Edvard Munch is a 1973 biographical film about the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch, written and directed by Peter Watkins. It was originally created as a three-part miniseries co-produced by the Norwegian and Swedish state television networks NRK and SVT and has subsequently been shown as a three-hour feature film. The film covers about 30 years of Munch’s life, focusing on the influences that shaped his art, particularly the prevalence of disease and death in his family and his youthful affair with a married woman. Like Watkins’ other films, Edvard Munch uses a combination of dramatic and documentary techniques: scenes from Munch’s life are enacted by a large cast (mostly Norwegian and mostly nonprofessional actors), but there is also a voiceover narration by Watkins, and there are documentary-style segments in which the characters speak directly to an interviewer about their own lives or their opinions of Munch. To convey the hostile response Munch’s work often received during his lifetime, Watkins recruited Norwegians who genuinely disliked the paintings.

Peter Watkins began his television and film career as an assistant producer of short TV films and commercials, and in the early 1960s was an assistant editor and director of documentaries at the BBC.

Screenwriter: Peter Watkins Cinematographer: Odd-Geir Sæther Editor: Peter Watkins Cast: Geir Westby, Gro Fraas, Amund Berge, Kerstii Allum, Inger-Berit Oland, Susan Troldmyr, Camilla Falk, Gro Jarto, Ragnvald Caspari, Erik Kristiansen, Gunnar Skjetne, Katja Pedersen, Anne-Marie Daehli, Berit Rytter Hasle