Scott Lord on the Silent Film of Greta Garbo, Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjostrom as Victor Seastrom, John Brunius, Gustaf Molander - the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film........Lost Films in Found Magazines, among them Victor Seastrom directing John Gilbert and Lon Chaney, the printed word offering clues to deteriorated celluloid, extratextual discourse illustrating how novels were adapted to the screen; the photoplay as a literature;how it was reviewed, audience reception perhaps actor to actor.
Greta Garbo
Friday, December 18, 2020
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Modern Swedish Film
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Scott LordPreface: Modern Swedish FilmBefore the death of Ingmar Bergman, my contribution to the internet included, "He presently resides on the island of Faro, where the magic lantern of Bergman also resides; there is a theater seating fifteen that has a showing daily at 3:00."By all accounts, during the meantime, venerated cameraman Gunnar Fischer of Sweden made it passed any difficult hour he may have had to courageously face. Fischer was born November 18, 1910. please forward any kind regards from the present author. (Gunnar Fischer passed away during June of 2011, while this webpage was being revised) During revision, I would switch verbs and their tenses to follow Swedish Films in production through to their post-production, notably, the press releases on Ingmar Bergman's film Saraband, a film that declined being unspooled at festivals in Cannes and Venice. For example, the phrase "will be screened" would be revised to "it having been screened" and the webpage was easily updated. It was that e-mailed newsletter from Norway that to me reported the death of actresses Ingrid Thulin and Eva Dahlbeck, who notably had appeared together in a film I would screen frequently, Brink of Life (Nara Livet, 1958). It is one of several films that had brought the topic of the Swedish tradition of connecting character to the enviornment thematicly and symbolicly into a deeper level through its contrasting style of filming interior scenes that are dependent upon theatrical dialoge, which was first explored by sound film director Gustuv Molander upon Victor Sjostrom's return to Sweden as an actor. As Ingmar Bergman was finishing his last sequence to the film Saraband, shot in Solna, at Stockholm's Filmstaden with assistant director Torbjorn Ehrnvall, the e-mailed newsletter announced when it was slated for theatrical release and its possible entries in film festivals while it was still in post-production and while Bergman was still at work on the digital print of the the film. Ingmar Bergman would announce his decision against theatrical release of the film and his decision that after that, he would continue with writing, but not directing. I then quoted Begnt Forslund, an author whose biography on Victor Sjostrom I often mimeographed pages from, as having remarked upon the teleplay, "He had announced that Saraband would be his last artistic endeavor- no more theater directing, no more films, no more television, no more radio. In this article I will take him at his word, though he's made that promise before." Long before the two new seminal biographies filmed by Stig Bjorkman, Swedish television aired the documentary In the Direction of Bergman (I regi av Bergman, it then adding a three part series of interviews conducted by Marie Nyrerod with the broadcast of Bergman and Cinema (Bergman och Filmen), Bergman och Theatern), and Bergman and Faro (Bergman och faro), and again, although my writing on the subject was incomplete, it was only a matter of diligently conjugating the be verb to update the Geocities webpage. Please allow the present author to update the webpage again to mark the passing of Swedish actor Erland Josephson during 2012. Having said goodbye to Geocities, "good grammar is clarity". Please note that in the wake of Geocities, video.google.com has announced that it may closing and that films that are embeded into personal webpages maybe in question. Since the death of Ingmar Bergman, Birgitta Steene. along with author Emil Tornquist, has translated the letters of August Strindberg in Strindberg on Drama and Theater. Tonight, I just completed a blog entry during a film starring Marie Liljedahl, which is easy to type if using the Blog This feature while the film is in progress. The Lunascape browser has a split screen feature while watching films on Veoh.com and Veehd.com.The film has so far had two beautiful scenes, one where Marie Liljedahl is show in a bathtub before a scene where the two women are suntanning nude and applying lotion before they begin to kiss- the other a scene filmed entire in red and silhouette, more haunting than Bergman's Cries and Whispers, where Marie Liljedahl is on her bed before she is seduced, the use of showing her pubic hair, as in the tub again an erotic effect, but far more sensual with the contrast in atmosphere in the two scenes. I donnot as of yet know what's going to happen in the film and apologize for the difficulty of its availability in the United States. And yet, since revising this page, I discovered from the Scandinavian Film Periodical Film International, that another Swedish Film actress, one central to my points of departure on the seminal work of the time period has since passed away.  Modern Swedish Film- Ingmar Bergman, Svenska Filmindustri and the emergence of the Svenska FilminstitutetIf it seems that after Persona (1966,) the film made in Sweden was influenced more by the Swedish Film director Arne Mattsson and his paen One Summer of Happiness/She Danced Only One Summer (Hon dansade en sommar, 1951) with Ulla Jacobsson and Folke Sundqvist, it may only be that Persona was in particular to follow Bergman's Winter Light trilogy, during which he had worked with Vilgot Sjoman and, oddly enough, during which Par Lagerkvist published his religious trilogy, beginning with the novel The Death of Ahasuerus in 1960 and continuing with the novels Pilgrim at Sea (1962) and The Holy Land (1964); there are themes that connect some of Ingmar Bergman's films and those that can be seen in some way in almost all of his films- they are themes that find variation within the particular film in which they appear. Perhaps Dreyer anticipates Ingmar Bergman by writing, 'Abstraction allows the director to get outside the fence with which naturalism has surrounded his medium. It allows his films to be not merely visual, but spiritual.' Also in Swedish bookstores while the Winter Light trilogy was in theaters were The Destitute, written by Swedish author Birgitta Trotzig in 1957, and The Expedition, written by the Swedish author P. O Sundman in 1962. Eyvind Johnson during this period was writing primarily historical novels, notably, The Days of His Grace (Hans Naden Tid, 1960), and including Nag Steg Mot Tystnaden (1963) and Livsdagen lang (1964). Whether or not his modernity has been put into question, it has been pointed out that there is an element of mysticism in the poetry of Tomas Transtrommer, leaving the question as to whether any form of modernity expresses a mystical relationship with past and present or whether it simply echoes a demystification of the surrounding present as it slowly drips off the the everflowing current swirl of events. In 1962, the poet published the volume The Half-finished Heaven (Den halvfardiga himlen). It is interesting to look at Swedish filmmaker Svenolow Olsson, who directed and photographed the 1961 film Bo Bergman, Svenska diktare. Through his correspondence with Hjalmer Sjoderberg, the poet of decadence anticipates there being a flanneur theory of gendered spectatorship in film criticism, but, as a poet, had published the volume Marionetterna in the year 1903 when a literary critic for Ord och Bild. Olsson, in his earlier film, Jan Fridegard, Svenska diktare, also looks at the more prolific poet Fidegard, who published one work a year untill the posthumous publication of Hallonflickan in 1968. In 1965 he published two volumes, Noveller and Lattingen. His 1961 work was entitled Mot oster soldat, which was follwed by Soldatans Karleck and Hemkonsten. Swedish bookstores were to also see the publication of the erotic poem En Karleksdikt, written by Lars Forssell in 1960. The novel The Costume Ball (Kostsymbalen), written by Swedish Modernist Sven Fagerberg, appeared the following year, his then in 1963 having published the novel The Fencers (Svardfaktarna). Meanwhile, Sveriges Radio during 1960 produced the television film Ovader, directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Mona Malm, Birgitta Gronwald, and Gunnel Brostrom. The assistant director to the film was Gertrude Bjorklund. John Simon, author of Ingmar Bergman directs outlines that with Through a Glass Darkly, Bergman embarked upon a style of, and sturucture to, filmmaking new to him. Without comparing the disparate styles of technique of Sjostrom and Molander, the author sees the line more directly from the plays and theater of Strindberg, "the cast of characters does not usually exceed four or five, the action is confined in space and time, and the story is intensely intimate, although larger implications are by no means excluded, if anything, they are invited." If this analysis harkens back to the early work of the director, it can still certainly be applied to Cries and Whispers. Winter Light is seen as covering a three hour time period of plotline, reminiscent of John O'Hara's novel Appointment in Samsara, and as being divided into three "movements", which occur at three separate locations. John Simon looks at a close up that as a continuous take uses five minutes of screen running time, "with only Ingrid Thulin's sensitive and deeply sincere facial play, her expressive line readings and the slight movements of her head to hold our attention and provide variety." And yet John Simon restores the belief that film criticism is film appreciation by openly differing with Jorn Donner about Bergman's use of a short flashback as technique, in the same way that I would take being the proponent that the diegetic time elapse in this type of film should be intentionally left vague or ambiguous- that two hours of onscreen story could transpire in three hours of the characters fictional life on any given day, but if so, then the actual events should remain symbolic so as to impart the value personal subjectivity and the meaning of the storyline open-ended- the character's relationship to the three hour period is in itself a question, and so is the actual duration of event. Peter Cowie likens the film Blue Week (Sininen vikko, 1954) directed in Finnland by Matti Kassila, thematicly to Bergman's Summer with Monika and Summer Interlude, his even going so far as to compare its photography, filmed by Osmo Harkimo, to that of Gunnar Fischer. By 1970, one would only need look at the beautifully shot poster to the film Naisenkuvia, a nude woman on her knees photographed for the glamour of diaphaneity with lens filters, to know that director Jorn Donner had accompanied Scandinavian film into a then open-minded discussion of free love and love is to art as nudity is to marriage. Seminal to Swedish cinema, A Crime (Ett Brott, 1940), directed by Anders Henrikson with Edvin Adolphson and Karin Eckelund is distinguished as having brought the themes of marital complications to the screen. Strindberg writes, 'The author must be bound by no definite form, for form is conditioned by the plot and the subject matter.' Why themes of marriage are fitting subjects for literature is not merely because they are concerned with truth, as they particularly seem to be in the short stories of Strindberg, but also because they involve the character, known to himself and as participating in the drama of being individual. Writing in Film Quarterly, while reviewing Ingmar Bergman Directs by Emil Tornqvist, Sidney Gottlieb looks at Bergman's use of theme in a way similar to Strindberg. Although appreciative of Tornqvist's book and its examination of the theatricality of Begrman's films, Gottlieb cautions that Bergman's use of symbolism and abstracts shots that are seemingly, if not altogether, unconected to the narrative of the particular film, is not necessarily theatrical in a way contrary to the realism inherent in cinema, although Bergman may depend upon Strindberg, and possibly Ibsen. The author Maaret Koskin has added Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (The Queen's Diadem; Amorina, 1839) to the influences upon Bergman. A member of a mailing list had sent an e-mail this September announcing the publication of a new book by Emil Tornqvist entitled Bergman's Muses. Ingmar Bergman relates that 'Strindberg's way of experiencing women is ambivalent.' An 'obsessive worshiper of women' he examines them obsessively, 'most clearly in Miss Julie where the man and woman never stop swapping masks.' Why sadness depicted in film is beautiful at all is because it belongs to the individual, faced or confronted by the other character or characters; the over the shoulder, shot reverse shot dialouge scene more often than not can be used within the structure of storyline to connect character and theme. If the superimposure in Persona is metaphoric, it may be that characters build a relation to what is thematic and connect to it when with other characters. How a film is constructed aesthetically is often a matter of emotion, those emotions of the viewer in relation to the text and those of the protagonist, interpellated as subject through identification, it being the text that can bring about spectatorial positioning. Birgitta Steene views the film as being constructed around the two characters and their 'withdrawl from life and identification with one another'. It could be seen that the scene is a reworking of the wearing of the theatrical mask, if not both the wearing and the removing of the mask, the thematic itself a mask untill both characters dissolve on the screen. In that the silence of God is not ostensibly reffered to during the film and the silence of the actress is, it being in fact a visual referrent, silence becomes a mask worn by the actress and a mask that could be worn by God as well. There is a shot early in Persona of Liv Ullmann in close up after the exit of the nurse, the camera stationary and her head motionless as the light changes during the shot; only when the room has become darkened does she move her head into profile-thematically the change in light is a similie for the putting on and taking off of theatrical masks as it slowly moves over her (it can only be a telescoped or subtle metaphor for orgasm or post-coital resolution the way it is filmed, despite its being a bedroom scene). Later in the film, Bibi Andersson nearly combines the silence of God and the silence of the actress by putting them both into question when she imploringly adresses that silence by claiming that artists create from and out of compassion, as does Bergman in the concluding montage sequence, in which the camera intercuts shot of Liv Ullmann as the actress on stage, in front of the camera with shots of Bibi Andersson silently leaving. The shots are dramaticly linked when cut togther and have a temporal continuity similar to the spatial continuity in the early close shot scenes. The concluding shots of the actress on stage are much like the shots of Max von Sydow that conclude the Ingmar Bergman film The Magician (The Face, Ansiktet), the mask that Volger has removed toward the end of the film being that of the thespian, the relationship between the writer and society being a theme that is often central to the early films of Ingmar Bergman, a relationship that can be extended to the actor in front of the camera, if not to in front of the camera posited as a disembodied spectator.  In Images, Ingmar Bergman does explain more fully, or less abstractly the theme of The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet), "My fear of death was to a great degree linked to my religious concepts....Suddenly I realized that is how it is. One could be transformed from being to not-being- it was hard to grasp." He summarizes with a feeling of liberation that one is now alive. He continues, "Everything is of this world. Everything exists and happens inside us," which of course he later develops into a transcendent silence. In the first drafts of The Seventh Seal, ofwhich there were five, Ingmar Bergman had written the role of the Knight (Max von Sydow) as having had been being silent, without dialouge. Death in the film, particularly after Bergman's having used the relationship between silence and a longing for belief or desire for faith as part of his characterization of the Knight, in many ways symbolizes silence and the unresponsiveness of the unknown, the game of chess a pursuit of something that is silent. Interestingly, Bergman on The Seventh Seal writes, 'Bengt Ekerot and I agreed that Death should have the features of a white clown.', which leaves the question of whether it may in part only have its origins in Bergman's early aquaintance with silent film, whether the Knight is a medieval symbol not only of Death but also of art as a personification of the immortality of the artist in that art, after it has already been created, is silent- in being silent nothing can be added to it and it can have nothing to add. Bergman, in regard to the double exposure scene in Personna, writes that it was while filming the monolouge, which to allow both characters to mirror each other appears in two forms, that it was decided to add to the screenplay the shot of both faces merging into one face, it being improvised but only so much as the screenplay had already been written. During an interview Liv Ullmann has said, 'We did not rehearse at all.' and that Bergman only rehearsed before each individual shot, his having seldom rehearsed beforeL the shooting of any film. She as well explains that the double exposure was 'an idea he had thought about during the shooting.' During an interview with Torsten Manns, Ingmar Bergman related, 'The girls didn't know I meant to do that. It was an idea that came to me while we were shooting...They didn't recognize their own faces...Yes, it was easy to put the corresponding light sides together because one half of the scene is in virtual darkness.' Writing about the scene having been filmed twice, John Simon views it as being that, 'This repetition shows two identities sharing the same consciousness in one happening in time.' In outlining the scene, Simon looks to The Stronger by August Strindberg, 'The Stronger is a problem play, and one cannot be sure which of the two women really is stronger. And so it is in Peseona. He notes that there is an uncertainty on the part of the spectator as to what is taking place in the scene. In a subchapter on the later film of Ingmar Bergman, Stephen Prince notes that Bergman has filmed the narrative so that why the actress is silent is inexplicable, his remarking upon there subsequently being an emptiness between the two characters; in his advancing that the superimposure creates a fictional third person it may be that Prince, whileP observing the theater of the two onscreen characters and their two masks, at first neglects to note that Bergman has filmed the two characters in the third person, behind the camera as though a spectator. During the interview, Stig Bjorkman remarks upon Persona being shot mostly in close up and long shot, asking whether it was to contrast intimacy and detachment. Bergman replied that his decision to use close ups would often be contingent upon the content of the scene. Again discussing Persona, Bergman cautions, 'But at the same time the long shot demands tremendous density and a hight degree of awareness. It must never be used at random.' There is something, no matter how unintentional, that can metaphoricaly connect the character portrayed by Liv Ullmann and our image of Garbo, the reticient Greta Garbo that had fascinated the world at a distance, that had fascinated it sexually both on screen and after having left Hollywood. (The island that is the background in the film Persona is in fact remote, it serving as a metaphor for isolation and withdrawl.) There is a mystery to the eroticism of Greta Garbo. Writing in 1974, Richard Corliss concludes his volume Greta Garbo with a brief section about her retirement from film, claiming that neither she nor the studio had expected it. About her beingP reclusive and her need for solitude, he writes, 'she became the chief curator of her film image by staying completely as possible out of the public eye.' Objectively, it is the author's interpretation of a legend, written before Garbo had begun to again give interviews, particularly the conversation published in Bunte Illustierte, a magazine from West Germany, and yet, still, in the chapter it is almost as though the author writes to Garbo, 'the woman she is today.' Fredrick Sands writes about having interviewed Greta Garbo in 1977, 'The Garbo I met still recoils at the sight of strangers...her shyness is not fiegned.' She spoke fondly of Sweden and her hope that she might return. 'She spends her days mostly walking, reading, waiting- 'I don't know what for.'' It is in keeping with earlier biographies that Sands mentions that her aquaintances would ask not to be quoted after having been interviewed. Sands gives the account that, 'Garbo never answers the telephone at all unless she expects someone she wishes to talk to call her at a prearranged hour. Even then, she cannot be said to 'answer' the telephone: she simply picks up the reciever and waits for the caller to speak.' It is by being integral to, an element of the image, as in Cries and Whispers (Viskingar och rop, 1972), within the image as being in motion either toward the foreground or background of the shot or toward either sides of the frame, that each character can be 'integrated in the landscape in a completely different way' (Stig Bjorkman) and that a director can seperate them 'out from each other and show their oneness, or lack of oneness, with the enviornment.' (Bjorkman). There are two adjacent shots during Cries and Whispers where Ingmar Bergman reverses screen direction. A voice over delivers the line, 'I remember she would often seek the solitude and peace of the grounds.' and as the woman on the screen is walking slowly through a park, in the first shot she crosses the screen from left to right, in the second, from right to left. In both shots she is kept in longshot, the angle of her movement as her white gowned figure crosses similar in both shots, and what has a particular effect is the height of the trees; they are framed so that their top one fourth is above the frameline, the grove she is in seeming to contain ancient silence, ancient hollow space.As the two shots are adjacent, there is a unity of space between them. Fascinating to how some films are particularly made is that Cries and Whispers showcased actress Ann-Christine Lobaten, who happenned to pass away while I was independently studying Swedish Film with my not having seen any notice of it it and having been unnoted and neglected by me, and who brought with her previous working relationship with director Ingmar Bergman by her having been the art director for Bergman's 1971 Beroringen, a film which brought Swedish Film director Anders Henrickson's beautiful wife back to the screen. Aino Taube had been one of the most experienced actresses ever to have worked with Bergman. Victor Sjostrom 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), Sjostrom 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 film her frontally in a mirror shot of her deciding which hat to wear. It is almost as though Sjostrom 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 elementsL that constitute the dynamics of the public drama.' Remarking upon Sjostroms '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 Sjostrom, 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 Sjostrom; 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, Sjostrom 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 Sjostrom'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 Ingmar Berman. 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. Early sound film director Tancred Ibsen wrote and directed the film Venner during 1960. Based on the play by that name it was photographed by Ragnar Sorensen and stars Eva Bergh, who had appeared in the 1949 film Doden er et kjaertegn (Edith Carlmar) and Ingervd vardund, who had appeared with Max von Sydow in the 1953 film Ingen mans kvinna (Kjellgren). It's interesting to not that Von Sydow had really only starred in less than a handful of films before working with Bergman in The Seventh Seal, one having been Miss Julie (1951). During 1961, Gunnar Fischer was in Denmark where he photgraphed Een blandt mance, directed by Astrid and Bjarne Henning Jensen, The film stars Marina Lund and Elsa Kouran, but also appearing in the film is Lili Lani, who, having been born in 1905, had appreared in the silent films Professor Peterson's Plejeborn (Lauritzen, 1924), Polis Paulus pa skasmell (1925) and Ingmarsavavet (1925), the latter two having been directed by Gustaf Molander. Swedish audiences in 1961 also viewed the film Halleback Manor (Hallebacks Gard), directed by Bengt Blomen and photographed by Hilding Bladh. The film starred Brita Oberg, Yvonne Ngren and Sif Ruud. Hilding Bladh returned as cameraman during 1962 when Sandrew produced the film One Zero Too Many (En Nolla For Myket), directed by Bjorje Nyberg. The film stars Birgitta Anderson, Toivo Pawlo, Mona Malm, Lil-Babs and Inger Taube. 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. The latter was photographed by Sven Nykvist. 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 Bjornstrand, 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). I usually leave Utvandrana and Nybyggarna (1972) on their respective shelfs as I was born and raised in Massachusetts, which is on the Atlantic Ocean. 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. it was her first feature film as a director and photographed was by Sven Nykvist. Jan Halldoff directed his first two films in 1965, Haltimma, starring Karin Stenback and Bo Halldoff and Nilsson, starring Gosta 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. Zetterling would be paired with cameraman Rune Erikson for her second film as a director, Night Games (Nattleck, 1966). 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. Vilgot Sjoman was at Sandrew Film and Theater during 1965 and filmed Syskonbadd 1782 (My Sister, My Love, 1966) with cameraman Lasse Bjorne. The film stars Bibi Andersson, Tini Hedstrom, Berta Hall, Kjers Dellert, Lena Hansson, Mona-Lisa Lundquist and Sonya Hedenbratt. That year Lasse Bjorne was cameraman on the film With Gunilla Monday Evening and Tuesday (Till Sammaas med Gunilla Mandag Kvall och Tisdag), directed by Lars Gorling. Swedish cinematographer Martin Bodin was under the direction of Tage Danielsson that year filming Att angora en brygga, starring Monica Zetterlund, Birgitta Andersson and Katie Rolfson. It is without hesitation that Rune Walderkranz and Bo Widerberg can ascribed adjacent paragraphs, irregardless of how the men differed. Chronologically Walderkranz began the first film school in Sweden after having produced two films by the director Ingmar Bergman and continued through untill the work of Mai Zetterling. At a studio founded by Anders Walderkranz was chief of production, supervising a miminimum of 67 films of which he scripted eight. He was also notable for his work Swedish Filmography, "a monumental film history in three volumes" (Astrid Soderberg Widding), it acknowledging him as "one of the most important first generation historians" (again, Astrid Soderberg Widding), to which there is added an unpublished licentiate thesis on Swedish Cinema 1896-1906. 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. Vilgot Sjoman wrote about the director's having been a critic of Swedish Film, "The impulses from Bo Widerberg are the most vital that have struck swedish films since Bergman...To leap into such a complicated medium as film without knowing the first thing about it- and then to conquer it, bit by bit, while i went to school and studied with Bergman! Those who go through colledge are usually envious of self-taught men." Widerberg, who had broken ground in film criticism and film theory with his essay Vision in Swedish Films (Vision in the Swedish Cinema/Visionen i Svensk Film), has been quoted as having written, "What Bergman exports abroad consists of mystic light and undisguised exotiscm, not suggestions for alternative modes of action or moral possibilities." 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. Sjoman writes,"Just what method did Widerberg use when he made Love 65? I still don't know....In that respect "improvisation" was superior to a script-he proved that time and again." Widerberg ub 1966 directed Mona Malm and Catharina Edfeldt in the film Hello Roland (Thirty times your Money/Heja Roland). 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 AkeFalk 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 brought 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. As a precursor to the fast moving rise of sexual-relationship/sexploitation on screen, erotic literature in 1965 and 1966 brought the publication of novels like Forvildad Ungdom by Leif Lindgren, Atra i Mote by Sten Jonson and Syndagogan by Alban Osterlund. Twilight Woman around the World, written by Leighton Hasselrot, had been published two years earlier in 1963 and Termac, if seemingly only to add titles to its catolog or not, reprinted the volume Mitt liv lust, written earlier in the century, bu Frank Harris. In his book I Was Curious, diary of the making of a film, (Jag Var Nyfiken), Vilgot Sjoman 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.' Sjoman 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 ,during 1966,where the two had discussed Sjoman's wanting to film with Lena Nyman. Bergman reminded Sjoman of his despair before his having filmed Persona. Sjoman wrote in his diary that he was also interested in bringing actress Maria Emmanuelsson-Scherer to the film, "She did a very fine screentest for The Dress." While considering, he thought highly of a screentest from actress Gunilla Ohlsson for her being cast instead the same character. Yngve Gamlin had originally loaned Sjoman the use of a summercottage on which to shoot location scenes with Gudron Brost, to which Brost had consented. During filming,Sjoman was privaleged to Lena Nyman's diary, where she begins to illustrate the character she was about to create in the first scene of the film, which the reader is immediately reminded of from her description. 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.' Before filming, Kristen Berg is added as scriptgirl and Lena's diary includes the entry, "Vilgot wants us all to make suggestions. vilgot wants me to write down and send him all sorts of episodes of things that have happenned to me. Everything I've already told him and anything more I can find in my diaries." There is a patch of grass in Djurgarden that hopefully still belongs to the director Vilgot Sjoman and scriptgirl Kerstin Berg. He writes in his diary about having dinner with her, "Train as a scriptgirl? She'd make a good one. I'm suren of that." and adds, "She is twenty-three and goes to drama school (Royal Dramatic Theater). I am forty and direct films-in such a situation there's enough latent explosive material as it is." When Kerstin decided she wanted to be a scriptgirl, Sjoman visited Janne Halldoff and asked if she could become an unpaid assistant on his film Life is Just Great (Livet ar stenkul, 1967) 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. During the revising of this webpage, the lovely, erotic fleshy sexually experienced Lena Nyman, passed away on February 4,2011. 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 Gosta Ekman, Anna Bjork 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 Sjoman were screened of at the Festival du Cinema Nordique during the second week in March, 2004. Having directed Gia 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 Barbro Kollberg and Ulla Stromstedt and Yes He Has Been With Me (Det ar hos mig han har varit). Actress Elsa Prawitz wrote three screenplays that were filmed in Sweden, all directed by Arne Mattsson, this the first, scripted under the name Pia Elitz based on a novel by Eva Seeberg. Produced by Nordisk Tonefilm, it is a film in which Eva Sjostrom, Lena Nyman and Britt Ekland appear on the screen, as do Elsa Prawitz, Inga Landre, Britta Petterson and Viveka Linder. Prawitz also wrote the screenplay to Mattsson's 1967 film Den Onda cirkeln. Swedish Film director Arne Mattsson followed in 1964 with Blue Boys. Arne Mattsson his then directing Morianera (I the Body, 1965), a film which starred Eva Dahlbeck and Elsa Prawitz. Gunnell Lindblom was in front of the camera for two films directed by Mattsson ,A Woman of Darkness (Yngsjomordet, 1966) and Den Onda Cirkeln (1967). The latter also stars Gio Petre, Marie-Louise Hakansson and Eva Larsson. Also that year Mattsson directedMordaren-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 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. 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; 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 both women. During 1968, among the films that were similar to the sexploitation films of Sweden that were beginning to appear in the United States was the film “Innocent Desires” (Doris Wishman as Louis Silverman), filmed in black and white. It perhaps is equitable to say that the erotic narrative was as a genre meant to reach the audiences of the director Joseph Sarno. The film opens with a nude medium full over the shoulder shot where while putting on her underwear and bra, the actress turns into a profile view.The story builds what seems to be a doll fetish and a woman that stimulates herself when the doll is touched. There is later a bathroom scene with a shot of the camera panning up and down over the shoulder as she follows her own contour with her hands. Later, a second actress is filmed nude in a mirror shot. 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 Gosta 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. 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 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. Torny Wickman and photographer Lars Bjorne during 1969 and 1970 made two films that are early attempts to predict the development of the genre from soft-core sexploitation to hard-core, as depicted in a film by that fame starring George C. Scott, by using more explicit scenes. The Language of Love (Karleckens Sprak) and More of the Language of Love both star Inge and Sten Hegler with Maj-Brit Bergstrom-Wallar. The first film opens with an edited collage of women in public wearing mini-skirts, offering a commodification of what would become seventies sexuality before becoming unexpectedly pornographic for its period. The second film opens in a documentary style, much like the cinema verite of Vilgot Sjoman, with a group interview discussion. During 1971, Torgny Wickman directed Solveig Andersson and Anita Sanders in Fear has 1000 Eyes, or The Sensuous Sorceress. In 1973, Joseph Sarno wrote and directed "Vampire Ectasy", filmed with the beautiful actress Marie Forsa, in widescreen and Eastmancolor. The film opens during the title sequence without an establishing shot, but rather with a continuous shot of the interior of a castle full of nude women shot above the waist, presumably preforming a vampire ritual, all the women centered around one woman orgasming. The narrative begins with a cut to the exterior of a modern train meeting a 19th century carriage. Twenty five minutes into the film, Marie Forsa become the woman the group is centered upon with interspersed shots of her in her bed and cutback simultaneuos shots of the group of women, only to unexpectedly cut to a sequence of her performing a nude lesbian scene before resuming the crosscutting with Forsa again in her bed, on her knees orgasming alone while the group dances. Despite being a screenplay driven by Forsa being the protagonist, mostly in that her nudity is featured, Forsa becomes a vampire to bring about the plot resolution. In doing this, the narrative centered upon her nudity brings her to a lesbian vampire scene but relinguishes the storyline to two minor characters, who in the climax escape the women vampires. 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. 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.
Saturday, July 18, 2020
Greta Garbo in A Woman of Affairs (Brown, 1929)
Mordant Hall writing in 1929, recounts his purported assignation with the 'Hollywood Hermit', "Soon the door of Miss Garbo's apartment was flung open and the sinuous figure of the alluring actress appeared as if from a ray of sunlight. In a low-toned voice that suited her beauty, she greeted the caller, whose eyes fell from her face to a bouquet of flowers on a table, and then to a carpet. 'Won't you sit down?', she asked." He continues to describe her pink, silk sweater and black velvet skirt, claiming that of all her films, 'A Woman of Affairs' was Greta Garbo's favorite. She evidently recounted preparing for a role on the Stockholm stage and having had studied the part, but later having decided against appearing in the theater. "She repeated, 'Delighted to have met you.'"
Biographer Rita Page Palmborg, author of The Private Life of Greta Garbo, wrote,”Garbo was anxious to make ‘A Woman’s of Affairs’. It was to be her first portrayal of a modern American girl. While the story had romance running through it, it was not filled with the passionate, exotic type of love-making that had been seen all through her other pictures. Garbo and Gilbert had several scenes heavy with romance. But the fact that their own relations were in a perpetual state of turmoil seemed to detract from the glamour of their love-making. The public seemed to sense that the Garbo-Gilbert romance was coming to an end. Hollywood could not keep track of the affair.It was a case of ‘off-again, on-again’.”
The titles of movies that Greta Garbo had signed under contract to appear in were subject to change during the end of the the silent era. On March 31, 1928, Exhibitor's Herald World ran an announcement titled, "Clarence Brown's Next To be Greta Garbo Production", which read, "Clarence Brown will again direct Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. The picture that brings the two together again is 'The Sun of St. Moritz' by Oskar Houeker."
Photoplay Magazine announced, "Rumor has it that Clarence Brown and Dorothy Sebastian are married." Of her playing against Greta Garbo in A Woman of Affairs, Sebastian was thought to "present an interpretation, brief but classic." It reviewed the performance of John Gilbert as having played, "the difficult role of lover with dramatic repression." It went on, "Miss Garbo's interpretation is all the greater because she puts it all over without a single clinging dress or a single Garbo slink." Of the intertitles, or subtitles, Photoplay Magazine was exact in its estimation of their "devastating effect" as continuity- "When Miss Cummings wants to think of something sweet for John to murmur to Greta, she orders up a flock of chocolate sodas from the studio lunchroom. Miss Cummings wrote the titles for A Woman of Affairs and there wasn't a spoonful of ice cream left in Southern California." The magazine later reviewed the film with, "Why waste space urging you to drop everything to see this one." Film Daily credits Bess Meredyth as having written the scenario and Mariona Ainslee and Ruth Cunningham as having provided the titles, "Greta Garbo does her best work of her career in a part that all women will rave over. John Gilbert has a very secondary role....Director Clarence Brown has done a masterly job. He cunningly dodged the censor stuff by treating the many-lover episodes as a series of photos taken from a newspaper's files...Synchronized sound effects." Motion Picture Classic magazine favorably reviewed the film, "The picture has been carefully plotted, so much so that it is filled with subtle asides in its scenes and titles. This procedure was necessary to pass muster. But the original meaning is incorporated in the central ideas and it is fully emphasized by Garbo's finely shaded performance. There are some gorgeous settings. The atmosphere gives it quality, too...It is Greta Garbo's work that makes it enjoyable. John Gilbert is nothing much more than a figure-head here." Motion Picture magazine reviewed the film by viewing Garbo and Gilbert, "Perhaps I'm getting old. Or perhaps it is just that Jack Gilbert finds a full dress suit happening to his style of lovemaking. At any rate, something was missing in the high-powered scenes where he and Greta Garbo show what sex can be at its best...the tempo of the picture is decidedly slow and episodic."
Author Richard Corliss looked at the directing of the film, "Faced with a plot as convoluted and predestined as a Chinese ballet, what can Clarence Brown do but direct actors like traffic. He simply discards the flamboyant eroticism of Flesh and the Devil and concentrates as much as possible on elaborately paired shots, some half a film apart, which suddenly reinforce, or undedrcut, the story's plodding ironies." He, maybe importantly to the study of the photoplay, notes that one character dies "at the exact moment" when Greta Garbo and John Gilbert are consummating their love affair, illustrating the effect of pacing the action and timing in plot exposition during the photoplay- in fiction, in classical narrative, not only can plotlines structured on character development intersect and intertangle, as counterpunctal or counterpoint, but they can occur simultaneously, editing to serve a delineating purpose of narrative structure. Screenland Magazine offered to its readers Greta Garbo's neglgee, or her "boudoir gown" rather, which would be given to the contestant who wrote the best letter on the tragic roles of the actress. The Garbo Nile robe worn in A Woman of Affairs was to be sent to the writer of the most interesting letter along with a Christmas greeting from the actress herself. Screenland asked, "How do you feel after a sad ending?" It also, two pages earlier had offered to its readers John Gilbert's Gruen Swiss wristwatch for the most intelligent letter. "Write your opinion. Does a picturesque costume add to the glamour of romantic roles or is there more interest in a modern lover? Why?" It claimed, "The watch which John Gilbert has offerred for your Christmas is an exact duplicate of the one he wore in the scenes with Greta Garbo. We asked for his watch but he said he had given it very hard wear and the winner should have a new one."
During the first run of the film appeared the article "There is a Style Trend Inspired by the Graceful Garbo. Can Every Woman Follow". The article was subtitle, "What the Garbo Girl should Wear", but the writer, Gilbert Adrian, as well as having included three costume sketches and an exclusive photograph of himself with Greta Garbo during a fashion conference, also added how the Garbo Girls present during 1928 in the circulation of Screenland Magazine should wear their hair, and should not wear their hair being a Garbo Girl type. Adrian wrote, "In following Miss Garbo, one realizes that simplicity is the key note to her smartness, as it should be of all women of taste. her natural aloofness and manner of bearing make it possible for her to put meaning into simple clothes. The girl who feels she is the Garbo type should be truthful and analyze her nature to find out whether the appearance is only skin deep, or if her mental qualities and manner can carry, with the same dignity and charm, the simplicity that Garbo knows how to handle. Garbo's flair for and understanding of drama is coupled closely with the clothes she wears...without being clothes conscious, the most conscious kind of clothes..The girl of the Garbo type should wear pajama ensembles; geometric designs in vivid colors; scarfs wrapped around the head...should NOT wear negligees of taffeta with ruffles or hand-made flowers, dainty pinks or blues, or bandea with ribbon streamers...I remember that I designed a two-piece sports costume in Boi de rose duvet even, made with a sleeveless jacket and a short skirt with roomy kick pleats for Miss Garbo to wear in A Woman of Affairs. A tucked in blouse with boyish collar and leather belt, further carried out the athletic type of costume in this instance. Topping this was a trench coat of the same material finished with a bright plaid tuxedo collar...One of Miss Garbo's favorite costumes is a two piece dress of dark green camel's hair jersey."
As soon as 1930, A Woman of Affairs was reported in hardcover as a film on which dramatic and thematic limitations were imposed. The volume Censored, The Private Life of the Movies directed it's scrutiny on the film and went so far as to imply there was a cutting of the film before release "in order to avoid showing a scene intimating that mePn and women love out of wedlock and cited other films that contained "information and dialouge infinitely more suggestive than the dropping of a ring from the hand of Greta Garbo" and yet it still went on to note that the aegis of the time period would only release the film, as with a rating, if the director was to "shorten to flash of five feet scene of Diana and Holderness on couch, embracing and kissing and eliminate view of Diana's hand except after she has dropped the ring." Close Up magazine during 1928 also referred to the film's reputation and the publicity that had preceded it, "Michael Arlen's The Greet Hat, done in celluloid, under the direction of Clarence Brown is M.G.M.'s latest vehicle for Greta Garbo. to placate the moralists who have registered objections to the screening of the story, the picture will be released under another name- A Woman of Affairs. This simple device will no doubt prove effective here as it did with the protested Rain, which under the film info into of Sadie Thompson, successfully satisfied the American puritanical conscience." Motion Picture News during 1928 addressed the quickly growing reputation of the film, as though there were something more sinister in the new sexuality of Garbo, rather than a young woman only immoral due the the inexperience of a vamp, or its new incarnation, vamping flapper, "A Woman of Affairs illustrates the fallacy of official bans on stage plays that are regarded in stage form as too daring or immoral for screen production. A Woman of Affairs proves that questionable or objectionable things in stage plays can be treated from other angles without the least offence to decency or good taste...A Woman of Affairs hasn't the slightest offensive situation."
The Film Spectator objected to the film. It’s reviewer thought to explicitly describe the mechanics of the licentious kissing of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert onscreen. “They could not call it ‘The Green Hat’ for it is supposed to be an immoral book, but they put things in the picture more filthy and disgusting than Arlen ever dreamed of.”During the first run of the film appeared the article "There is a Style Trend Inspired by the Graceful Garbo. Can Every Woman Follow". The article was subtitle, "What the Garbo Girl should Wear", but the writer, Gilbert Adrian, as well as having included three costume sketches and an exclusive photograph of himself with Greta Garbo during a fashion conference, also added how the Garbo Girls present during 1928 in the circulation of Screenland Magazine should wear their hair, and should not wear their hair being a Garbo Girl type. Adrian wrote, "In following Miss Garbo, one realizes that simplicity is the key note to her smartness, as it should be of all women of taste. her natural aloofness and manner of bearing make it possible for her to put meaning into simple clothes. The girl who feels she is the Garbo type should be truthful and analyze her nature to find out whether the appearance is only skin deep, or if her mental qualities and manner can carry, with the same dignity and charm, the simplicity that Garbo knows how to handle. Garbo's flair for and understanding of drama is coupled closely with the clothes she wears...without being clothes conscious, the most conscious kind of clothes..The girl of the Garbo type should wear pajama ensembles; geometric designs in vivid colors; scarfs wrapped around the head...should NOT wear negligees of taffeta with ruffles or hand-made flowers, dainty pinks or blues, or bandea with ribbon streamers...I remember that I designed a two-piece sports costume in Boi de rose duvet even, made with a sleeveless jacket and a short skirt with roomy kick pleats for Miss Garbo to wear in A Woman of Affairs. A tucked in blouse with boyish collar and leather belt, further carried out the athletic type of costume in this instance. Topping this was a trench coat of the same material finished with a bright plaid tuxedo collar...One of Miss Garbo's favorite costumes is a two piece dress of dark green camel's hair jersey."
As soon as 1930, A Woman of Affairs was reported in hardcover as a film on which dramatic and thematic limitations were imposed. The volume Censored, The Private Life of the Movies directed it's scrutiny on the film and went so far as to imply there was a cutting of the film before release "in order to avoid showing a scene intimating that mePn and women love out of wedlock and cited other films that contained "information and dialouge infinitely more suggestive than the dropping of a ring from the hand of Greta Garbo" and yet it still went on to note that the aegis of the time period would only release the film, as with a rating, if the director was to "shorten to flash of five feet scene of Diana and Holderness on couch, embracing and kissing and eliminate view of Diana's hand except after she has dropped the ring." Close Up magazine during 1928 also referred to the film's reputation and the publicity that had preceded it, "Michael Arlen's The Greet Hat, done in celluloid, under the direction of Clarence Brown is M.G.M.'s latest vehicle for Greta Garbo. to placate the moralists who have registered objections to the screening of the story, the picture will be released under another name- A Woman of Affairs. This simple device will no doubt prove effective here as it did with the protested Rain, which under the film info into of Sadie Thompson, successfully satisfied the American puritanical conscience." Motion Picture News during 1928 addressed the quickly growing reputation of the film, as though there were something more sinister in the new sexuality of Garbo, rather than a young woman only immoral due the the inexperience of a vamp, or its new incarnation, vamping flapper, "A Woman of Affairs illustrates the fallacy of official bans on stage plays that are regarded in stage form as too daring or immoral for screen production. A Woman of Affairs proves that questionable or objectionable things in stage plays can be treated from other angles without the least offence to decency or good taste...A Woman of Affairs hasn't the slightest offensive situation."
Recently, Scholar Carmen Guiralt, writing in Film History, an International Journal, has added what may be an important source to the distinctions of diegetic and non-diegetic discourse and of textural and extra-textural discourse involved in the thematic and metaphorical rendering of content within context and its exhibition in the public sphere, almost to where we might revisit the theory of a cinema of attractions and reconsider it within a pre-code public sphere. The author looks at the censored image with discourse- particularly when those images are used to transpose the discourse of the novel during its adaptation. The central premise of the paper Self-Censorship in Hollywood during the Silent Era : A Woman of Affairs (1928), is almost too direct to not be stunning. An abstract reads," This article studies, from a historical view as well as an aesthetic point of view, the constraints placed... On the production and on Clarence Brown's use of visual images to convey the full content of the novel. As a result, A Woman of Affairs presents two contradictory story lines, the narrative revealed by the images and the difficult speech supervised by the censors and featured in the intertitles of the film." The film had been vastly altered by the censors in regard to its screenplay and a corresponding new plot had to be devised.
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