Strindberg

The liberties he took with Shakespeare, Ibsen, Strindberg and O’Neill were at the service of exposing the dynamic core of their dramatic works.

She was intrigued to learn, for example, that “my great-grandfather’s half niece was married to August Strindberg, the Swedish playwright and all-around nasty person.”

In elucidating the way Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov established the foundation of modern drama, he opened minds to the revolutionary accomplishments of Pirandello, Brecht and Beckett.

If you can, you should visit: Standing there looking at Strindberg’s desk, with his pens, papers and books, gives writers a certain familiar feeling of discipline, dreams and isolation.

For all his cinematic eclecticism and exuberance, Trier belongs to a cultural tradition that includes Ibsen, Strindberg, Munch and Knausgaard — not the most whimsical company.