Ewa Fröling gives the adults their due in Fanny and Alexander, keeping a crowded family from belonging entirely to one child. We rate that performance highly, without mistaking it for the whole of her work.
Fi1m perspective
In Fanny and Alexander (1982), Emilie Ekdahl holds our attention even though the children have the title. Ewa Fröling gives her enough presence to resist becoming merely another adult in Alexander’s account of the household. Alongside Gunn Wållgren’s Helena, she makes the family worth attending to beyond its most watchful child. We rate that contribution highly: the adults need to seem as though they have lives when Alexander is elsewhere.
Her breakthrough came as the lead in Gunnel Lindblom’s Sally och friheten (1981), before Ingmar Bergman’s film brought international recognition. It is worth remembering that she had already carried a film before joining this family ensemble. Later came Elfrida Roos in Sven Nykvist’s The Ox (1991), then repeated work with Colin Nutley, beginning with Sista dansen (1993). Those credits take her into other directors’ dramas and lighter ensemble stories, even if Emilie remains her defining role.
Sylvia Ingemarsson’s editing is important to what Fröling can achieve here: the family chronicle takes its time without losing the pressure of the children’s predicament. We were moved by Fanny and Alexander’s family scenes, because Fröling and Wållgren make the adults matter even while we worry about the children. The humour helps: these people are recognisable before their failings begin to hurt. Our reservation is with how little attention Fanny receives beside Alexander, not with the adult company.
Her later supporting work includes Niels Arden Oplev’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), followed by Ingrid in Susanne Bier’s A Second Chance (2014). We find the former worth seeing, but its centre of interest is the rapport between Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist. It would be misleading to recommend it chiefly for Fröling, or to treat its smaller part as a measure of what she can do. For that, give Fanny and Alexander the time it asks for.
Biography
Ewa Fröling is a Swedish actress. Born Eva Marie Fröling on 9 August 1952 in Stockholm, she trained at Teaterhögskolan in Malmö and began her career in the 1970s.
She is known for her leading role as Sally in Gunnel Lindblom’s Sally och friheten (1981) and as Emilie Ekdahl in Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander (1982). Fröling was a member of the Royal Dramatic Theatre ensemble from 1977 to around 1990 and has appeared in numerous stage productions. Later screen credits include Harriet Vanger in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) and Millennium (2010).
She is the mother of actress Tilde Fröling.
