Elvira Madigan

Bo Widerberg's 1967 film draws on something that happened in 1889. Hedvig Jensen, a Danish tightrope walker performing as Elvira Madigan, ran off with Sixten Sparre, a married Swedish lieutenant with two children. Having deserted the army, Sparre could not find work, and a summer on the run ended with no money left. The record holds that Sparre shot Elvira and then himself. Widerberg builds this not as historical drama but as an almost purely sensory experience: overexposed summer light, grass, insects, faces in close-up. His last-minute choice of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 as the score is the reason that piece still carries the film's name today. Pia Degermark won best actress at Cannes that year. Who it's for: viewers drawn to films where form carries the feeling and plot stays in the background. Who it's not for: anyone who finds the aestheticising of a violent ending uncomfortable, because that is exactly what the film does.