#classic swedish films

[vintage-old-hollywood]

Britt Ekland

[honeygleam]

smultronstället (1957) dir. ingmar bergman

[annoyingthemesong]

SUBLIME CINEMA #646 - LILYA 4-EVER

Bleak and overwhelming, this is a movie that has haunted me since I first saw it. Lukas Moodysson’s best film is also one of the best Swedish films of all time, up there with Bergman and Andersson’s. This is as uncompromising a film there is, shot in whatever hellhole location in Estonia they dug up to stand in for Soviet Russia - and the feeling of humanity’s grime and decay lingers all these years later. 

[minayuri]

Aud Egede-Nissen in Dimitri Buchowetzki's Karusellen (1923)

[outofccontext]

source: Muppets Most Wanted (2014)

[labyrinthofstreams]

Anita Ekberg on the set of Back from Eternity (1956).

Photographed by Earl Leaf on April 6, 1956.

[soldier27-blog]

Liv Ullmann

[evangeliaa]

"Why does God hide in the midst of vague promises and invisible miracles?"

(image from IMDb)

At a first glance, "The Seventh Seal" is a movie about religion, about God and Faith and about Death. 

Well, it's undeniable that the movie IS about all these things. The movie does deal with these themes at a superficial glance. But I find that it is more about the grasp that religion has on society and on its people.

The Seventh Seal, directed by Swedish Director Ingmar Bergman in 1957, is a film narrating the story of Antonius Block, a night during the Middle Ages who just returned to his homeland from the Crusades. On his journey back home, he encounters an unlikely companion; Death himself. Initially terrified by the nature of his new friends, he asks to play a game of chess with him, and if he wins, he gets to live. But if he loses, Death can take him away.

This analysis is going to contain spoilers (though, if you're a Bergman watcher, you're probably not one to be afraid of spoilers).

The movie more about the absurdity of life than it is about anything else. The audience watches as Antonius Block gradually loses his faith in God as the game of chess with Death unfolds. He fearfully hopes that, if he dies, the heavens will open for him and welcome him. He wants to believe that. But as everything around him falls to ruin and the Plague torments his hometown, he starts to lose his hope for a better future and for the illusion of heaven.

If God truly does exist, why do all these horrible things happen? Why is there more suffering than there is beauty in life? These are the questions that torment Antonius block as he sets off on his journey back home.

While Antonius Block is meant to represent the type of person who attempts to resist carnal desires and tries to maintain his faith in God, which is his whole character arc, his traveling companion, Jöns, is depicted as the complete opposite. Jöns is a man who has embraced hedonism and his raw desire and lust for life. He represents the character model of a person who has released himself from every moral compass and is purely led by his emotions and desires. He represents the opposite of Block; he is what Antonius Block is trying not to be.

However, in the grand scheme of things, when Antonius Block and all his companions face Death in the end of the film, Jöns is the only one who truly appears to not be afraid. Even if Antonius Block knew his death was imminent and had him by his side the whole time, and even if Antonius Block was the one trying to convince himself of the existence of Heaven and God, Jöns was the one who was calm. His character arc was foreshadowed from the beginning of the film, where he said one of my favorite quotes when encountering a dead man: "No, sire. As a matter of fact, he was quite eloquent. Though what he had to say was rather gloomy." Death, to him, is a part of life. He sees life and its existence as a series, and death in the end is not only normal, but beautiful. It is, as he says, "eloquent." This raises questions about the effectiveness of religious faith. Religions were created to combat people's fear of death, but do they really manage to do that? In the end, only a truly liberated person, line Jöns, is able to distance himself from the fear of his demise.

On his way home from the crusades, he and his companion encounter a young couple of street performers, Jof and Mia, with their infant son Mikael. The two of them don't let the suffering around them break them. They don't let it ruin their love for each other and their love for art. They're as happy as they've ever been, and religion, death, God are only in the back of their minds. Antonius Block meets the couple, and he sees how their art is the beauty in their lives. Many have explained how art is like an escape from death, from the suffering, and how it can shelter someone and their life from the harsh realities of it. That's how the couple sees their life. They see it through the lens of an artist. They are carefree and in love with each other and with their art, and Block sees this. They symbolize art and freedom in the midst of a world that opposes it all. In the end, they're the only ones who are saved. Unlike Jöns and Antonius Block, they had a shelter, a raison d' être. And Antonius Block saw that. In the final part of the game that Antonius plays with Death, he tries to elongate it as long as possible so that the couple has enough time to flee and escape their demise. This gesture goes to show a lot both about art and Antonius Block's character development.

Antonius Block wants to gain time for the couple to flee and time for him to go back to his mother. He loses the game, but he already knew he would've. He knows that the next time he'll see Death, it will be his last. It shows that, from his part, he has accepted the fact that he will die, and he knows that everyone else in his companionship apart from the couple don't have a reason to stay alive anymore. Jöns has given up on everything, and he himself has nothing more to live for. So, he tries to accept his own death while giving life to those who truly deserve and need it.

And yet, when the time comes, he's unable to accept it. He still leans back to pray in hopes that "God" will save him, if "God" exists. This poses the question how difficult is it to let go of faith that has overrun your whole life? You've given your whole life to your faith, maybe you've been indoctrinated by it. Even if you lose it, it never truly goes away, does it? It can definitely be inferred that, after everything Antonius Block saw, after seeing how cruelly the church treated the woman who was accused of being a witch, and after asking the accused witch whether or not she had seen the Devil, he, too, had left behind his faith. He had liberated himself from religion and his belief, but in the final moments, he still hoped for it. This says a lot about society and about generational trauma and indoctrination regarding religion. Even when someone has freed their own self from its grasp, is it really that easy to be free? Is all you need to do denounce it to rid yourself of this ideology that has loomed over your whole life? Ingmar Bergman believes it's not, and this is what Antonius Block represents.

The final scene is the dance macabre. A classic way in which death is symbolized in medieval literature and theater. Jof sees all of his friends dance away from the dawn, away from the light, and towards eternal darkness, which is Death. Yet, it's only in the distance. It's in the back of his mind, and Mia doesn't even see it. Art and love can shelter someone from death and suffering, and it has sheltered Jof, Mia and Mikael.

The movie has been criticized for being too unsubtle. Yeah, it might be one of the unsubtlest Ingmar Bergman works, but it goes without saying it's still a masterpiece. I could denounce this elitism in art anytime; why does everything need to be so sophisticated? Art doesn't need to be extremely deep or incomprehensible. Though, don't get me wrong, I do love more complicated pieces of media, and ones that need a LOT of analysis to actually understand, but appreciating such works does NOT mean denouncing any work that doesn't fit into those criteria. Does Bergman have better works? Yes. Does this cancel out the greatness of The Seventh Seal? No. I'd say it's quite the contrary; The Seventh Seal is the perfect movie to start for Bergman beginners, or for those who want to begin watching philosophical movies for the first time. So, no, I won't accept any kind of intellectually elitist criticism of this film (or any film, for that matter).

A beautiful yet complex movie. It is so easy for someone to watch a movie and seek answers. However, this movie does not give any answers. It poses questions. Questions that one must be willing to ponder in order to watch this movie. Brilliant cinematography combined with deeply philosophical themes, current even 67 years after the creation of the film. After all, this is what makes a beautiful work of art, isn't it? The provocation of thoughts and themes that transcend the context of its original time.

[luvinaeverdene]

Wild Strawberries (1957) Directed by Ingmar Bergman

[vintage-old-hollywood]

Ewa Aulin

[honkaigakuen]

persona x et mourir de plaisir

[haunted-library13]

January Plans 📰🛋️❄️

Books 📚:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Answer Is No by Fredrik Backman

Conceal, Don’t Feel by Jen Calonita

Films 🎥 :

A Man Called Ove dir. Hannes Holm

He Loves Me He Loves Me Not dir. Laëtitia Colombani

Moulin Rouge dir. Baz Luhrmann

My Octopus Teacher dir. Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed

[whosthatknocking]

Vargtimmen | Hour of The Wolf (1968), dir. Ingmar Bergman

[film-classics]

Greta Garbo - The Face of the Century

Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, Sweden on 18 September 1905) was a Swedish-born actress who built her global appeal on a carefully maintained mystique during her short career. Called "The Face of the Century," she is regarded as one of the Hollywood's greatest beauties.

Garbo was born into a poor family and dropped out of school at 13 to take care of her father. His death deeply affected her and promised to make a life for herself that was void of financial hardship.

Following her father's death, Garbo worked as a salesperson at PUB department store.  After modeling for the store's catalogues, she earned a more lucrative job as a fashion model, which led to a role in her first film in 1922.

She then earned a scholarship at the Royal Dramatic Training Academy, where she met Finnish director Mauritz Stiller, who became her mentor.  Louis B. Mayer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer wanted Stiller in Hollywood. The director agreed to a contract with one condition: Garbo. Reluctantly, Mayer inked her a deal, too.

She made her first MGM film in 1926, and by 1928, had become MGM's highest box-office star with A Woman of Affairs. She followed it up with several more hits, including Camille (1936). Her career slowed down in the 1940s and retired at 35.

After retiring, Garbo declined all opportunities to appear onscreen, shunned publicity, and led a private life. She died, aged 84, in a New York, as a result of pneumonia and renal failure.

Legacy:

Nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Romance (1930), Camille (1936), and Two-Faced Woman (1941)

Presented an Academy Honorary Award in 1955

Received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress twice: Anna Karenina (1935) and Camille (1936)

Won the National Board of Review Best Acting Award three times: Camille (1936), Ninotchka (1939), and Two-Faced Woman (1941)

Was the highest-paid star at MGM for most of her career

Won the Photoplay Awards - Best Performances of the Month for a record eight times: May and December 1926, February and November 1927, March and September 1928, and January and March 1929

Won Best Actress for Anna Christie (1930) and Queen Christina (1933) from Picturegoer Awards

Listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America’s top-10 box office draws from 1930 to 1932

Was one of the subjects of French composer Charles Koechlin's "Seven Stars Symphony" (1933)

Granted the Swedish royal medal Litteris et Artibus in 1937

Is one of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom in the “Secret Annex” in 1942

Voted "Best Actress of the Half Century" in a 1950 Daily Variety opinion poll

Named “the most beautiful woman that ever lived” in 1954 by Guinness World Records

Given the George Eastman Award by George Eastman House in 1957

Has appeared on many postage stamps from, among others, Swedish Posten in 1980 and 2005, Correos de Cuba in 1995, Deutsche Post in 2001, US Postal Service in 2005, Poșta Română issue in 2005, and Australia Post in 2008,

Made a Commander of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star by order of King Carl XVI Gustaf in 1983

Depicted in the film Garbo Talks (1984)

Awarded the Illis Quorum by the government of Sweden in 1985

Had a star was named after her in 1985

Has appeared on commemorative coins from Germany in 1994, France in 1995, and Sweden in 2005

Ranked #38 in Empire's Top 100 Movie Stars in 1997; #25 in Entertainment Weekly’s 100 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in 1998; #8 in Premiere's 50 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in 2005 and #25 in 100 Greatest Performances of All Time in 2006 for Ninotchka (1939)

Has had a museum, the Garbosällskapet, dedicated to her in Högsby since 1998

Named the 5th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema in 1999 by the American Film Institute

Inducted in the Online Film and Television Association Hall of Fame in 2002

Chosen in Variety magazine's "100 Icons of the Century" in 2005

Honored by Stockholm City Council in 1992 with a square, Greta Garbos Torg, and a bust of her likeness in 2009

Honored by Norwegian Air Shuttle as its "Tail-fin Hero" on its Boeing 787 Dreamliner in 2016

Featured on 100-krona banknote by Sveriges Riksbank since 2018

Featured in an exhibit at the Postmuseum in 2005, the Belmacz in 2013, the Fotografiska in 2016, the Staley-Wise Gallery in 2016, and Galerie56 in 2023

Honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for April 2019

Honored with a statue of her, "Statue of Integrity," in 2016, located in the forest in Härjedalen

Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Blvd for motion picture

[blacknarcissus]

Music in Darkness (1948)

[theaskew]