Melting Pot Cinema VIII - How Swede It Is

The decline of the Swedish film industry would ensue in the year 1962, and  would come despite Ingmar Bergman's productions garnering a world over success. In the subsequent year, the government would intervene and born was the Swedish Film Institute; this was all the masterplan of one Harry Schein, it's prime director, in recognition of the fact that, in a mixed economy like Sweden's, the indigenous cinema could only survive with external resources and the subsidies. A punitive entertainments tax was replaced by a levy of 10 percent on the total of box-office receipts. This sum, amounting initially to some 850,000 pounds per annum, financed the Institute and as a direct result scores of films were produced during the following decade. The sheer prospect of an Institute award, inspired directors to take a chance.

New directors would emerge on the scene, including Jorn Donner, Vilgot Sjoman and Bo Wilderberg, and they were a response to the influence of France's nouvelle vague and of American independent cinema,namely in the vein of one of its leading lights, director John Cassavetes. Their first films had a raw and naturalistic texture, dealing with the social mores of modern Sweden, while Ingmar Bergman (so they claimed) was immured in his private heaven and Hades. The unflinching talent of Bo Widerberg, was immediately evident in Kvarteret Korpen (Raven's End, 1964), which follows a young writer's revolt against his depressing home background during the late 1930's. He would achieve universal acclaim for the elegantly filmed love story Elvira Madigan (1967),  and Adalen '31 (The Battle of Joe Hill, 1971), a film that came replete with  an X-rating and one that centered on a Swedish labor leader that was executed in dubious circumstances in a 1915 Utah. The frightening Mannen pa Taket (The Man on the Roof, 1976), was hugely successful in Sweden; Widerberg then revisited romance with 1979's Victoria. Widerberg's contribution to Swedish cinema is essentially a lyrical style that allies an acute sense of social injustice.

Widerberg-eyed Victoria

                

In his heyday, Jorn Donner, had served as writer, producer, critic and administrator in coalition to being a noted director, he would also take post as the managing director of the Swedish Film Institute and would go on to chair the Finnish Film Foundation. Of his own personal features. Att Alska (To Love, 1964), an acerbic glance at contemporary sexual customs, 1970's Anna. which was produced in Finland, and Man kan inte valdtas (Men Can't Be Raped, 1978) best convey his droll and seemingly sardonic take on life.

Love came by the Handful in 1974 

Director Vilgot Sjoman was the most cantankerous iconoclast of the group. He would start out in decidedly more staid fashion with 1962's Alskarinnan (The Mistress), but in 1967 literally shocked millions in both Sweden and abroad with Jag Ar Nyfiken Gul ( I am Curious - Yellow) , which interspersed an exuberantly lubricious lass's search for personal liberty with a documentary  type query pertaining to the shortcomings of Sweden's democracy. The sexual scenes were so overt. that the film would soon be banned in most states of America. Sjoman's inventive fire would ebb and flow, ultimately waning during the 1970s; Only En Handfull Karlek ( A Handful of Love, 1974), a period piece set against the general strike in Sweden in 1909 and Linus (1979) which focused on a mysterious brothel where an unusual crime committed was committed - and this would clearly validate that Sjoman had gravitas with a sprig of chutzpah.

They call it mellow yellow, curiously.

Jan Troell was an innovative cameraman as well as an auteur, and he would come bearing many fruits to his films, in that he hosted the eye of a poet and painter. He had an uncanny flair for capturing the sounds and sights of the vast Swedish landscape - and the people within it - in such masterpieces as Har har du ditt liv ( Here's Your Life, 1966)and Utvandrarnra ( The Emigrants, 1971) Troell would earn a reputation overseas for this picture of nineteenth-century Swedish workers who expatriated to America. He was quite often compared to John Ford for this production. Nybyggarna (The New Land, 1972) was a powerfully poignant follow-up to Utvandrarna. Consequently, when Troell embarked on making English language films it would prove an unsuccessful venture. This would not be too painful on the ingenue, as in 1982 with the release of Ingenjor andrees luftfard (The Flight of the Eagles, 1982) would make a gallant return from the lost genre of the epic film.

During the second wave, which occurred in the later Sixties, an influx of independent filmmakers were coming fast and furious. Mai Zetterling who was prone to inflect her works with feminist viewpoints - would return to her native land to direct three new features; Alskonde Par (Loving Couples, 1964) told the story of vivacious young society women circa 1910. Jonas Cornell would bring to the screen a disjointed and paradoxical view of contemporaneous life in the social, or(anti-social, really) comedy
Puss och Kram (Hugs and Kisses, 1967) and the character study Som Nott acht Dag (Like Night and Day, 1961) which respectively starred his actress wife Agneta Ekmanner Cornell.

The tracks of Harry Munter's tears.

In Hugo och Josephine (Hugo and Josephine, 1967) Kjell Grede's stunning debut, a children's film that was of equal fascination to their adult counterparts, and in this would integrate both a blithe and touching story, replete with the felicities of a summer landscape. Grede's subsequent releases, in their thematic would evolve into  infinitely more introspective and ethereal toned pieces. Testament to this is 1969's Harry Munter, which was also the most rigorous and sensitive of his works. Jan Halldoff would arrive on the scene in late 1965, and would keep an unflinching eye on the everyday life of the young Swedish set. Halldoff did execute this would utmost aplomb and authority. his films were often box-office successes. One of his most memorable moments was Korridorren (1968, The Corridor) which starred Per Ragnar as the young doctor Jan Erickson. Johan Bergenstrahle films would boast political overtures, as he famously tackled controversial social issues, namely issues in which capitalist corruption was prevalent a factor, this could be seen in 1969's Made in Sweden and in 1972 where he depicted the hardships of immigrant life in Jag heter Stelios (Foreigners) and the forcible repatriation of dissidents after the war in Baltutlamningen (A Baltic Tragedy, 1970)

In 1972, the statues of the Film Reform of 1963 would be amended, and would inspire an opportunity golden with more active encouragement to production and grants were now in distribution prior to film shooting. A third wave would not commence, entering the directors who whould breathe new life in a medium where the talent was scarce. Gunnel Lindblom who was a mainstay in Bergman's films, would herself begin a career in directing starting  with a televisual film, Sjung vackert om karlek 1976 and the impressive Paradistorg (Summer Paradise, 1977) and this even with its schematic scenario would still host some engaging conversations and a persuasive depiction of the Swedish family at a time of stress. Another femme auteur, Marianne Ahrne declared her own idiosyncratic style of film-making with Langt borta och nara (Near and Far Away, 1976) which entailed a love affair in a sanitarium, involving a young chap was psychologically mute and a social worker. Ahrne fastly proved deft at the balancing act of melodrama and comedy, and he did so with elan in 1975's Maria, Uppdraget (The Assignment, 1977) and Mannen som blev miljonar (To Be  a Millionaire, 1980) Stefan Jarl would proceed to produce two chilling documentaries  Dom kallar oss mods (They Call us Misfits, 1968) and Ett anstandigt liv (A Respectable Life, 1979) which underlined the punitive attitude to drug addiction in a supposedly 'free society' More entertaining and an absolute boon for jazz afficianados was Sven Klang's kvintett (Sven Klang's Combo, 1976) which evoked the 1950s through it's apt score and would be produced by a team that included members of the iconoclastic October Group and was astutely directed by one Stellan Olsson.