Collection
FILM
Marianne Isager’s Film Collection contains models inspired by Marianne’s favorite movies.
FILM ILLUSTRATIONS
Sonata Eidikiene has created beautiful paintings for Marianne Isager’s Film Collection. You can see Sonata Eidikiene’s art works on her Instagram profile (@sonataeidikiene).
Sonata Eidikiene is the owner of the yarn shop Mezgimo Zona in Vilnius, Lithuania.
OUT OF AFRICA / Design: Marianne Isager
In the film OUT OF AFRICA, based on the novel, Out of Africa by Karen Blixen, she tells of her own years in Africa. She describes her love for her husband, Bror, and later for the adventurer Dennis Finch Hatton, but not least her deep love of Africa.
After and because of a failed relationship in Denmark, she suggests to Bror Blixen to get married and move abroad. It seems to be a marriage of convenience. This gives Karen the title of Baroness and it means a lot to her to be married. In return, Bror receives money from his wealthy wife. However, he shows little inclination to work on the plantation, preferring to go on African big game hunting. Karen finds marriage increasingly difficult. She had believed that they would run the farm together. They planned to grow coffee, but Bror was seldom at home. She fights for their relationship and wishes that they have children together and that he is more present. But the marriage falls apart when Bror infects her with Syphillis.
After her recovery, she begins an intense romance with Dennis Finch Hatton, a British adventurer and free spirit. She experiences African nature, music and warm love with him. But here, too, she tries to turn her affair into a lasting relationship and wants to marry him. But Dennis doesn’t want that, and she can’t control him or change his attitude towards marriage. He generally questions her need for possessions because she often says: “my farm”, “my things”, “my workers” … And, he replies: “We have nothing in this world, we are only passing through.”
Despite the fact they really love each other, she can’t bear to wait for Dennis. She asks him to pack his things. Shortly afterwards, the coffee roastery and the entire harvest go up in flames. Karen decides to leave Africa and return to Denmark.
The film shows a very strong, but also very vulnerable woman. Karen is always dressed elegantly, whether she is on safari or at the club in Nairobi. The colors are beige, raw white and pink, the materials are linen and silk. I was inspired by a sweater that Karen Blixen wears shortly after arriving at the farm. It has a light, vertical structure.
This resulted in a casual jacket that is both raw and feminine.
Film: Out of Africa
Director: Sydney Pollack
Year of Release: 1985
Music: Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, Adagio
MATERIALS
Isager Trio 2 or Isager Hør Organic or Isager Uld 1 held together with Isager Silk Mohair
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED/ Design: Marianne Isager
We find ourselves in England at the end of World War II, where General Charles Ryder (Jeremy Irons) is stationed with his unit on the Brideshead Estate. The property has been abandoned long ago, but it is not the first time that he’s been here. He recalls his earlier experience at Brideshead with the son of the manor, Sebastian, and his sister, Julia, in the lead roles. Which one of the two had he preferred more and why does Catholicism play such a huge role in the film?
The film dates back to a time when real men wore shirts, sweaters and tweed jackets.
Director: Julian Jarrold
Year of Release: 1981
Music: Geoffrey Burgon
MATERIALS
Isager Tweed + Isager Alpaca 1
YU DOU / Design: Marianne Isager
The film takes place at a dye mill in ancient rural China, where long strips of fabric are dyed in red and yellow tones. The images are fantastic, and I have enjoyed watching the leading actress, played by Gong Li, in many movies. In this film, she is married to the old color master who is a beast, violent and an oddball. The adopted nephew of the color master receives work at the dye mill and falls in love with his uncle’s beautiful young wife. They begin an erotic, secretive and very intensive relationship that leads to a child, of which the old color master naturally believes that he is the father. The film is full of passion, drama and violent events, which in some way is quite the contrast to the bright, colorful sweater that this film inspired me to design. But life is never black and white, and the film is so colorful that I had to begin with the whole palette.
Director: Zhang Yimou
Date of Release: 1990
Music: Zhao Jiping, who also composed the music of many other films starring Gong Li. Most striking are the haunting flutes, the crisp drums and the delicate vocals. Full of beauty – but with this music comes drama, which we experience with the main characters of the film, and which also come to a head.
MATERIALS
Tvinni + Silk Mohair
BAGDAD CAFÈ / Design: Marianne Isager
BAGDAD CAFÉ (Out of Rosenheim)
Good advice is expensive. The German tourist, Jasmin Münchgestettner from Rosenheim, who leaves her husband after a huge fight, stands alone in the California desert. She continues on foot and finally arrives at the dilapidated Bagdad Café, with its oblique existences. Not much happens here, but Mrs. Münchgestettner understands this and soon makes herself useful with good German coffee and funny magic tricks, quickly becoming the entertainment at the center of the café.
The beautiful yellow, knitted jacket of the café owner was the inspiration for this design.
Director: Percy Adlon
Year of Release: 1987
Music: Bob Telson
MATERIALS
Aran Tweed
Silk Mohair
BABETTE’S FEAST / Design: Marianne Isager
Babette’s Feast is a film about the French woman Babette, who in 1872 fled counter-revolutionary bloodshed. She became the kitchen maid for two elderly Danish sisters, Martina and Philippa. Their father was the Paster and Founder of a Pietism Assembly. He raised his daughters to be pious, humble and celibate. After the death of their father, the two sisters took over the household and ensured cohesion in the community. One can feel that the two sacrificed their great love for a life of awe and abstinence. Babette, on the other hand, has a cheerful disposition and a past as a celebrated chef in a restaurant in Paris. When she wins a large sum of money in the lottery, she spends all the money on a feast for the small missionary community. The good food and the delicious wine make the cheeks glow, and the small gathering discovers that you can enjoy life and be a good believer at the same time. Karen Blixen wrote this nice little story in 1950 under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen.
In the book, the deep fjords in the Norwegian mountains dominate the landscape. I chose dark colors, but in a playful cable pattern from an old beloved sweater. The Babette sweater also looks very nice in natural white.
Director: Gabriel Axel
Year of Release: 1987
Music: Per Nørgård
MATERIALS
Isager Merilin
Isager Trio 1
BLUE / Design: Marianne Isager
BLUE is the film about Julie, who survives a traffic accident where both her husband and child loose their lives.
The film is about Julie’s grief and how she deals with it. Everything in the film is blue: The water, the glass and even the music…even the sweater Julie is wearing! She tries to take her own life at first and when she does not succeed, she tries to shut out the world. Julie does not want to own anything, she wants to be free from material and human relations. Things are just not that easy. Life does come close, not least when Julie learns about the life her husband has let. We see her act and grapple with life, see her carry on her husband’s legacy. Julie’s husband was a famous composer, but is she also entitled to her share of the praise for the music he made? The music in the film is fantastic, by the way, and contributes greatly to the overall experience of the film! BLUE is probably one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen and yet it has inspired me to make one of the most simple of sweaters. I have combined two of the sweaters seen in the film. One is made in ribbing and the other is made in double moss stitch.
We can all use a big, BLUE sweater to snuggle into from time to time.
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Year of release: 1993
Music: Zbiegnew Preisner
MATERIALS
Isager Tweed
Silk Mohair
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA / Design: Marianne Isager
BLUE is the film about Julie, who survives a traffic accident where both her husband and child loose their lives.
The film is about Julie’s grief and how she deals with it. Everything in the film is blue: The water, the glass and even the music…even the sweater Julie is wearing! She tries to take her own life at first and when she does not succeed, she tries to shut out the world. Julie does not want to own anything, she wants to be free from material and human relations. Things are just not that easy. Life does come close, not least when Julie learns about the life her husband has let. We see her act and grapple with life, see her carry on her husband’s legacy. Julie’s husband was a famous composer, but is she also entitled to her share of the praise for the music he made? The music in the film is fantastic, by the way, and contributes greatly to the overall experience of the film! BLUE is probably one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen and yet it has inspired me to make one of the most simple of sweaters. I have combined two of the sweaters seen in the film. One is made in ribbing and the other is made in double moss stitch.
We can all use a big, BLUE sweater to snuggle into from time to time.
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Year of release: 1993
Music: Zbiegnew Preisner
MATERIALS
Highland + Alpaca 1
Or
Isager Tweed + Alpaca 1
Purchase pattern and yarn kit (Highland + Alpaca 1)
Purchase pattern and yarn kit (Isager Tweed + Alpaca 1)
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA / Design: Marianne Isager
We find ourselves in Victorian England. And the independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene surprisingly inherits the estate of an uncle. As a young and beautiful woman, she is courted by three very different men: the impoverished shepherd, Gabriel Oak; the wealthy landowner, William Boldwood; and the fiery sergeant, Frank Troy. Which one of them will be her chosen one? Is she even ready for a man in her life? The film is very beautiful and very romantic. Carey Mulligan plays the beautiful Bathsheba, but I find it more difficult to keep my eyes from Matthais Schoenaerts in the role of Gabriel Oak. The inspiration for my design comes from a sweater worn by Bathsheba’s maid. In addition, many sheep can be seen in the film.
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Year of Release: 2015
MATERIALS
Isager Tweed
Purchase pattern and yarn kit for the woman’s pullover
Purchase pattern and yarn kit for the man’s pullover
BRING ON THE NIGHT / Design: Marianne Isager
BRING ON THE NIGHT is a documentary about Sting, the musician, who brings together a group of black musicians rooted in jazz music. Together they give a concert at The Théatre Mogador in Paris. Rehearsals for the concert take place in a beautiful, historic castle outside Paris and this is where we watch the preparations for the concert and get an insight into the musicians’ thoughts and dreams. The film is of course filled with good music. When the concert is coming to an end and the audience is really ’in the mood’ after having listened to both familiar and new songs, Sting sings ’Need your love so bad’ and there is not a dry eye in the house.
Now, of course, we know all the songs and the majority of them have become classics. Sting’s music is some of the best from min time, I think, and here he is checking the boundaries in relation to the pop music in which he has his roots. At the same time we are surrounded by wonderful people wearing wonderful clothes. There are lots of inspiration to be found everywhere, a lot of humour and a lot of optimism. Watching this film always puts me in a good mood. The inspiration for this sweater is a chequered jacket worn by Sting several times in the film.
Film director: Michael Apted
Year of release: 1985
Music from the record Bring on the Night
MATERIALS
Isager Tweed
Purchase pattern and yarn kit for the woman’s pullover
Purchase pattern and yarn kit for the man’s pullover