Upcoming Sonja Henie biographical film, 'Queen of Ice'

Sonja had so much going on in her life. From top athlete to Hollywood movie star to serious art collector. With her third husband she finally settled down and together they build a magnificent museum for contemporary art in Bærum outside Oslo.

http://henieonstadsanatorium.no/en/art-center

The building itself is magnificent and the couples art collection was the beginning of the museum. Now they host all kinds of different contemporary exhibitions.


As an athlete Sonja had that drive that gets you to the top. She loved to practice, she just wanted to skate all the time. Already as a little girl she was very serious and stayed out till late on Frogner stadium. Of course, it was possible for her to continue the regime as her father was wealthy and could offer her home schooling and the best trainers, but that shouldn't take anything away from her skills as an athlete. As a young girl she explained that it was very important to receive criticism from her coach. "That is the only way I can improve". Wise words.

Sonja also contributed a lot to figure skating as a sport. She was the one introducing white skates and shorter skirts. She could do this as she was so young, only 12 at her first olympics, and short skirts on a kid wasn't a scandal, it would have been on one of those grown up woman:D Because she wore shorter skirt she could do different moves and she developed more dance like choreography. She had a program (probably an exhibition) where she was portraying Pavlova, as the swan, in a magnificent outfit. I always believed Oksana Baiul's swan was inspired by her;)
 
SmallFairy said:
She had a program (probably an exhibition) where she was portraying Pavlova, as the swan, in a magnificent outfit. I always believed Oksana Baiul's swan was inspired by her;)
Click to expand...

Here is a brief clip from a newsreel.
I wish there were more; and perhaps there is, somewhere
However, there is enough to let you know how special this was,
Begins at 0.32
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJR3FndcZl8

My father's Norwegian mother was a close friend of Sonja's first manager.
He was fortunate enough to attend all of her performances in NY; including this one, in 1934.
We discussed Sonja, and her performances, frequently.
All of this is the source of my lifelong, consuming interest in skating; the reason why I search out/collect rare footage, and have gained a level of "expertise" about the sport, over many years.
 
Another article on Kiira and the film... https://www.aamulehti.fi/viihde/kii...uvaan-norjalaiset-paattivat-toisin-200347394/

There will be other skaters in the movie besides Korpi: 6 male skaters, a 'choir' of 10 female skaters, and Team Surprise (six-time World champions in synchro skating). They'll be practicing in Gothenburg, Sweden next week before the shooting starts in Romania.
Korpi will also be doing pairs stunts in the movie. She says she has been practicing lifts.
The choreographer is Catarina Lindgren. It was her and husband Tom Dickson who originally contacted Korpi about the movie role.
 
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One of the male skaters is Matti Landgraf from Germany (who briefly tried out with Mari Vartmann), a new article in the German paper "Freie Presse" about him states.
 
Looks like Matti will be Kiira's partner for pairs stunts in the film.
https://www.freiepresse.de/SPORT/Ch...einem-Filmdebuet-auf-Kufen-artikel9980821.php

He also comments on his one-month partnership with Mari Vartmann:
"In the beginning it went well, but soon I noticed that it didn't click on the ice. There were differing opinions on every element, the timing didnt work. I also had the impression that Mari was very passionate about it. The athmosphere got more and more oppressive, and I was emotionally mixed-up."
 
IDC a.k.a. Ritti said:
Looks like Matti will be Kiira's partner for pairs stunts in the film.
https://www.freiepresse.de/SPORT/Ch...einem-Filmdebuet-auf-Kufen-artikel9980821.php

He also comments on his one-month partnership with Mari Vartmann:
"In the beginning it went well, but soon I noticed that it didn't click on the ice. There were differing opinions on every element, the timing didnt work. I also had the impression that Mari was very passionate about it. The athmosphere got more and more oppressive, and I was emotionally mixed-up."
Click to expand...

This should read "not very passionate" (or more "her heart was not fully in it") and maybe that the mood became "gloomy" or "heavy" instead of "oppressive".
 
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bardtoob said:
:shuffle: I wonder if it will show Henie throwing a fit after seeing Cecelia Colledge's compulsory figure scores at the 1936 Olympics.
Click to expand...
I wish they would address this; from Vivi-Anne Hulten's obituary in the Los Angeles Times:
Hulten's chief rival during her competitive days was Henie, the three-time Olympic champion known as the "Ice Queen of Norway."

Hulten was fifth to Henie in the 1932 Olympics, third to Henie in the 1936 Olympics and the 1935 and '36 world championships, and second to Henie in the 1933 world championship.

"I was a dancer," Hulten, a pioneer in interpreting music with her skating, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 1994. "Sonja was an acrobat."

Henie had been Hulten's inspiration as a teenager. But the warm relationship when they began competing against one another grew into a bitter rivalry. In various interviews later in her life, Hulten characterized Henie as a foulmouthed, self-centered and ruthless competitor.

The rift began at the 1933 world championships, when Hulten finished only two-tenths of a point behind Henie.

"You are not nearly good enough to get second next to me," Henie screamed afterward, pointing a finger at Hulten's nose. "I'm so much better that you are. You deserved to be fourth."

At the 1934 world championship, Hulten came in fourth.

"Her father arranged it," Hulten told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "She was afraid of me."

Hulten asserted that Henie's father made deals with judges at world championships to ensure his daughter's victories and to thwart Hulten.

"Papa Henie would go to these places and tell the organizers, 'You can have my daughter [for an exhibition]; come up to my hotel room and I'll tell you how we can arrange it,' " she told the Sporting News in 1994.

"He played poker with them. If he won, he got an appearance fee for Sonja to skate and he got an agreement that the judges would place me no higher than third. I didn't have a chance. I know this is true because one of my best friends was the president of our club in Stockholm, and he told me about it. Back then the judges were always with the clubs."

The old rivalry resurfaced when Hulten discussed it in her 1994 interview with the Star Tribune.

At the time of the interview, Hulten had been invited to provide commentary on women's figure skating for the Norwegian national television network at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, where Henie is still revered. But Hulten's remarks, coupled with her intention to detail her side of history as part of her commentary in Norway, led the network to cancel its invitation.

Hulten, however, didn't back down from her allegations against Henie, who died in 1969 at age 57. And jealousy, Hulten insisted, was not behind her claims.

"Look, I have a great admiration for what Henie did," she told Sports Illustrated. "On the ice she was terrific, a wonderful acrobat, just like a circus princess, a big smile, dressed perfectly. But she was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a very nasty person off the ice.... I'm just telling it like it is."

On a 1935 Olympic training trip to St. Moritz, Hulten told the Sporting News, she was detained at the German border for seven hours and searched "from head to toe," with no explanation from the guard, whose name was Ulrich Schmidt.

Hulten said she later sought out Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to complain. Goebbels, a skating fan, had Schmidt brought to him.

"Goebbels made him get down on a knee and apologize to me," Hulten recalled. "[Schmidt] said, 'Well, a young lady came through before her whose name was Sonja Henie. She told me this girl here would be smuggling jewelry, so we stopped her.' "

At the 1936 Winter Olympics in Germany, medal winners were told to give the Nazi salute to Hitler. Gold medal winner Henie saluted, but bronze winner Hulten refused.

"I told them, 'I'm Swedish; I don't do that,' " she said
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From the skating history thread...

N_Halifax said:
I also recently spoke on the Beyond The Big Screen Podcast about Sonja Henie's film "Hello London" and figure skating history. The link is below if you'd like to listen. Please bear in mind that the audience of this particular podcast are film buffs with little to no knowledge of skating, so there isn't much you likely don't know:

https://www.atozhistorypage.com/big-screen
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IDC a.k.a. Ritti said:
Looks like Matti will be Kiira's partner for pairs stunts in the film.
https://www.freiepresse.de/SPORT/Ch...einem-Filmdebuet-auf-Kufen-artikel9980821.php

He also comments on his one-month partnership with Mari Vartmann:
"In the beginning it went well, but soon I noticed that it didn't click on the ice. There were differing opinions on every element, the timing didnt work. I also had the impression that Mari was very passionate about it. The athmosphere got more and more oppressive, and I was emotionally mixed-up."
Click to expand...

Oh my. But at least Matti Landgraf is frank and honest about it. And he made the difficult decision to not go forward with the partnership, which must have disappointed a lot of people.
 
Norwegian figure skating biopic 'Queen of Ice' gets sales deal: https://www.screendaily.com/news/no...-queen-of-ice-gets-sales-deal/5121783.article
TrustNordisk has picked up international rights for Norwegian figure skating biopic Queen of Ice.

The film stars Ine Marie Wilmann (Homesick) as modern figure skater Sonja Henie, who in 1936 moved to Hollywood to become a movie star. Valene Kane (The Fall), Aidan McArdle (The Duchess) and Malcom Adams (Return To Montauk) also star.

The film, which is currently in production, is directed by Anne Sewitsky, whose debut feature Happy Happy won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was sold to more than 50 countries through TrustNordisk.
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Sorry, but unless her acting chops have improved from her appearance on the series "Strong Medicine", and she can effect a Norwegian accent and hide her still noticeable Ukrainian one, her casting will be wrong. Also, she's 39 (I know, still hard to believe), with a known weakness for tanning, how does she expect to look like the dimple cheeked Norwegian who won the Olympics at 16-20-24 years of age?
 
I was confused at first because Oksana had posted about her starring in the movie. I'm a big fan but her acting chops give me pause...that being said I wish Oksana every success in her venture. :oksana1: I want to see BOTH versions anyway.
 
Jot the Dot Dot said:
Sorry, but unless her acting chops have improved from her appearance on the series "Strong Medicine", and she can effect a Norwegian accent and hide her still noticeable Ukrainian one, her casting will be wrong. Also, she's 39 (I know, still hard to believe), with a known weakness for tanning, how does she expect to look like the dimple cheeked Norwegian who won the Olympics at 16-20-24 years of age?
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Because she's Oksana. And a little bit delusional.
 
nimi said:
Whoah. "A Baiul-Farina Entertainment production"?
So this is why there were those "Oksana is going to be in the Henie movie" rumors... :gallopin1
Click to expand...
Oh my. That ad is a hot mess. Could they cram any more onto one page? Don't get me wrong - I'll watch it...if it can be found. Perhaps it will go straight to digital download.
 
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