barbara, on the other hand, wants to help her husband, but as his memory fades and his confidence goes with it, she sees the brilliant artist she fell in love with slipping away, and she's not sure how she feels about the increasingly feeble stranger who has taken his place. En Sang For Martin was based on the novel Boken om E by Ulla Isaksson. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 57 min.
Directed By: Bille August
Written By: Bille August, Ulla Isaksson
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Jun 28, 2002 Limited
On DVD: Aug 12, 2003
Studio: Nordisk

Critic Reviews

Desson Thomson, Washington Post
August ... steers this story to its stirring conclusion with firm lack of sentimentality.
Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News
Full of unforgiving irony and quiet realism, A Song for Martin stands as a powerful and moving achievement.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
More honest about Alzheimer's disease, I think, than Iris.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Viveka Seldahl and Sven Wollter will touch you to the core in a film you will never forget -- that you should never forget.
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
The movie, for all its sincerity, becomes clinical and repetitious, though its unsparing vision of the fragility of identity can give you a shudder.
Megan Turner, New York Post
This slow-moving Swedish film offers not even a hint of joy, preferring to focus on the humiliation of Martin as he defecates in bed and urinates on the plants at his own birthday party.
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
It may sound like a mere disease-of- the-week TV movie, but A Song For Martin is made infinitely more wrenching by the performances of real-life spouses Seldahl and Wollter.
Kim Morgan, Oregonian
Upsetting and thought-provoking, the film has an odd purity that doesn't bring you into the characters so much as it has you study them.
Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
It's so downbeat and nearly humorless that it becomes a chore to sit through -- despite some first-rate performances by its lead.
Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune
Director-writer Bille August ... depicts this relationship with economical grace, letting his superb actors convey Martin's deterioration and Barbara's sadness -- and, occasionally, anger.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
Martin and Barbara are complex characters -- sometimes tender, sometimes angry -- and the delicate performances by Sven Wollter and Viveka Seldahl make their hopes and frustrations vivid.
Michael Szymanski, Zap2it.com
A delightfully simple, splendid love story between two older people ... a journey of life and love you won't want to miss.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
An extraordinary Swedish film about the soul adventure of marriage -- the kind of intimate and character-driven film that Bille August does best.

Read all 13 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Cynthia S

A very well acted, written, & directed film about a romance fighting a losing battle with an untreatable disease. The film itself is slow paced, but heavy on emotions since it addresses the progressive deterioration of the man's health, and it's crippling effect on him… More
A very well acted, written, & directed film about a romance fighting a losing battle with an untreatable disease. The film itself is slow paced, but heavy on emotions since it addresses the progressive deterioration of the man's health, and it's crippling effect on him and his family. Even though the two met and fell in love while they were married to other people, you still feel bad for what they endure throughout the film. The two lead actors, and the supporting cast, did a great job to make this production a memorable one.
Mark A

This one was tough to watch, as a man who had been a brilliant composer slowly succumbed to Alzheimer's and his wife tried her best to keep him going. Absolutely brilliant portrayal by Steven Wollter as Martin and Viveka Seldahl as Barbara. The supporting cast was excellent and… More
This one was tough to watch, as a man who had been a brilliant composer slowly succumbed to Alzheimer's and his wife tried her best to keep him going. Absolutely brilliant portrayal by Steven Wollter as Martin and Viveka Seldahl as Barbara. The supporting cast was excellent and the emotions were never far from the surface. The music was divine. An altogether well done film.