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 Strommerstedt and Lars
Hansson.
Jan Halldoff directed The Office Party in 1971 and The Last
Adventure (Det Sista Aventyret) in 1975.
Happenings: First introduced to the present author by a televised broadcast of the film Hammerhead with Judy Geeson, a sequel to the Boisie Oakes spy film The Liquidator, Happenings in the United States and the accompanying underground cinema were well documented by Harvard University- during 1967 they were recorded as having originated not so much as from the inspiration of filmmaker Stan Brackage (Metaphors on Vision), who deemed himself to be among "aesthetic revolutionaries", but by Jonas Mekas, editor of Film Culture, and, much like the small group of Swedish writers in the 1940's, their influence was felt as Abstract Expressionists. If it seems that there is a lack of Modernism in the Swedish film of the late 1960's, early 1970's, I am Curious Blue and Yellow, certainly addresses the freethinking that was quickly becoming popular in the United States, the country in which the film was banned from being screened. During 1965, Ken Kelman wrote, "Mekas makes a good try at expressing the defeats and triumphs of the human spirit in a dehumanized society, through episodes connected by meaning rather than dramatic causality." Interestingly, in regard to the male-authored cinema and the relation between female spectatorship and the female subject within discourse, it was not until 1972 that the the periodical Women and Film appeared, it for the most part having become the magazine Camera Obscura by 1977. It was not until 1973 that the British Film Institute published Notes on Women's Cinema, Jump Cut magazine only then following in 1974. There is currently study at Stockholm University concerned with "embodied spectatorship", its point of departure being a look at "spectatorial processes at the intersection of film, body, time and place".
To bring the separate arts into convergence, Stockholm is presently offering photographic exhibitions under the title Another Story. It uses the expression "post-medium condition" to describe, if not to question, the relationship between spectator and spectacle and whether these multiple relationships have been put into a "temporary and strategic mode of existence". As a sentry, if not as an everwatchful curator, a lighthouse keeper after the liquid swirls of Pollack, a copyrighted Monogram (Robert Rauschenberg 1955-59) stares back , much like The Syndics of the Clothmakers Guild (Rembrandt van Rijn, 1662) at those anticipating a Swedish Art involved in the modern period, the metaphor elusively evading it being a symbol for the photographer, or the cameraman, mythopoetic that the painting causes its effect without the use of a lens, or shutter.
In Sweden, poet Tomas Transtrommer published the volume Night Vision (Morkserseende, 1970), while poet Robert Bly published a translation of earlier poems written by Transtromer in the collection Twenty Poems. Ingmar Bergman during 1970 directed the play Dromspelet (Ett Dromspel, A Dream Play) for the Royal Dramtic Theater in Stockholm. Thought to be a pessimistic play, it is grouped with Spoksonaten (The Spook Sonata), which Ingmar bergman directed for the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm during 1973.
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 and Skracken har 1000 ogon, in 1971 Torgny Wickman directed The
Birdcall (Lockfageln) with Louise Edlind, Gunnar
Bjornstrand 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. The film was based on the 1966 novel by Lucille Borgier and photographed by Arne Brandhild.
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. Jorn Donner that year film Hellyys (Tenderness), with Kristi Wallasvaara.
Not entirely history in the making, it was often that the cameramen of the silent film era, much like the onscreen cameos of director Alfred Hitchcock, would appear as actors for one film. Danish silent cameraman Einar Olsen circled to appear in front of the camera in 1973 directed by Svend Wam in the Norwegian film Five days in August (Fem Dogn i August, starring Margaret Robsahm, Kjersti Dovigen and Elianne Linnestad. Nor is it far from being out of place that Bengt Forslund in 1973 wrote and directed the film Luftburen, which
starred Olof Lunstrom, Margaretha Bystrom and Solveig Ternstrom. 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 Sjoman 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. Vilgot Sjoman during 1975 brought Agneta Ekmanner, Christina Schollin, Lil Terselius and Kerstin Hamstrom to the screen for the film Garaget, to which he also penned the screenplay,
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 orgasming 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.
During 1974, Joseph Sarno had directed Marie Forsa in Butterfly, Bibi- sundig und suss and in Veil of Blood (Den pornografiska jungfrun). Among two or three films that I love and watch regularly is Abagail Lesley Is back in Town and Laura's Toys, both written and directed by Joseph Sarno in 1975. The former begins with a vertical division of sand sea and sky b efore it cuts in a shot of a wharf. It stars Rebecaa Brooke and the beautiful Jennifer Wells. The film features early uses of pubic hair on screen, particularly during a scene where two women are in bed together. Ocean, sky and sand divide the screen as the actress runs toward the camera. Laura's Toy's stars Catithja Graff, Rebecca Brooke, Anita Eriksson, Anita Redling and Anita Haarla. It was filmed on an island near Stockholm, with scenes filmed in the Old Town; the location belonged to Swedish cameraman Gunnar Westfelt. If not one of the most sensual and erotic films ever made, the nude glamour photography is stunning. There is a vibrator scene with heavy breathing which is later repeated as lesbian orgy. Threre is a cut in of a vouyer listening behind the door. It is repeated again, spliced to alternate shots with a lesbian lovemaking scene.
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 Sjoman's film
Tabu. A showcase for Swedish film stars Gunnar Bjornstrand and Viveca
Lindfors, the film also stars Anita Ekstrom, Gudron Brost and Mona Andersson.
Written and directed by Sjoman, the cinematographer to the film is Lasse
Bjorne. Lena Olin appeared with Kristina Tonqvist and Irene Lindh in the film
Hebriana directed by Bo Widerberg. Finland, in 1977, saw The Year of the Hare (Janiksen vuosi), directed by Risto Jarva and based on the novel by Arto Paasilinna. The previous year Jarva had directed the film Holiday (Lorna).
Bo Widerberg in 1979 adapted the 1898 novel Victoria, written by Knut Hamsunm for the screen, the film starring Pia Skagermark, Christiane Horbiger and Amelie von Essen.
Liv Ullmann would return to Norway for the filming of Autumn Sonata (Hostsonat/Herbstonat,1978. It was there that she had been in front of the camera in 1964 for the film De Kalte ham Skarven, which seems to be the only work of director Eric Folke Gustavson. Swedish film maker Ingmar Bergman writes, "As it turned out, I felt perfectly content to work in the primitive studious on the outskirts of Oslo. Built in 1913 or 1914, the building have left just as they were...Everything we needed was there, even though the place was dilapitated and had not been had not been kept up." Peter Cowie notes that he had rehearsed the film for two weeks at the Swedish Film Institute and filmed within a month and a half, his then arriving back in Stockholm to direct Strindberg's Dance of Death. Please note that Katinka Farago was Production Manager for the film. Ullmann teamed with, played against, Lena Nyman. It could be that Nyman's character is a symbolic character in the film; with Bergman's knowledge of the Swedish avante guarde of the 1940's and Lagerkvist, it may be put in place to represent a subdued relovolution of the intellectual, the forefront of a subculture that has fizzled- I'm from the United States and was an existentialist, with a little of Tristan Tzara, Dadaist added at the time of Bergman's filming and was reading The Tragic Finale by Wilfred Desan, an encapsulation of Being and Nothingness. It could also be a substitute for a child of divorce and Bergman mourning over the unlimited possiblities of having a daughter and as a a character, only a symbolic of what could be in the future, so as to disappear as only a potentiality, were the story to be continued in the epic novel and Bergman to pull the strings of the Magic Lantern away theatrically. It has been written that there is a lack of plot in the film Autumn Sonata, that the core of its narrative is the resurfacing of what is retrospective, which is to say it leads back to the proscenium arc theory of silent film being a form of filmed theater. Novelist Linn Ullman, the daughter of director and actress, appears in the film.
Liv Ullmann, first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award given at the Copenhagen Internation Film festival, toward the end of September 2003 was made honorary president of the European Association.

Still on my desk, looking for a wonderful new home, is a book which reads: Of the first edition of CHANGING three hundred copies have printed on special paper and specially bound. Each copy is signed by the author and numbered." I have had no autograph added to it, as I first thought that I would, in that it would be the best volume so far to casually add any autography to; you can only estimate the future, it itself an imaginary concept.

I'm
scottlord
Scott Lord Swedish Film
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