Swedish Film

An Introduction and Reader

By Mariah Larsson, Anders Marklund

Nordic Academic Press

Copyright © 2010 Nordic Academic Press and the authors
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 97891-85509-36-2

Contents

1. Editors’ Preface,
Acknowledgements,
I. INSTITUTIONS,
Changing Institutions for Film Screenings,
2. Introduction Mariah Larsson,
3. Going to the Cinema Kjell Furberg,
4. Censorship in Sweden Jan Holmberg,
II. SILENT CINEMA,
Introducing Cinema to Sweden,
5. Introduction Anders Marklund,
6. Film Exhibition in Örebro 1897–1902 Åsa Jernudd,
7. Georg af Klercker, the Silent Era and Film Research Astrid Söderbergh Widding The Golden Age and Late Silent Cinema,
8. Introduction Anders Marklund,
9. Victor Sjöström and the Golden Age Bo Florin,
10. Selma Lagerlöf and Literary Adaptations Leif Furhammar,
11. Travellers as a Threat in Swedish Film in the 1920s Tommy Gustafsson,
III. GENRE CINEMA,
Popular Cinema in the 1930s,
12. Introduction Anders Marklund,
13. The Melodramas of Gustaf Molander Bengt Forslund,
14. The1930s’ Folklustspel and Film Farce Per Olov Qvist,
15. Celebrating Swedishness Swedish-Americans and Cinema Ann-Kristin Wallengren,
Hollywood’s Influence after the War?,
16. Introduction Mariah Larsson,
17. Youth Problem Films in the Post-War Years Bengt Bengtsson,
18. Little Miss Lonely Style and Sexuality in Flicka och hyacinter Mia Krokstäde,
Documentary Filmmaking in Sweden,
19. Introduction Mats Jönsson,
20. A Fly on the Wall On Dom kallar oss mods and the Mods Trilogy Bjørn Sørenssen,
Genre Filmmaking in a Difficult Film Climate,
21. Introduction 182 Anders Marklund,
22. Pippi and her Pals Chris Holmlund,
23. The Criminal and Society in Mannen på taket Daniel Brodén,
24. Contested Pleasures Mariah Larsson,
IV. AUTEURS AND ART CINEMA,
Art Cinema, Auteurs and the Art Cinema ‘Institution’,
25. Introduction Mariah Larsson,
26. Ingmar Bergman and Modernity Some Contextual Remarks Erik Hedling,
27. Peter Weiss: Underground and Resistance Lars Gustaf Andersson,
The New Generation of the 1960s,
28. Introduction Anders Marklund,
29. The Reception of Vilgot Sjöman’s Curious films Anders Wilhelm Åberg,
30. Poetry in Sound and Image Jan Troell’s Early TV Films Madeliene Lilja & Johan Nilsson,
31. Modernity, Masculinity and the Swedish Welfare State: Mai Zetterling’s Flickorna Mariah Larsson,
Changing Conditions for Auteurs after 1970,
32. Introduction Mariah Larsson,
33. The Complex Image Roy Andersson,
34. Distinctive Films in Mainstream Cinema Suzanne Osten’s Bröderna Mozart Anders Marklund,
V. BEFORE AND AFTER THE NEW MILLENIUM,
A Renewal of Swedish Film?,
35. Introduction Mariah Larsson,
36. Distinctive Films in Mainstream Cinema Yrrol & Tic Tac Anders Marklund,
37. ‘Immigrant Film’ in Sweden at the Millennium Rochelle Wright,
Swedish Films and Filmmakers Abroad,
38. Introduction Anders Marklund,
39. Lasse Hallström: Family Secrets Tomás Fernández Valentí,
Production and Producers,
40. Introduction Anders Marklund,
41. Local and Global Lukas Moodysson and Memfis Anna Westerståhl Stenport,
42. The Regional Turn Developments in Scandinavian Film Production Olof Hedling,
Contributors,
Index,

CHAPTER 1

Editors’ Preface

Mariah Larsson & Anders Marklund

This book has a long history, which starts at the point when two doctoral students shared the same office and taught the same course, namely Swedish Film for exchange students at Lund University, in the autumn of 2003. We both felt that, considering how much literature there was on Swedish film in Swedish, the lack of such material in English was conspicuous. There was – of course – an enormous amount of literature on Ingmar Bergman, but very little on almost everything else. Until recently, scholarly tradition had it that most studies on Swedish cinema were published in Swedish. Although our own doctoral theses dealing with Swedish film – Mai Zetterling as a director in the 1960s and Swedish film between 1985 and 2000, respectively – were also written in Swedish, the notion of editing a larger, educational volume by translating already existing Swedish-language material into English was born there and then.

Thus, this book is compiled to cover Swedish film history from the early film screenings to contemporary filmmaking. Included are articles and excerpts on topics as diverse as censorship, comedies from the 1930s, specific auteurs, Swedish filmmakers abroad, and ethnicity in Swedish film. The aim is to present a wide and yet concise introduction to the history of Swedish film, through a number of carefully selected in-depth articles by Swedish and inter national film scholars. By translating research already published in Swedish, we want to make that research available to international students and researchers.

Undoubtedly, the scope of such a project raises issues of historiography and scholarly canons – questions not only of the exclusion and inclusion of certain films and directors but also of the exclusion and inclusion of certain authors and scholars. This, however, we have found unavoidable. In order to steer clear of misunderstandings and provide a preliminary guideline for how this book may be used, we want to delineate how we have related to a number of issues.

Established Swedish film history: At first, Swedish film history was formulated by film critics such as Robin Hood (pseudonym for Bengt Idestam-Almquist, 1895–1983), writing from the 1930s to the 1970s. Cinephile and filmmaker Gösta Werner (1908–2009) contributed with a more thorough volume which for a long time served as an introductory text to Swedish film history. Later, film students would also read Rune Waldekranz’s (1911–2003) Filmens historia parts 1–3, which covered international film history but also included large sections on Sweden. Since its publication in 1991, however, Leif Furhammar’s Filmen i Sverige: En historia i tio kapitel has been the standard Swedish-language film history for students of Swedish film. Furhammar was the second full professor of film studies in Sweden, succeeding Rune Waldekranz at Stockholm University. Many scholars have taken his volume as a starting point in order to examine phenomena that Furhammar mentions very briefly, or, occasionally, neglects to point out. In this reader Furhammar is only represented by a short piece, which of course does not reflect the influence he has had on generations of film students. However, Furhammar is indirectly present in about one third of the contributions to this volume through references.

Scholarly writing: At the end of Janet Staiger’s 1985 article ‘On the Politics of Film Canons’, she notes that not only films are selected and preserved by film historiography; scholarly writings on film also share that same destiny. We are, needless to say, well aware of this. The texts chosen here, however, have not generally achieved canonical status, mostly for the simple reason that they are quite recently published – and a handful of them are published here for the first time. However, other articles or excerpts are canonical. For instance, the excerpt from P. O. Qvist’s study of Swedish film in the 1930s has been selected due to the respect and authority this study carries. Although nearly twenty years old, it is still the most thorough account of Swedish cinema in this period. There are, naturally, other works that have been similarly influential, but that still have not been possible to include in this selection. Moreover, some of the texts selected – although written by film scholars – have been taken out of a non-scholarly context: one example is Furhammar’s study of Selma Lagerlöf adaptations, originally published in the arts section of a newspaper. Most of the contributions in the volume are quite recently written, because we have made new research a priority. We have primarily chosen rather short texts and excerpts (or abridged longer texts) in order to include a fairly large variety of contributions.

Established film canon: Many texts are included because they deal with films or filmmakers that are regarded as important within Swedish film history, i.e. that belong within the Swedish film canon. Texts on Victor Sjöström, Bo Widerberg, Vilgot Sjöman and Stefan Jarl, for instance, are included not only because the scholars who have written them have done so in a forthright and novel manner, but also because these directors and these films are part of established Swedish film historiography. We have not set out to revise the existing canon. Rather, our goal has been to select texts that make it possible to understand (or question) the merits of such a canon. Other texts deal with more contested areas, such as sex / pornographic film in Sweden in the 1970s, or use novel approaches, such as a queer reading of Flicka och hyacinter / Girl With Hyacinths (Hasse Ekman, 1950).

Gaps and omissions: Sometimes when an area is not covered in this book, it is because relevant research is still lacking. This is, for example, the case with many important filmmakers such as Hasseåtage (Hans Alfredson and Tage Danielsson) and the Swedish films of Lasse Hallström.

Sometimes, however, we have chosen to disregard existing, and often very interesting, material. A good example concerns Victor Sjöström’s Ingeborg Holm / Margaret Day (1913), one of the most well-known and respected early Swedish films, which we mention only in passing. In some of these cases there already exists relevant works in English. Regarding Ingeborg Holm one can suggest Jan Olsson’s article ‘Nils Krok’s Social Pathos and Paul Garbagni’s Style – Ingeborg Holm as Object Lesson’, Erik Hedling’s ‘Swedish Cinema Alters History: Ingeborg Holm and the Poor Laws Debate’, or even David Bordwell’s blog entry ‘Lucky 13’ where the film is discussed together with some other films of that same year.

To mention a few other areas not covered in this volume, television and new digital production and distribution technologies are only touched upon in a few of the articles. Also, since the focus is on fiction and feature-length films, genres such as documentary films and experimental films are not comprehensively covered, although there are articles dedicated to these areas. The introductions to each chapter compensate, to some extent, for these gaps and omissions. Nevertheless, since this is an introductory volume, our central focus has been on what might be described as belonging to a more or less general Swedish film culture.

Ingmar Bergman: The immediate response to anyone who attempts to cover Swedish film history is, How are you going to deal with Bergman? Bergman has, at least since the 1960s, been of immense importance to both Swedish filmmakers and, eventually, Swedish film scholars. Being a very tangible presence within Swedish cultural life, it is only after his death in 2007 that we can fully grasp the gravity of his persona. Our approach has been guided by pragmatism, and we have decided to keep contributions on Bergman to a minimum. There already exists a large corpus of literature on Bergman published in English, researched and written by notable scholars in Sweden as well as internationally. We have therefore decided to include only one article which deals directly with his films. This article offers a perspective which takes Bergman’s relation to the Swedish welfare state into account. To some degree, we have complemented this minimalist approach by adding brief remarks on Bergman in some of the introductions. Those teachers who wish to put more emphasis on Bergman should use this volume together with other selected works on him, for instance Ingmar Bergman: Revisited (edited by Maaret Koskinen), Paisley Livingston’s Cinema, Philosophy, Bergman: On Film as Philosophy, or any other of the many studies of Bergman published in the past years. An exhaustive resource is Birgitta Steene’s Ingmar Bergman: A Reference Guide, and anyone interested in Bergman should look up the web page devoted to him and maintained by the Ingmar Bergman Foundation.

Theories: In order to be an all-encompassing textbook on Swedish film, one may have wanted to include articles which elaborate certain theoretical perspectives, for instance on national cinema, gender, or genre. Obviously, all the texts included in the book are influenced by different theoretical perspectives. The approaches in the selected articles range from auteurial and industrial / economic to social / political, but the main emphasis in the texts is on describing national film historical phenomena rather than on theory. In the final analysis, we decided that it is better to leave the possibility open to combine this anthology with a couple of theoretical articles which can shift this present volume in the direction that the teacher wishes. Furthermore, since the book may be read for courses on Swedish culture and society, we have chosen to highlight texts which may facilitate an understanding of Swedish culture and the conditions for filmmaking in Sweden. The volume is intended for students who may not have a background within film studies, although such a background would be beneficial.

Language, translations, names and titles: Most of the articles have been translated by their authors. For consistency throughout the book, we have conformed all texts to British English, even those that have been published in American journals or anthologies.

Certain terms have proven difficult to translate. For instance, many articles refer to the Swedish term folkhemmet. The word has a long history within Swedish politics, but since 1928 it has been associated with the social democratic welfare project, having been used by the social democratic leader Per Albin Hansson in a speech to describe the goal of this project. Through the years, it has become loaded with ideological implications and value, and most certainly, it is a word which every Swede seemingly intuits the meaning of, although it may have slightly different meanings for different generations. As of today, it contains a utopian dream as well as nostalgia for a time when the welfare project seemed simple, but additionally, it can involve a criticism of a nationalist narrow-mindedness, petit bourgeois ideals, and a too uncomplicated notion of equality. To translate it literally to ‘the people’s home’ would not convey all its various layers of meaning. For long-term students of Scandinavian culture, folkhem will most probably be a term for which understanding comes gradually, but for the purpose of this book, regarding it as a metaphor for the welfare project will suffice.

Another such term is folklustspel. The folklustspel is a comedic genre which came out of theatre. It is aimed at a wide audience and contains a folksy, lowbrow humour. Since it has its origins in outdoors theatre, the humour is sometimes condescendingly referred to as buskis (‘bush humour’), and it was for a long time despised by the cultural elite who considered it unsophisticated and ‘low’. There are similar traditions in other countries, such as the ‘end of the pier show’, vaudeville and the farce, but each national expression is somewhat different, which means that there is no perfect equivalent in the English language, especially as the farce, in Sweden, can be regarded as a related subgenre to the folklustspel.

In the case of film companies, organisations and administrations, we have used the Swedish names throughout, e.g. Svensk Filmindustri (SF), not Swedish Film Industry. On the other hand, official administrations such as Svenska Filminstitutet (SFi), the Swedish Film Institute, or Statens Biografbyrå, the National Board of Film Censors, have official English names and in those cases, these are used. Abbreviations may be used if they are well established. For example, Svenska Biografteatern is better known as Svenska Bio.

We have chosen to use the Swedish film titles, but the first time a film is mentioned in an article, the English title follows, e.g. Jag är nyfiken – gul / I am Curious – Yellow. If the film, to our knowledge, has not been released in an English version, the title in English is a translation and this is noted by not italicising it but by putting it in quotation marks, e.g. Grevarna på Svansta / ‘The Counts at Svansta’. Furthermore, the first time a film is mentioned, the director and year of the film are given, either in the sentence or within parentheses.

The structure of the book: The book consists of five parts: ‘Institutions’, ‘Silent Cinema’, ‘Genre Cinema’, ‘Auteurs and Art Cinema’ and ‘Before and After the New Millennium’. This structure does not really offer a clear historical narrative. We have wanted to give a sense of chronology, but that has not been a main priority. Part one, ‘Institutions’, deals with the institutions of cinema, most notably two significant institutions: exhibition and censorship. The two articles selected here cover large parts of cinema’s history in Sweden and serve – to some extent – as a timeline or frame for the rest of the book. For those who want a more thorough historical outline there are other resources available. The second part, ‘Silent Cinema’, deals with the thirty-odd years of silent cinema in Sweden and focuses on directors as well as early screenings and representation. The period between circa 1930 and 1990 is organised into two parts, ‘Genre Cinema’ and ‘Auteurs and Art Cinema’, each chronologically covering these decades. Although the distinction should not be seen as a clear one, it indicates the divide between popular culture and what is regarded as the more prestigious culture of art cinema. In the final part, ‘Before and After the New Millennium’, five articles chart some important elements in the still ongoing development during the past two decades.

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