Modern Swedish Film

Marie Liljedahl enters one of the most beautiful films to have ever been shot in Sweden, Inga (Jag en oskuld) by entering a living room from what appears to have been her bedroom, as though already dressed for bed she had returned to say goodnight, the scene introducing her to audiences in the United States in what is almost a glimpse, and yet the close shot of her is as intimate as that of the dolly shot that concludes the film Queen Christina; in the film, she is about to leave and meet Greta (Monica Strummerstedt), who is her aunt. As can be seen in the trailer, there is a dialouge scene between her and Greta that takes place in a suana during which there is a beautiful shot of her that dollies back before she comes toward the camera, her in a towel motionlessly reading. The re-released copy of the film, which had been previously unseen by the present author in fact is accompanied by a reel of out takes from the rushes, their including a shower scene during which Marie Liljedahl is positioned as subject to the spectator during the erotic solitude of her getting out of the shower and removing a towel from her hair in a mirror shot, brushing her hair as the camera is stationary, her solitude itself filmed as an erotic object with each languid move of her body.

Andrews writes that Inga was among one of the early films to breach the subject of female desire in an attempt to more often bring female display to the screen. In order to depict female spectacle, there was added an exploration of female want. While reviewing the synopsis of the film, Andrews compares the screenplay and the visual articulation of motif on the screen by noting an awakening-sexuality model in the script that is supported by the search for an increase in explicit display, the storyline to bring a feminization to the erotic images. The motif of sexual pleasure is added to the awakening-sexuality of the character by the visual appropriation of the image with tight-closeups, sexuality brought to the screen through the motif of her facial display. He contrasts this with the later, more visually explicit film Butterflies (1974) (his naming the film from the time period as classical sexploitation and yet including his view that there were autuer aspects to the attempt.) where the camera is allowed to depict the awakening as one that is one of both nudity and orgasm.

Marie Liljedahl reprised her role as Inga in the film Inga Two/The Seduction of Inga, (Nagon att alska, 1971) written and directed by Joseph W. Sarno and photgraphed by Max Wilen. Starring with Liljedahl are Inger Sundh, Lissi Alandh, Marie Wersall, Jeannette Swensson, Liliane Malmquist and the Finnish actress Maiija-Lissa Bjurquist. Nearly title Inga and Greta, the film was shot in part in Stockholm. The title sequence opens with the camera dollying back on Marie Liljedahl about to get out of bed and the cuts to a shot of the camera panning up to film her in the shower in close shot, it slowly beginning with a close shot of her feet, the water sliding downward on her skin and in front of the camera, her being kept in near profile as it pans up to her nude hips and then untill the actress is in close up.

</p> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> <TABLE> <TR> <TD><P> The camera then cuts to a shot of her dressing; as she puts on a pari of blue underwear and a flowered blouse, she is introduced by a voice over narrative. During the beginning scenes of the film she is almost more beautiful filmed in color on the screen that during Inga, her long hair over her shoulders framing her face, much as in the film Anna and Eve, which opens with a similar scene of the actress in a bedroom getteing dressed.</p> <TABLE> <TR> <TD> <p><IMG SRC="ChristinaLindberg.jpg" alt="Christina Lindberg-Swedish Erotic Film" align="right">The films of Christina Lindberg show an attempt to bring the complexities of erotic relationships to the screen, the erotic narrative with the development of the central character, story interest within the frame as erotic object. When recently interviewed, Christina Lindberg explained that included among the films during the brief period in which she appeared in front of the camera, was <i>Made in Sweden</i> the first to bring her to an international audience. During the film is a show scene filmed in slow motion in which she is exquite. Nude in front of the camera, only the viewing camera is in the room with her as spectator as the water flows down to her bare shoulders; only the camera is watching her and it is only to the camera that her subjectivity is imparted, each small movement of her body enveloped in both solitude and the symbolic measure of her contour by the water as it acknowledges her awareness of there being an embodiment of her pleasure. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Ann Stodart had used the personification of poetry as having had been female, particularly in its relationship to emotion and sentiment, the gendwered viewer of spectatorship the third person omniscient voice of beauty.</p> <p>During 1972, Christina Lindberg starred with Eva Portnoff and Margareta Hellstrom under the direction of Joseph W. Sarno in the film <i>Young Playthings</i>, photographed by Gunnar Westfelt. It is a fairly imaginative rendering of the erotic, and while not metaphorical, within the context of its storyline, it connects the characters narratively as well as brings them into fantasy, or the erotic within the context of fantasy. Its opening shots are of a dialogue scene as the two women are sunbathing nude, there then being a cut to an interior mirror shot of Christina Lindberg combing her hair that is beuautifully photographed; the dialougue scene is continued as the beginning of the film is is photographed in particular for glamour, a glamour that is only achieved by Christina Lindberg being in front of the camera and the alluring look given by her eyes. The film begins a series of scenes that are fantasy interwoven into the story of the three women, their putting on erotic stage plays in between the individual scenes of the film.</p> <p>Included among the films of Christina Linderberg is the film <i>Anita</i> (<i>Anita- ur en torasflikas dagbok</i>, 1973), which, directed by Torgny Wickman and co-starring Stellan Skarsgard, is in fact stunning mostly after its first fourty minutes, it including a bedroom scene between the two lovers and an earlier bedroom scene between the two women.</p> <p>Christina Lindberg also appeared in the film <i>Secrets of Sweet Sixteen</i> (<i>What Schoolgirls Don't Tell, Was Schulmadchen verschweigen</i>, 1973) directed by Ernst Hofbauer. The films of Ernst Hofbauer are centered around actresses that are among the most intriguing and sensuous of nude glamour, including Elke Deuringer, Sonja Embriz and Marisa Feldy. Ernst Hofbauer directed the 1973 film <i>Frauhreilen Report</i>. Although the films can more properly seen as a form of any classic sexploitation film than those filmed in Sweden with Lindberg, not only in Germany but also in Sweden there were also comedies that reflected that the camera had been allowed find a new glamour upon the screen that necessitated that it be woven into scripts and inserted into screenplays.</p> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> <TABLE> <TR><TD><P>  <div id="cse" style="width:100%;">Loading</div> <script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi" type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> google.load('search', '1'); google.setOnLoadCallback(function(){new google.search.CustomSearchControl().draw('cse');},true);</script> </P></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <TABLE> <TR> <TD><p> <script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://www.google.com/coop/api/014106559586474166958/cse/ty86chpatfy/gadget&synd=open&w=320&h=75&title=Marie+Liljedahl+as+Inga+(Jag+en+oskuld)&border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+23999999%&output=js"></script> </p> </TD> </TR> </TABLE> <TABLE> <TR> <TD><p> <a href="http://victorsjostrom.exactpages.com/scottlord-Svenska-Biografteatern-Scandia-Svensk-Filmindustri.html" title="Swedish Silent Film"><IMG SRC="gretagarbofilm.gif" alt="swedish film"></a></p></td></TR></TABLE> </BODY></HEAD> </HTML>