very minor spoiler at the very end of this review... It seems like Sweden was under the spell of Monika Z for a few decades. Here in the USA, we do not know her. Yet her story is so familiar: beautiful girl from a modest background. Big hopes and disarming talent. Poised for major discovery and stardom...with hopes foiled and rekindled many times along the way. Yet we never grow tired of the story, do we? Because every ending is different perhaps. This movie tells the tale in a more modest way than an American film would. It does not try to razzle dazzle us with Hollywood-style production numbers. It focuses more on Monika navigating between artistic impulse and fame obsession and the kaleidoscope of repercussions. True narcissists are rarely redeemed by self awareness or minor tragedies.With that in mind, I was kept in suspense wondering whether Monika suffered from a deep incurable personality disorder or a long bout of reversible blind ambition. I was not disappointed with the cinematic build-up to the final reveal. I know Danish, and watched the movie in Swedish with Danish subtitles on Danish public TV. Some of the nudity may have been cut, but I did not find anything offensive or describable as "full frontal" as another reviewer from Norway has mentioned. I only wish this movie had a full soundtrack of Edda Magnusson singing Monika Z classics. Her voice is enchanting. I like her renditions of Swedish jazz classics even better than the Monika Z samples I have heard on youtube. I gave the movie 10 stars, because rarely do I want to watch a movie twice, and now I plan to watch it for a third time in fact! The movie's only minor flaw was the bar scene with Ella Fitzgerald. The exchange was not very convincing to my mind. The actress who played the great EF was perhaps too strident. I would have expected a more reserved, almost indifferent reaction. So maybe the blame is also on the lines written. So to be precise, I would say 9 1/2 stars. Enjoy!

Danish screenwriter and director Per Fly's sixth feature film which he co-wrote with Swedish author and screenwriter Peter Birro, is freely based on the life of a Swedish 20th and 21st century singer and actress named Monica Zetterlund (1937-2005). It premiered at the 7th Way Out West Music Festival in Sweden in 2013, was screened in the Nordic Focus section at the 41st Norwegian International Film Festival Haugesund in 2013, was shot on locations in Sweden and USA and is a Sweden-Denmark co-production which was produced by Swedish producer Lena Rehnberg. It tells the story about a 23-year-old telephone operator, jazz singer and mother named Monica who lives in a town called Hagfors in Sweden with her parents named Bengt and Greta Nilsson and her 5-year-old daughter named Eva-Lena, and who during a winter in 1960 is contacted by an English jazz pianist named Leonard Feather who invites her to New York, USA. Distinctly and engagingly directed by Nordic filmmaker Per Fly, this finely paced and densely biographical tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the main character's point of view, draws a humane and involving portrayal of an inspirited woman's relationship with her father, her daughter, her friend named Marika, a filmmaker named Vilgot Sjöman and a jazz musician named Sture Åkerberg. While notable for its naturalistic, variegated and atmospheric milieu depictions, reverent cinematography by Danish cinematographer Eric Kress, production design by Swedish production designer and costume designer Josefin Åsberg, costume design by costume designer Kicki Ilander and use of sound, colors and light, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about a person who grew up in a working-class family in Sweden in the 20th century and who struggled to make her father see that her persistent engagement in her music career wasn't all in vain, depicts a reflective study of character and contains a great and timely score by Swedish composer Peter Nordahl. This somewhat historic, at times charmingly romantic and heart-shaped drama which is set in Sweden and in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s and which gracefully reconstructs and reminiscences poignant scenes in the life of a renowned artist, daughter and sister who was both criticized and praised in her homeland and discovered by American musicians she admired, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, singing by Edda Magnason, striking scenes between Monica and her father, lyrics sung in Swedish by Monica : "I walk around in my Pompeii amongst ruins…" and the heartfelt acting performances by Swedish singer and actress Edda Magnason in her debut feature film role and Swedish actors Sverrir Gudnason and Kjell Bergqvist. A revering, life-affirming and acclaiming narrative feature which gained, among several other awards, the Nordic Film Award Haugesund at the 41st Norwegian Film Festival Haugesund in 2013.

I left the theater smiling. It's rare that I get to see a truly good movie, but even more rare than that is that I see a truly good Swedish film.Monica Z is a biography movie about the Swedish Jazz-singer, actress and variety performer Monica Zetterlund. It begins with the words "Freely based on the life of Monica Zetterlund" and after that tells a story of a talented but self-destructive singer who struggles to get the man she loves and, more importantly, the respect of her father. The film succeeds where so many biography movies fail. Instead of trying to squeeze an entire lifetime in roughly two hours this one has a clear story arc and focuses on a short period in the persons life.The film has received some criticism for that, though. Some are not happy that the film differs from reality and some believe it to take place in a 15 year time span without the characters, and more specifically Monicas daughter Eva-Lena, doesn't age. However, they missed to read the text in the beginning. This is historical fiction. Many parts of Monicas life are boiled down into a time span of roughly 2-5 years at the most. The point was to tell a story based on and inspired by Monica, not a documentary. And that's why did movie is so good.Besides the well-crafted story, the look of the film deserves it's fair share of credit too. This is a gorgeous movie, from design to costumes to the cinematography. It's great to look at.Last, but not least, Edda Magnasson. She doesn't play Monica. She IS Monica. At times this movie feels haunted she's so spot on. Even in the music numbers. Edda performs all the songs herself and sometimes I was fooled that it really was Monica with Edda just lip syncing the words but no, it's her. All the other actors are great as well but they just glow compared to Edda who shines like a Supernova. If nothing else this movie is worth watching just for her.

Let's first make clear that Edda Magnason is fantastic as Monica Zetterlund, an icon in Swedish jazz music and entertainment. Not at least when she sings. It's almost scary.But the script about her life outside stage is a melodrama on at best average level. The chronology is strange, 15 years pass and her daughter doesn't get older and nothing new is put to the common movie myth about the self-burning artist and her soul.We're quite in love with the early 60s now. Both we who were where and the rest of us. Which doesn't mean we're so interested in this way of romanticizing it in this way, even the destructiveness it kept