|
Victor Sj?str?m had
cautioned Bergman to “Film actors from the front; they like that and its the
best way.” In The Scarlet Letter (Den roda bokstaven, 1926, nine
reels), Sj?str?m introduces Lillian Gish by filming her frontally in medium
shot, frequently using dissolves during the film. After her leaving the frame,
the camera cuts to a medium shot of her in profile and then back to filming
her frontally in a mirror shot of her deciding which hat to wear. It is almost
as though Sj?str?m uses reverse screen direction between two characters when,
after structuring the film by reintroducing Gish with a dissolve, she one
moment is crossing the screen from right to left, the next momement Lars
Hanson crossing from left to right. Charles Affron writes, “Seastrom redefines
the space of the town square, making it an area successively filled and
emptied, now a formal pattern with paths cleared, then serried with ranks of
extras. The church, the town hall and the scaffold are other spatial elements
that constitute the dynamics of the public drama.” Remarking upon Sj?str?m’s
“sensitivity to landscape and texture”, Affron looks to their being a
“stylistic unity” to the film. Lillian Gish, in her book Dorothy and Lillian
Gish, writes of her having seen The Story of Gosta Berling and that,
“Mr. Mayer sent to Sweden for Lars Hanson, let me have Victor Sj?str?m, the
great Swedish artist, as director and put it into my hands. I worked with
Frances Marion on the script, and we made a successful film that is regarded
as a classic to this day.” Ingmar Bergman has said that when directing
Sj?str?m; it had in fact been that he “drew his attention to the fact that he
was playing to the gallery.” When the film was reviewed in the United States,
Sj?str?m was seen as “painstaking in his studying his characters” and that
there were “some cleverly pictured scenes in the church and the sights of the
crowds betray(ed) imaginative direction both in the handling of the players
and in their arrangement to the shades of their costumes.” There had been an
earlier film adapation of the novel, The Scarlett Letter (1917, five
reels) starring Mary Martin, Stuart Holmes and Kittens Reichert, directed by
Carl Harbaugh. There is an account of Sj?str?m’s shooting the exterior scenes
to The Scarlet Letter, during which he climbed down from a platform
after Stiller had announced he was there, Stiller then saying, “This is
Garbo.”; Stiller and her had met Warner Oland and his wife, Anna Q. Nilson
earlier. Warner Oland later began the series of films featuring the Earl Der
Biggers detective with Charlie Chan Carries On and The Black
Camel, both made in 1931.
In the film Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie (Ingmar Bergman gor en film, 1963), Vilgot Sjöman begins with a brief synopsis of the film Winter Light before his interviewing director Ingmar Bergman. Bergman discusses his use of complete silence in the film, a silence that has fallen upon the character. He explains the use of the actors’ eyes in the film. Edited into the film is behind the scenes footage, including numerous shots of Ingrid Thulin trying on various pairs of glasses. Sjöman shows Bergman filming and his methods of blocking, “The faces and the dialogue are to tell the whole story.” Sjöman’s camera films Bergman’s tightly enough to fill half the screen with the same shot as Bergman’s from a different angle. Sjöman then interviews Bergman during the postproduction of the film, “You always cut during movement. That way the flow isn’t interrupted.”
All of the films of the Winter Light trilogy, Through a Glass Darkly (Sasom i spegel, 1961), Winter Light (Nattvardsgasterna, 1963) and The Silence (Tystnaden, 1963), were photographed by Sven Nykvist and scripted by director Ingmar Bergman.
Katherina Farago was the script girl for to Ingmar Bergman’s The Silence, which in fact only briefly opens silently with Gunnel Lindblom and Ingrid Thulin in a train compartment, both exhausted, the camera panning up on Gunnel Lindblom’s tightly-fitted gown and curved body. As a sex-symbol, she has been deppened by the emotion of being drained, presumably from a journey. The metaphor of their being exhausted is kept intact by the camera shifting to the next interior, where, contrastingly, she crosses the set almost to avoid the camera, it briefly filming her from the knees down as she is waling, it near obliquely avoiding that she is in a dressing gown that outlines her movement. If , thematically, the mirror introduced early in the film is an objectification of
an inward journey or, an objectification of the distance from which she is from the mirror spatially as a metaphor for her presently being on a journey itself, it is one that is reiterated throughout the film, as thoug it were a knowingness
on the part of Lindblom. In a tub, bathing, the shimmer of water reflected upon her is almost to bring her nudity to a double symbol, it only being then in the film that the exhaustion on the train could be symbolic of her having tried to make love to God only to be tired of its being both fulfillment and the conception of the unattainable, the silence between both women being that they have found something that has only been answered in their exhaustion. Now within a calmness, the water fairly still while she bathes, the smoothness of her nudity complemented by her emotion of having been soothed. She then lays on a bed filmed horizontally over the shoulder, the semi-nudity filmed quickly from shot to shot, in bed, the curve of her hip motionless. She again is seen bathing, washing her face in two brief shots, which are in reverse angle, the first a strait-on shot, the camera panning out of frame during the second shot. She again is in front of the
mirror, briefly, but not coyly, the camera then following her movement. Later, again in front of the mirror she pivots while undressing. Then seen in the mirror, after its presence has almost been replace by the camera, she is shown in an over the shoulder shot, combing her hair, pivoting during a close-up follow shot. During a later dialougue scene, the camera shows her in an evening
gown as she is sitting, it almost being that she is aware of her being voluptuous, it quickly cutting to a reverse angle only to abruptly introduce a legnthy dialogue scene filmed in close shot in near darkness. The scene is continued as both actresses are filmed with sidelighting in closeshot in an adjacent room; in that it has been acknowledged by both women that they have been part of each other’s journey, the exhaustion from earlier that seemed to have been left behind now is replaced be a quickness as events hasten within the film’s plotline. Gunnel Lindblom moves through the adjacent scene as sex symbol, filmed nude in profile in tight medium close shot, only her being seen in the darkened room. That the scene itself is nearly silent is only later punctuated by Thulin’s voice pronouncing the name of composer of classical music. She again passes the mirror in a post-coital scene, it being kept by the stationary camera to the far right of the frame as she walks toward the camera, the camera then cutting to her being filmed over the shoulder.
One of the assistant directors to the concluding film of Ingmar Bergman’s Winter Light trilogy, The Silence, was Lars Erik Liedholm, who directed the 1965 film June Night (Juninatt), photographed by Gunnar Fischer and written by Bengt Söderbergh. The film stars Bibi Andersson, Lennart Svensson, Vera Graffmann and Lena Hedström. Harry Schein appears on screen in the film.
Jörn Donner began making films in Sweden during 1963 with Sunday in September (Sondag i september and To Love Att alska (1964). Both films were to star Harriet Andersson. Donner, after making two more films in Sweden, then went to Finnland to direct, beginning with Black on White (Mustaa valkoisella 1967). Harriet Andersson starred with actresses Marrit Hyattinen and Marja Packalen in the Jön Donner film Anna (1970). Jörn Donner recently was present at the Midnight Sun Film Festival, held in June of 2004.
Hasse Ekman in 1963 directed My Love is a Rose (Min kara ar en
ros) with Gunnel Lindblom and Gunnar
Bj?rnstrand, the cinematographer to the film, Gunnar Fischer. The assistant
director to the film, Christer Abrahamsen, later directed the film Drommen
om Amerika (1976). Ekman followed by directing The Marriage
Wrestler (Aktenskapsbrottaren, 1964) with Anna Sundqvist. Per G.
Holmgren in 1963 directed Anna Sundqvist in the film Mordvapen till
salu. Henning Carlsen directed his first film, Dilemma, in 1962,
then following it with The Cats (Kattorna, 1965), photographed
by Mac Ahlberg and starring Eva Dahlbeck, Gio Petre and Monica Nielsen, and
with Hunger (Svalt, 1966) with Gunnel Lindblom. Swedish director Goran Gentele in 1963 returned Maud Hansson, who appears in Ingmar Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal, to the screen in the film En vacker dag, the first film in which actress Inger Hayman was to appear.
Jan Troell was behind the camera directing Max von Sydow during 1964 with the film Stay in Marshland (Uppehall i myrlandet). Karin Falk began in film as a director in 1964 with the film
Dreamboy (Drompojken), written by Bengt Linder and photographed by Tony Forsberg.
Starring in the film are Lena Soderblom, Lill Lindfors, Eva Stiberg and Sven-Bertil Taube. Falk later appeared as an actress in the 1974 film Rannstensungar, directed by Torgny Anderberg and starring Anita Lindblom, Monica Zetterlund and Monica Ekman. Swedish director Kage Gimtell during 1964 brought actress Anna Sundqvist to the screen in the film Alsking pa vift, the first film in which actress Victoria Kahn was to appear on the screen.
Having written two plays during Bergman’s period of Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal, in 1964 actress Eva Dahlbeck began publishing novels with Home to Chaos (Hem till kaos). In 1965 she followed with the novel The Last Mirror (Sista Spegeln), in 1966 with the novel The Seventh Night (Dem sjunde natten) and in 1967 with the novel The Judgement (Domen).
Based on the writings of Agnes von Krusenstjerm, Loving Couples (Alskande par, 1964) brought Harriet Andersson, Gunnel Lindblom, Gio Petre, Inga Landgre, Anita Bjork and Eva Dahlbeck to the screen under the direction of Mai Zetterling.
Jan Halldoff directed his first two films in 1965, Haltimma, starring
Karin Stenback and Bo Halldoff and Nilsson, starring G?sta Ekman. Vera
Nordin in 1965 directed the film Pianolektionen, photographed by Gunnar
Fischer. Ingela Romare directed her first two films in 1965, Kyrie, the
assistant director to the film Ingvar Skogsberg, and Mitt ar efter
morbor. Ingvar Skogsberg directed his first film in 1965 as well,
Jessica Lockwood, his following it in 1966 with Krypkasino med
T.T. and Stinsen. Summer Adventure (Ett
sommaradventyr, 1965), starring Margit Carlqvist, was directed by Hakan
Ersgard and written by Ov Tjernberg. The Vine Bridge (Lianbron), starring Harriet Andersson and Mai Zetterling, was directed in 1965 by Sven Nykvist. The Ballroom (Festivitessalongen) was produced by Sandrew Film in 1965 and was directed by Stig Ossian Ericson, who appears in the film with Swedish actress Lena Granhagen, Georg Rydeberg and Gosta Ekman.
Bo Widerberg, author of the novel Autumn Term and the collected short
stories Kissing, had directed his first film, The Pram (Barnvagnen) with Inger Taube
in 1963, it being the first film in which Lena Brundin was to appear. His
assistant, Roy Andersson would direct A Love
Story (En Karlekshistoria) in 1970. During May of 2003,
Andersson appeared at the Saga Theatre, Stockholm to introduce one of his
films. Visiting
One’s Son (Besoka sin son, 1967) and To Fetch A Bicycle
(Att hamta en cykel, 1968) were shown at the Rotterdam International
Film Festival.
Inger Taube also starred in Bo Widerberg’s film Karlek 65, which was
the first film in which Eva-Britt Strandberg had appeared. Love 65 was photographed by cinematographer Jan Lindeström. That year Agneta
Ekmanner, who appears in Widerberg’s Love 65 as well, was seen too in
her first film, Hej, directed by Jonas Cornell.
Not only did Jan Troell in 1962 co-direct and photograph the the film A Boy with His Kite (Pojeken och draken), starring Bodil Mathiasson and Ulla Greta Starck, with Bo Widerberg, who wrote its manuscript, but Troell directed, wrote and photographed several other short television films, including Summertrain (Sommartag, 1961), New Years Eve in Skane (Nyar i Skane), The Ship (Baten), The Old Mill (De gamla kvarnen, 1964), again starring Bodil Mathiasson, and Spring in the Pastures of Dalby (Var i Dalby hage).
In the film Elvira Madigan, Bo Widerberg’s more obtrusive camerawork is
during the opening sequence, the two lovers in a meadow, his camera quickly
zooming in to them after cutting from shots of a little girl with a flower. He
only briefly keeps Pia Dagermark in over the shoulder before cutting to
another angle of her; she is often kept in close up, his using shot legnth to
return to her close up. Although the sequence is intercut with shots of the
soldier’s regiment, for the most part the two lovers are kept on the screen
together in brief shots from varying camera positions. Again, in an interior
that is their bedroom, her closeups are fairly brief, the camera panning
during a shot during which there is a cut that is nearly imperceptible. His
zooming into close shot is also quick. The actress later in a profile close
shot, Widerberg pans out of frame and then quickly cuts back to the previous
shot of her; on thier bed together, she is again in close shot, her left
shoulder bare while being filmed by the camera. Later in close shot, he pans
down to show that she is knitting and when she is finally looking into the
camera during a recital, he cuts back and forth between her close up and other
shots of the room. Panning out of frame from one character and into frame to
show the other, Widerberg quickly articulates the space between characters, or
between them and what they are looking at, almost swishing, his then
continuing to use brief shots from different positions. Pia Dagermark recieved
the award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, 1967. Nina Widerberg
also appears in the film. The film was produced by AB Europa Film.
 The director Ake
Falk filmed Swedish Wedding
Night (Brollopsbevsvar) in 1964 and in 1966 filmed The
Princess (Princessan), based on a novel by Gunnar Mattsson,
starring Grynet Molvig and Monica Nielsen. The film was photographed by Mac
Ahlberg. In 1968, Falk directed Vindingvals with Diana Kjaer.The film is
based on the novel by Arthur Lundkvist and photographed by Mac Ahlberg. In
1959 the director Olle Hellblom had brought Christina Schollin to the screen
in Blackjakets (Raggare). Hans Abramson directed actress Christina Schollin with Harriet Andersson in
Ormen-Berattelsen om Irene (1966), photographed by Mac Ahlberg for Minervafilm. Torgny Anderberg in directed her in the film Tofflan
(1967). Torgny Anderberg in 1968 directed Anita Bjök in the film Comedy in Hagerskog
(Komedi i Hagerskog). Based on a novel by Arthur Lunkvist, the film
stars Ulf Brunnberg and Monica Nordqvist. Marianne Nilsson and Yvonne Norrman both starred in their first film in 1966, Den odesdigra klocken, as did Carina Malmqvist, daughter of the director Bertil Malmqvist.
1966 also brough Christer Banck to the screen in the title role of Peter Kyllberg’s film Jag. Also in the film are Tove Waltenburg, Agneta Anjou-Scram and Magaretha Bergström. The screenplay to the film was written by its director.
In his book I Was
Curious, diary of the making of a film, (Jag Var Nyfiken), Vilgot Sj?man
offers daily entries during the shooting of a film that he hoped would ” draw
on the actors’ own lives and ways of life for material.” The girl in the film,
portrayed by Lena Nyman, is “curious, lively, cute, with an extraordinary
appetite for reality. She wants to know everything.” Sj?man begins the diary
with an account of a discussion he had had with Swedish film director Keene
Fant, two scripts he had been writing, The Hotel Room and The Art of
Breaking it Up and a script written by Kristina Hassrlgren that he had
hoped to film, Bessie, and then continues to a dinner conversation with
Ingmar Bergman where the two had discussed Sj?man’s wanting to film with Lena
Nyman. About the film, author Tytti Soila notes, “Most of its content was improvised and put together with the help of those who participated in the film,” her calling it a “metafilm where the different planes of reality flow in and out of each other.”
I Am Curious Blue begins with there being actresesses interviewed by a film director, and then cuts to a group of women filmed in alternate close ups during a discussion on sex. There is a shot of two women in near profile in closeshot, one in the foreground of the shot, the other also in profile behind her within the same frame. Sjoman zooms on one of the women during a group shot of the women together. Intercut are scenes of him in a theater watching the rushes with Lena Nyman, who is then seen with him behind the camera. She begins being filmed in Stockholm’s Tidninggen, near the water, wearing a tight skirt in profile, it almost being a mini-skirt. As to foreshadow, Sjoman, who often appears on the screen as an actor playing the director of the film, says, “A love scene without consequences would be pointless.” The film almost cuts too quickly to a scene where Nyman is seen in bed with her lover before their both orgasming and quietly on a pillow in the darkened room with him in a post coital moment. The two wait to get dressed during their conversation, their being nude together as they talk possibly seeming prolonged compared to the legnth of the previous scene where they were in bed. The next scene begins with exterior shots of her kept in an introspective voice-over narrative, the scene itself being filmed mostly in a church and during a discussion on marriage, particularly in the churches of Sweden. It may seem as though the character is encountering what she sees as complacency within a culture then aspiring toward being moderately liberal, and yet this itself is for character interest, almost to where the actress in the film is kept too far from her sexual fantasies during the story line, and kept from disclosing them in as much as the plotline keeps it to the periphery. The story line is often kept minimal during the film, as though condensed as it follows Lena throughout its locations and yet the nudity is not entirely placed as being gratuituous be the film’s being cenetered around her. Later, Lena Nyman is filmed at a lake in a nude swimming scene, her getting out of the water in full shot, in profile, the camera stationary as she moves in front of it. The camera is again stationary as she sits indian style by the waters edge. The scenes by the water are almost seperate from the scenes where she is making a film with Sjostrom. She is then filmed at what seems to be near dusk, watching two women making love, which ends abruptly as Lena leaves.
Hakan Bergstrom had directed Lena Nyman in her first film, Fargligt
lofte (1955), that year her also appearring in the film Luffaren och
Rasmus. Ms. Nyman appeared in the film Skenbart (2003), directed by
Peter Dalle and starring G?sta Ekman, Anna Bj?rk and Kristina Tornquist, its
screenplay having had been being penned by Lars Noren. She has also recently
filmed under the direction of Colin Nutley. The films
of Vilot Sj?man were screened of at the Festival du Cinema Nordique during the
second week in March, 2004.
Having directed Gio Petre The Doll (Vaxdockan) with Per
Oscarsson in 1962, Arne Mattsson also that
year directed Eva Dahlbeck, Christina Schollin and Sigge Furst in Ticket to Paradise (Biljet till paradiset) and Anita Bjork and Lena Granhagen in
Lady in White (Vita frun) . In 1963 he directed The Yellow
Car (Den Gula bilen), starring <a title="Barbro Kollberg-Arne Mattsson" href="http://
www.movieart.se/posters/dengulabilen.jpg”>Barbro Kollberg and Ulla
Stromstedt and Yes He Has Been With Me (Det ar hos mig han har varit), based on a novel by Eva Seeberg and produced by Nordisk Tonefilm. Arne Mattsson followed in 1964 with Blue Boys. Arne Mattsson then
directed Morianera (I the Body, 1965), a film which starred Eva
Dahlbeck and Elsa Prawitz, A Woman of Darkness (Yngsjomordet,
1966) and Den Onda Cirkeln (1967), both which starred Gunnel Lindblom
and Mordaren-en helt vanlig person (1967) with Allan Edwall.
Before Hon Dansade en Sommar had been adapted to the screen by the
director Arne Mattsson, the Swedish author of erotic literature, Per Olof Ekstrom had published
his first novel, En Ensamme, in 1947. Mattsson was later to pair the
actor and actress of the film together for a second film.
 Ulla
Jacobsson and Folke Sundquist, along with Gio Petre, starred together in The Teddy
Bear(Bamse, 1968). Bergman has said, possibly only softly, “Take a
look at any of Arne Mattsson’s films and you’ll see how camera movmement
replaces everything. What I call technique is knowing how to affect the
viewer. And that’s why its a wrong use of words to say that Arne Mattsson and
Torbjorn Axelman are clever technicians.” And yet it is particularly this that
in the art film can be combined with narrative; especially beautiful is the
scene where harpsicord is being played in Ann and Eve (Ann och
Eve, 1971); especially beautiful is Marie Liljedhal,
varying camera positions keeping her on the screen. One of the opening scenes
to the film is an interior dialouge scene where she says, “All I know is that
I love him and that’s enough for me.” and “I’m sure marriage isn’t easy.”. In
the scene there is almost a dramatic use of space that carries their
conversation and lends added significance to each line as it is delivered. To
conclude the scene, Mattsson tightly films her in medium close shot from a low
angle, her then pivoting during the shot to walk away from the camera in over
the shoulder shot, it then cutting abruptly, almost before she is in medium
shot. Marie Liljedahl has not yet been seen nude or semi-nude in the film. While in the
opening scene the camera zooms into close shot on each character as they are
looking at each other in two adjacents shots, one instance of an approximation
of the feminine gaze later in the film is where both female characters in the
scene are looking off camera toward another character as they discuss how much
they might happen to know about him, Marie Liljedahl listening to Gio Petre
without her eyes changing the direction in which she is looking.
One of the most beautiful films to be shot in Sweden, although filmed with
black and white stock, Inga (Jag en oskuld, 1967) introduced Marie Liljedahl to
audiences in the United States. During the film, there is a dialouge scene
that takes place in a suana during which the is a beautiful shot of her that
dollies back before she comes toward the camera. During an early scene of the
film, characters are kept at a diagnal to each other, one in the foreground of
the shot, the other in the background, during their conversation. There is
then a cut to a scene during which Greta is sunbathing and reintroduced to a
former lover. Marie Liljedahl enters the film by entering a living room from
what appears to have been her bedroom, as though already dressed for bed, she
had returned to say good night; in the film she is about to leave to meet
Greta, who is her aunt. Characters during the early scenes often deliver lines
at a diagnal to each other, but in close shot, one behind the other at their
shoulders, almost off to the side, as they both face the camera.
Marie
Liljedahl also appeared in the film Inga Two/The Seduction of Inga
(Nagon att alska, 1971). Nearly titled Inga and Greta, the film was shot in part on location in Stockholm. The title sequence of the film opens with the camera dollying back on Marie Liljedahl about to get out of bed and then cuts to a shot of the camera panning up to film her in the shower in close shot, slowly beginning with a close shot of her feet, the water sliding downward on her skin and in front of the lens, it keeping her in near profile as it pans up to her nude hips and above them untill the actress is in close up. The camera then cuts to a shot of her dressing, as she puts on a pair of blue underwear and a flowered blouse as she is introduced by a voice over narrative. She is almost more beautiful filmed in color on the screen than in Inga during the first scens of the film, her long hair upon her shoulders framing her face, much as in the film Anna and Eve, which opens with a similar scene of the actress in a bedroom before getting dressed. She is demure with something reticient about her feminity as in the earlier film, there being a sensuality of her looking almost near the camera with her lips tightly closed and all expression left to her eyes. In an early scen she is shown in a retrospective narrative on her bed in a thin pink nightgown whith shots from the earlier Inga intercut, again with the use of a voiceover narrative, her questionin herself about her needing to be in love. She becomes the secretary for a writer of erotic novels, with whom she begins a romatic intrigue. She is exceptionally beautiful, quite possibly sultry shown making love, although only briefly on the screen, the curve of her hip and thigh in close shot. In a later scene she is again brought to the screen while making love, shown in close shot horizontally from only her shoulders to her knees. The director cuts to a post-coital scene to reveal her body more fully as she outs on a coat nude, in profile full shot, her shoulders pivoted so that the contour of her shoulder and outline of her breasts is within the frame, but the outline of her hips in three quarter profile is shot near over the shoulder, the back of her thigh toward the camera and her knees facing away from it as though hidden, the back of her calves toward it. In a later scene she is again filmed nude over the shoulder while dressing, her bending her knees to bring the camera and the beauty of movement into relationship, the actress silently graceful as the position of the camera waits during a stationary shot that ends a series of shots. The plotline of the film tightens as Inga is reunited with the novelist, who in turn is reunited with Greta, portrayed by Inger Sundh. It is brought to a near resolution with the line of dialougue, “Inga, I don’t know what to say.” She again dresses silently in front of the camera before Greta and Inga make love, their beginning noth on their knees, facing each other.
 For anyone who has seen her in film,
particularly of interest is her brief inclusion in a dialouge scene in
Eva-den uttstotta. Shown in the United States as Swedish and
Underage(1973), the film stars Solveig Andersson. During
the film there is a dialouge scene where Ms. Andersson, in an attic, is trying
on a hat in a mirror shot. The line delivered by Marie Liljedahl is “But I
don’t see a connection between them.”
|
|
Torbjorn Axelman
directed Essy Persson and Margareta Sjodin in Vibration
(Lejonsommar, 1968), photographer by Swedish cinematographer Hans Dittmer. Like the film Inga, Therese and
Isabelle is a film that can be cherished very much, it being the film that
may have introduced her to most audiences in the United States. There is a
scene where the Swedish actress is in bed alone begininng to orgasm that is particularly
beautiful, filmed much like the scene in Gustav Mutachy’s film Ectasy
(1933) with Hedy Lamarr. There is also a later scene of the two women in bed
together with a voice over poem included. Silently staring after having
undressed before the two are in bed together and after, Anna Gael is stunning
in the film, Essy Persson is hauntingly beautiful. Writing about the film, author Joan Mellen describes it as being a film in which, suprisingly, both female characters are sexually fulfilled. Writing well into the second half of the last century, she views the onscreen subject positioning of femininity more as the difficulty of creating the image of the liberated woman. She cautions that in regard to the films of director Ingmar Bergman in particular, this is represented by a presenting of female characters as principally being a biological entity in that their sexuality may be dependent upon a fraility, a fraility which then becomes the object of a voyeurism for the spectator, one film in which this curiousity on the part of the audience is sought being The Silence.
|
|
In 1966, Essy Persson had starred with Gunnar Bjornstrand in
Trafracken, directed by Lars-Magnus Lindgren (the film was shown in the
United States under the title Her Only Desire in 1969). In 1965, Ms.
Persson appeared in the films Flygpan saknas and Operation
Lovebirds(Sla forst, Frede!). Torbjorn Axelman directed Margareta
Sjodin and Grynet Molvig in the film Hot Snow (Het sno, 1968), photographed by Hans Dittmer.
By 1974 Mac Ahlberg, who had directed Ms. Persson in I, a Woman
(Jag en kvinna), was directing in Sweden under the name of Bert Torn
with the films Swedish Sex Kitten (Flossie) and The Second Coming of Eva (Porr i Skandalskolan). Absolutely
gorgeous, her face kept in medium close shot while she is orgasming under the
direction of Joseph W. Sarno, Marie Forsa appeared in films that are nearly
seminal to contemporary film-making, among those she appeared in being
Ahlberg’s film Molly (1977). Anne Magle (Anee von Lindberger) also
appears in the film. Christa Linder and Marie
Forsa both appeared in the film Bel Ami. Before having directed Marie Liljedahl and Marie Forsa, Joseph W. Sarno directed the films Sin in the Suburbs, The Love Merchant (1966), Come Ride the Wild Pink Horse (1967), The Love Rebellion (1967) and Scarf of the Mist, Thigh of Satin (1967).
|
|
Based on a novel by Gustaf Sandgren, …som havet nakna vind,
starring Lilemor Ohlson
and Gio Petre, was directed by Gunnar Hoglund. In 1969, Claes Fellbom wrote
and directed The Shot (Skottet, starring Diana Kjaer, his also
that year directing Den vilda jakten pa linkbilen. The previous year
Fellbom had directed Monica Nordqvist, Erik Hell, Ollegard Wellton and Lissi
Alandh in the film Swedish Love Play
(Carmilla), photographed by Ake Dahlqvist.
Both Stellan Olsson and Jonas Cornell directed films in
1969, It’s Up to You and Hugs and Kisses respectively. Cornell
also directed Agneta Ekmanner and G?sta Ekman in Like Night and Day
(Som natt och dag). Stellan Olsson directed and co-wrote with Per
Oscarsson the 1969 film Close to the Wind (Oss Emellan) starring
Per Oscarsson, Barbel Oscarsson and Beppe Wolgers. Astrid Henning Jensen
directed and co-wrote with David Richardson the 1969 film Me and You
(Mej och Dej/Mig och Dig) starring Sven-Bertil Taube and Lone
Hertz. Swedish film director Jan Halldoff appears on screen in the film.
Torgny Wickman in 1969 directed the film The Language of Love (Ur
Karlekens Sprak) with Maj-Briht Bergstrom-Walen, Solveig Andersson and
Inge Hegeler. Inge Ivarson produced the film for Filmproduction Investment. Torbjorn Axelman that year directed Kameleonterna with Ulf Brunnberg, Mona Hakan
and Monica Stenbeck. Behind the camera for the film was photographer Hans Dittmer. Goran Gentele in 1969 teamed Jarl Kulle and Gunn Wallgren, along with Meg Westergren, Per Oscarsson and Margareta Sjodin in the film Miss and Mrs. Sweden, scripted by Lars Forssell. Stig Lasseby in 1969 directed King Adil’s Necklace (Sveagris), following it in 1970 with the film For sakerhets skull. Jarl Kulle wrote and directed the both the 1969 film The Bookseller Who Gave Up Bathing (Bokhandlaren som slutade bara) and the 1970 film Ministern, the Swedish actress Helena Brodin having appeared in both. In 1969 Gun Falck and Gunilla Iwanson appeared in a
fairly beautiful film, Yes (Kvinnolek), shown in the United
States as To Lisa My Love Ingrid, photographed by Ake Dahlqvist, his
almost studying the contour of the nude bodies of the two women while they are
together, in bed. The screenplay was written by Chris Tonner.
 Although
they include the film Anita (Anita- ur en tonrasflikas dagbok,
1973), which, directed by Torgny Wickman and photographed by Hans Dittmer for Swedish Filmproductions, starring
Stellan Skarsgard, is in fact stunning mostly after its first fourty minutes,
it including a bedroom scene between the two women characters and between the
two lovers, the films of Christina Lindberg show
an attempt to bring the complexities of erotic relationships to the screen,
the erotic narrative within the development of character. Among them are
Maid in Sweden which has a scene during which she is taking a shower
filmed in slow motion in which she is exquisite. Nude in front of the camera,
only the camera is in the room with her as the water flows down on to her bare
shoulders; only the camera is watching her and it is only to the camera that
her subjectivity is imparted. Young Playthings, with Christina
Lindberg, Eva Portnoff and Margareta Hellstrom, is fairly imaginative and
alothough not metaphorical, within the context of its storyline, it connects
the characters as well as bringing them into fantasy. Its opening shots are of
a dialougue scene as the two women are sunbathing nude, there then being a cut
to an interior mirror shot of Ms. Lindberg combing her hair that is
beautifully photographed; the dialougue scene is continued as the beginning of
the film particular is photographed for glamour, a glamour that is only
achieved by Ms. Lindberg’s being in front of the camera and the look given by
her eyes. The film begins a series of scenes that are fantasy interwoven into
the story of the three women, their putting on erotic stage plays in between
indivdual scenes of the film. In Jan Halldoff’s film Dog Days
(Rotmanad, 1970) Christina Lindberg is also photographed for glamour, her being more
frequently kept in close shot, including a close shot that cutting with the
camera tightly pans down to end the film by cutting to a brief mirror shot.
There are scenes in the film where she is in full shot and long shot where if
she is not only being filmed for glamour, then she is being photographed for
nude glamour. In more than one of her films, she is given a character that is
voyeuristic, held in close-up near a doorway. Spectatorship- a second looking
through the viewfinder at the details that appear in the frame, the director
having selected what the attention of the viewer will be brought to by
allowing the camera to be authorial as it records the scene unseen- would
include the look of the character as a metaphor for the camera, a character
that as a voyeur would be intradiegetic. In that the erotic object is gazed at
voyeuristicly, as the desire for pleasure, there nears an objectification of
the erotic by the character on the screen, the spectator in the audience an
observer of the emotion brought by the erotic. The temporal structure of the
shots, the camera cutting back and forth between voyeur and erotic object as
both experience pleasure and ectasy offer an immediacy, an instantaneity to
the spectator, an event that is taking place within female subjectivity-the
fantasies of the character, the fantasies of the character as they are
fulfilled. Christina Lindberg also
appeared with Ulrike Butz in the film Secrets of Sweet Sixteen (What
Schoolgirls don’t tell, Was Schulmadchen verschwigen, 1973) directed by
Ernst Hofbauer. Ms. Lindberg enters the film midway through during an exterior
follow shot of the three women, the camera tracking with the womenn and their
conversation as they walk. There is later a shot of her on a bed on her knees
as she is in profile with an accompanying shot of her nude stomach. Editing is
used in the film to connect similar scenes, the body of an actress at a near
dialgnal to the camera in the foreground of the shot, tightly framed on her
back in only her underwear, later there being a scene where an actress is
positioned nude, on her stomach, the camera cutting back and forth between
close shots of her face and a close shot of her hips and below her waist.
Although ostensibly a comedy by the time the film reaches its end, there are
early scenes that seem indistinguishable from the narrative of a drama, or
erotic drama, which are used to establish its black humor, its acting carrying
the narrative: early fin the film a retrospective voice over narrative of
Cornelia riding in a train is used to photograph the glamour, near haunting
glamour, of her motionless face.Christina Lindberg wrote and
directed the film Christinas svampskola.
The copy of Exposed (Exponerad, Gustav Wiklund 1971),
starring Christina Lindberg and the actress Siv Ericks, seen by the present
writer was in Swedish and had no subtitles.
Livet at stenkul (1967), directed by Jan Halldoff, was the first of
only two films in which the actress Mai Neilsen appeared, it also having
included the actor Keve Hjelm. Bengt Forslund and Bengt Ekerot both appear on
screen in the film, as does Halldoff. Jan Halldoff’s Korridoren (1968)
was co-scripted by Bengt Forslund with Bengt Bratt, it having starred Mona
Andersson, Agneta Ekmanner and Pia Rydwall and having been photogrpahed by
Inge Roos, who that year co-directed the film Mujina with Goran
Strindberg. Bengt Forslund also appears briefly in in the film Portratt av
en stad (Halldoff, 1969), which starred Monica Str?mmerstedt and Lars
Hansson.
Jan Halldoff directed The Office Party in 1971 and The Last
Adventure (Det Sista Aventyret) in 1975.
In 1970, Torgny Wickman directed Kim Anderzon in The Lustful Vicar
(Kyrokherden), based on the novel Nar det gick for kyrkoherdan by Bengt
Anderberg. Anderzon also starred in the film Midsommardansen (1971),
directed by Arne Stivall. Her daughter, Tintin Anderzon, appeared in Den
attonde dagen (1979). Arne Stivall had directed Monica Eckman in Pappa
Varfor ar du arg (1968). After More About the Language of Love
(Mera ur karleckens sprak, 1970), starring Inge Hegeler and Maj-Briht
Bergstrom-Walan in 1971 Wickman directed The
Birdcall (Lockfageln) with Louise Edlind, Gunnar
Bj?rnstrand and both includes the first onscreen appearances of actresses Marie Ekorre and Christine Gyhagen. Love 3 (Karlekens XYZ, 1971) had also starred Inge
Hegeler and Maj-Briht Bergstrom-Walan. Ms. Bergstrom-Walan appearred with Kim
Anderszon in the film Karlekens Sprak 2004, starring Regina Lund with
Emma Torstensdotter Aberg, Helena Lindblom and Julia Klingener and directed by
Anders Lennberg. Maj-Brit Bergstrom-Walan directed the film Att vara ta
in 1972.
Gunnar Hoglund in 1970 brought Diana Kjaer, Sune Mangs, Lissi Alandh and
Cia Lowgren to the screen in the film Do you believe in Swedish Sin?
(Som hon baddar far han ligga). Vivian Gude would direct her first film
in 1970, Longina, starring silent film actress Linnea Hillberg, Gret
Crafoord and Lena Brundin. Gude also that year directed actress Kerstin
Osterlin in her first film Den stora Salongen. That year Jeanette Swensson starred with Gudron Brost in De manga sangarna, written and directed by Bertil Malqvist.
Norwegian audiences in 1970 were viewing the film Shall we play Hide and Seek (Ska Vi Lege Gemsel?) filmed by Tom Hedegaard and photographed by Claus Loof. The film stars Eva Bergh, Helga Backer, Sisse Reingaard and Lykke Nielsen. In Denmark, director John Hilbard brought actress Birte Tove to the screen in the first of a series of film based on a novel by C. E Soyas, Mazurka pa Sengekanten, photographed by Erik Wittrup Willumsen. Also in the film are Anne Grete Nissen, Susanne Jagd and Jeanette Swenson. Birte Tove continued with the director in 1971 for the film Tandlaege pa sekanten and again in 1972 for the film Rektor pa sengekanten, both starring Anne Birgit Garde. In 1967, John Hilbard had directed Ghita Norby in the film Min Kones Ferie, photographed by Aage Wiltrup. Garbriel Axel during 1971 directed the actress in the film Love Me Darling/With Love (Med Kaerlig Hilsen) with Grethe Holmer, Lily Broberg and Ann Birgit Garde.
Although the film Komed i Hagerskog (Comedy in Hagerskog), starring Ulf Brunnberg may not have been the particular influence upon films that were to be made later, quite apart from erotic drama, and erotic romance that may have been honestly filmed as erotica but deemed to be an exploitation of the dramatic film in having been filmed for commercial screenings, the erotic comedy also quickly appeared more often in Sweden, Denmark and Germany, particularly glamourous actresses showcased on the screen within the erotic comedy. Although more of a film that would seem the exploitation of nude glamour than an erotic comedy, Love in 3D (Liebe in drei, Boos) brought Swedish erotic film actress Christina Lindberg together on the screen with actress Ingrid Steeger. Christina Lindberg is particulalry alluring in the film, which, filmed in Germany, was in fact screened to audiences in 3-D. Along with Ingrid Steeger, the actresses Rena Bergen and Evelyne Traeger can be included in the actresses that appeared in erotic comedies filmed in Germany. In Germany, actress Christine Schuberth appeared in two films during 1970, Das Glocklein unterm Himmelbett, directed Hans Heinrich, and Abarten der Korperlichen Liebe, directed by Franz Marischka. The films of Ernst Hofbauer are centered around actresses that are among the most intriguing and sensuous of nude glamour, including Elke Deuringer, Sonja Embriz and Marisa FeldyMarissa Feldy. Hofbauer directed the 1973 Fruhreilen Report.
Among the films screened in Sweden during 1972 was the film Provocation (Du gamla, du fria) produced by Pro Film AB and directed by Oyvind Falström. The films stars Marie-Louise Geer, Ann Charlotte Hult, Lena Svendber and Anki Rahlskog.
Bengt Forslund in 1973 wrote and directed the film Luftburen, which
starred Olof Lunstrom, Margaretha Bystr?m and Solveig Ternstr?m. Forslund
appearred briefly on screen in the film Keep All Doors Open (Halla
alla dorar oppna, 1973), directed by Per-Arne Ehlin and starring Kisa Magnusson. Per
Oscarsson in 1973 directed and starred in the title role of the film Ebon
Lundin with Gudron Brost and Sonya Hedenbrett and Marie-Louise Fors. Jorn Donner in 1973 directed the film Baksmalla, starring Diana Kjaer, Lisbeth Vestergaard and Birgitta Molin. It was the first film in the which Swedish actresses Anita Ericsson, Christine Hagan and Irina Lindholm were to appear.
Peter Cowie writes that in the film A Handfull
of Love (En handfull karlek, 1974), “She is indeed the character
who matures throughout the film, and Anita Ekstrom’s performance is a perfect
blend of mindfullness and tenacity. Directed by Vilgot Sj?man and photographed
by Jorgen Persson, the film also stars Ingrid Thulin and Eva-Britt
Strandberg. In 1975 Vilgot Sjöman brought Agneta Ekmanner and Christina Schollin to the screen in the film Garagert, which also starred actresses Lil Terselius, Kerstin Hanström and Annika Tertow.
Theater audiences in Denmark in 1974 were to view the film I Tgrens tegn, directed by Werner Hedman and starring actreeses Sigrid Horne-Rasmussen and Susanne Breuning.
In 1975 Svenska Filmindustri produced the film The White Wall (Den Vita vaggen) starring actresses Harriet Andersson and Lena Nyman. Lasse Hallström that year directed the film A Lover and his Lass (En kille och en tjej) with Mariann Rudeberg and Catarina Larsson.
In 1975, Solveig Andersson starred in the first film directed by Mats Helge
Olsson, I dod mans spar, with Isabella Kaliff. 1975 also brought
Wide Open (Sangkamrater) to the screen, starring Solveig
Andersson, Christina Lindberg and Gunnilla Ohlsson. The film was directed by
Gustav Wickland. Solveig Andersson and Christina Lindberg both appear with Cia
Lowgren in the film Swedish Wildcats (Every Afternoon, Nardet Skymmer), and on the one hand it is
beautifully filmed with a plotline that develops changes in the characters as
much as it does storyline; on the other hand there are short gratuitous scenes
which should be edited from the film for viewing. Particularly beautiful is
Cia Lowgren and there is a softness in the glamour of Solveig Andersson that
is remarkable when compared to her earlier film roles. In the opening
sequences there is a mirror shot during which the mirror is angled obliquely
as the two women are brushing on eye shadow. There is then an instance of the
female gaze as the camera cuts back and forth to show one actress looking at
another as she is dressing. later in the film the two actress are shown in the
same room in a series of alternating close shots in a scene during which the
mirror is only seen toward its end. The glamour of both actresses is then
balanced on the screen in medium close shot during their dialouge as the two
actress in profile medium close shot are facing each other, the space between
both characters being the center of the screen, both actress wearing a
nightgown seen at their shoulders. The director Egil Holmsen, who directed his
first film, Kampen om kaffet, in 1947, appears in the film Swedish
Wildcats.
Mac Ahlberg, directing Marie Forsa as Bert
Torn, combines voyeurism and spectatorship as he positions as subject her and
her lover in a darkened room where there is what is apparently a 16mm film
projector. After he threads the film, the camera cuts back and forth between
shots of Marie Forsa facing the camera with the projector behind her, it
backlighting her while a film is running, and shots of the erotic film being
shown on the screen in which a couple are near a bed, undressing and beginning
to make love. As the film runs her lover is behind her also watching and
begins to seduce her, their making love during the film as they both face the
screen, him behind her and the camera filming her being in front of him
between him and the camera as she is begining to orgasm.
Justine and Juliette begins with two women walking down a country
road, the sequence accompanied by a voice over narrative. Justine returns to
her apartment, the two women having seperated. Ahlberg cuts back and forth
between a near photographic essay of Forsa, on the screen under the name of
Marie Lynn, nude in profile, alone in her apartment and shots of Justine
making love being subject and the audience intentifying with it being that she
is on the screen by herself and alone within the narrative as opposed to the
couple together making love in the nearly juxtaposed complementary shots, in
most instances it being that although reception within the theater takes
places within the public sphere, movie viewing is individualistic; there is a
visual representation of the first person narrative used in the novel in her
being alone in her apartment being intercut with the couple making love,
particularly in as much as it is an instance of foreshadowing. The tone of the
voice over is accordingly introspective, there being a seriousness, one that
is morose or doleful, that contrasts with Juliette’s playfulness and
frolicking. There then begins a transformation in Justine’s character that is
not allowed to retrun to showing her as being pensive. The two women reunite
at an orgy where Juliette and another woman are making love. Justine is asked
by someone there if she can be brought to bed in a sequence that was shot for
the glamour of the nude and for its depiction of the erotic as romance. Her
now in love, the camera superimposes close shots of her orgasming, her head
dangling in mid air over the side of the bed in close shot as she arches her
back, the scene followed by her lover photographing a scrapbook of her nude on
the beach. A later scene cuts from close shots of her orgasiming to her nude
in bed the next morning. From this her character again begins a
transformation, toward becoming libertine, with Juliette entering the orgy as
it is about to begin, Ahlberg depicting female gratification as Marie Forsa is
present while another couple is making love, her beside them taking to them.
In earlier scenes Alberg had cut back and forth between interspersed shots,
near reaction shots, of a couple present at an orgy watching it take place,
female desire now occuring by Justine centering on the couple during
dialouge.
Leena Hiltonen appeared in two films under the direction of Joseph W.
Sarno, Love Island (Karlekson, 1977) and Come Blow Your
Horn (Fabodjantan), in which she starred with Marie Bergman.
Ewa Froling’s first film, We Have Many Names (Vi har manga namn, 1976) was written and directed by the Swedish actress-director Mai Zetterling. The film was photographed by Rune Ericson. Jan Halldoff in 1976 brought Anik Linden to the screen in her first film Polare, starring Kisa Magnusson, Anne Nord, Inger Ellmann, Maj Nielsen-Blom, Ingela Sjostrom, Gunnel Wadner and Marrit Ohlsson.
Andrei Feher in 1977 wrote and directed the film Swedish Love Story
(Karleksvirveln), with Ann Magle (Anne von Lindberg),Sonja Rivera, Mona
Larsson and Eve Strand. Swedish actress Lena Olin, daughter of actor Stig
Olin, in 1977 appearred with Tintin Anderzon in Viglot Sj?man’s film
Tabu. A showcase for Swedish film stars Gunnar Bjornstrand and Viveca
Lindfors, the film also stars Anita Ekstr?m, Gudron Brost and Mona Andersson.
Written and directed by Sj?man, the cinematographer to the film is Lasse
Bjorne. Lena Olin appeared with Kristina T?nqvist and Irene Lindh in the film
Hebriana directed by Bo Widerberg.
Modern Swedish Film: Liv Ullmann
|
Photos and or links may be removed or replaced due to design
considerations. Please write if you have any html codes you think I should
try, streaming videos that may be included in the webpage, a banner that
you would like added to the webpage and or copyright and or fair use
questions. Streaming videos are for the main part thought to
be public domain unless otherwise noted; posters should be identified
through their link.
|
|
|
Please visit my scottlord Greta Garbo search engine
Please visit my scottlord Silent Film search engine and search for the silent film of Greta Garbo.
