Now I’m not going to waste your time telling you about these smutty little movies or divulging into some pseudo analysis of narrative and characters, because that’s not gonna happen, despite how interesting it might have been. Instead, I’d like to tell you about these smutty little movies and why they should be part of your collection.
Naked Scandinavians, funky soundtracks, pristine restored prints, come on it’s fun!
If you like movies in the Swedish Sin fold, then these will be right up your street. Not only is Ta mig i dalen (Girl on Her Knees) 1977 the last of Swedish sexploitation king, Torgny Wickman’s movies - his importance is so understated in the annals of Swedish history - but it’s also a movie that shows the break between kinky soft sexploitation and the start of the deep end. One frisky take on the ways of life on a farm. Think Emmerdale with a healthy lashing of shagging, Yes Emmerdale and shagging, because Chris Chittell, who plays Eric Pollard in British countryside institution Emmerdale Farm since 1984 to now, starred in Ta mig i dalen as Richard.
Chittell appears under the stage name Charles Canyon that he used on all three of the Swedish blue movies he starred in. Ta mig i dalen was the second for Wickman - the first being The Intruder (Swedish Sex Games) against eminent stars such as Stellan Skarsgård in 1975, and Mac Ahlberg’sMolly (Sex in Sweden) 1977 against Marie Forså and Eva Axén… yes the same Eva Axén who get stabbed in the gut in the start of Dario Argento’sSuspiria 1977. See the Swedish Sin is our version of Six degrees of Kevin Bacon, everything in Sweden connects back to the Sin flicks.
Fans of doe eyed starlet, Christina Lindberg, might want to give Swedish/Danish co-production Nyckelhålet (The Keyhole)1974 a gander, as the leading lady of that movie, Marie Ekorre, is definitely a worthy competitor for the title of queen of Swedish Sin, and here in her first leading role. You may have seen her in bit parts in Arne Mattsson’s still missing from a decent release masterpiece, Smutsiga Fingrar (Dirty Fingers) 1973, or Mac Ahlberg’s Jorden runt med Fanny Hill (Around the World with Fanny Hill) 1974, in which she co-starred as a fashion model with none other than Ms. Lindberg.
I’m happy to see distributor KlubbSuper8 return from a lengthy hiatus, as they are an important part of preserving Swedish cinematic heritage – come on, there’s so much more to Swedish cinema than Ingmar Bergman, and if you are a frequent reader you will know that I hold no grudge to Bergman and the fantastic legacy he left us with, but I do have issues with the shadows he casts upon the rest of Swedish cinematic history.
But where the spotlight really should be directed on these current releases is that the new titles – unlike the previous releases – all have English subtitles so that fans of Swedish Sin outside of Sweden can enjoy the dialogue too! But that’s not all, because if you take the time to go through the extra features, you will find, rare press materials, production documents, short movies, tons of trailers, and deleted scenes! Who the hell seeks out deleted scenes from an old skin flick? Yes, the dedicated troops of KlubbSuper8, and that's the kind of enthusiasm that I can admire!
The release of Ta Mig I Dalen is something of a treasure trove of lost material as they have also assembled the remaining material of Wickman’s never completed 1975 film Drömdoktorn (The Dream Doctor). After finding Wickman’s original shooting script and the uncut original negative, KS8, have reassembled the movie, which was discarded when the camera broke after 70% of the movie was in the can. This painstaking feat took two years of hard work to reassemble, and bring to life. Think about that the next time you rush through the special features on your discs, there’s someone who’s dedicated hours of hard work to get that on there. But it doesn’t stop there, because there’s also three tracks composed by George Riedell and Janne Schaffer.
Nyckelhålet also has its share of extras, not only a remastered version but also enclosed is a shoddy dodgy American grindhouse version complete with trashy film grain and shoddy tracking distortions. But keep in mind friends this is the real deal, no contemporary digital effects tampering, but authentic trashy grindhouse quality. And to make your acquaintance with Ms. Ekorre more pleasurable, there’s the gallery of her gentlemen magazine photographs for you.
Among the last batch of releases you can also find Blåjackor (Sailors) an Arne Mattsson musical from 1964, Bengt Blomgren’s moral dilemma drama Hällebäcks Gård 1961 (with the recently deceased Sif Ruud) where modern technology and lost love cause serious problems on the farm… without people shagging each other.
Finally the last release of this batch is another lost movie salvaged by KlubSuper8, Arne Ragneborn’s presumed lost forever anti-drinking propaganda movie Paradiset from 1955. On the bonus features here’ you’ll find interviews with colleagues, friends and co-workers who discuss just what a badass Ragneborn really was. Of the five movies he directed the most of them ended up being banned as they all dealt with topics like violence, criminality and the ever-popular Swedish pastime alcoholism… you have seen Luigi Scattini’s 1968 documentary Svezia, inferno e paradise (Sweden: Heaven and Hell)haven’t you?
Now for overseas or, “utanför tullarna” readers, I can see that this might be a tad on the narrow side even for you (not the skin flicks of course), but if you do live in Sweden then you should be picking these up anyways because these movies all have a part to play in our cinematic heritage, and if nothing else we should support KlubSuper8 as they have some really interesting titles hidden away for future releases, and we don’t want them vanish before the Dante movie or those fantastic Calvin Floyd movies are released now do we?
I’d suggest that you pop over to KlubbSuper8 and roam their web shop for some great movies filled with superb extras! Go get some!
If I ever had to single out a bunch of Swedish Exploitation flicks for an uninitiated fellow cineaste, then this would be among the few selected. The movies of Arne Mattson and Bo A. Vibenius in all respect, but Torgny Wickman’sSkräcken har 1000 Ögon (literally, Fear has 1000 Eyes) is one of my favourite Swedish exploitation flicks. Not because it ‘s very scary, neither is it especially erotic either, (there’s more nudity on the TV these days) but I dig it because it holds a magnificent ambience, it is a great document of a very special time in cinematic history and is pretty dammed near the witchcraft/occult/ exploitation flicks that directors like Renato Polselli and Luigi Batazella where churning out a few years later. Perhaps mostly recognised for his 1969 shock/documentary/educational/explicit study Kärlekens Språk (The Language of Love) 1969, Wickman'sSkräcken har 1000 Ögon is something completely different, and the first ever attempt at combing eroticism with horror produced in Sweden.
Starting with a close up of dripping blood and the words “I hereby dedicate myself to the devil!” being written with the blood there’s a tone set for the movie which gets right to the point, there’s no need fiddling about and wondering what the heck this movie is going to be about, as it’s all there in an awesome opening sequence. The movie contains a fair deal of witchcraft, occult references and the complementary nudity to go with pagan rituals is all there. But for the most of the time there is more to be asked for, like a short scene where the village doctor’s x-ray plates show one of the villagers wearing an inverted cross. We already know who it is, Hedvig, and there’s nothing made of the find but a shallow “Do you see what I see? An inverted cross!” And there’s no name on the plates…” remarked by the Doctor and his staff. It’s opportunities like this that make the story feel somewhat wasted. Never the less the movie is quite fun anyhow, and sometimes you don’t need a perfect story to enjoy a movie. Especially if the movie holds a great atmosphere, has a splendid cast and a fabulous score to keep the mood flowing.
Sven [Hans Wahlgren] is a vicar in a small village in Sweden, he and his pregnant wife Anna [Anita Sanders, who had a short career in Italy and held both smaller and larger roles in movies by Fellini, Pasolini, Tinto Brass, Alberto De Martino and Pupi Avati] return home from a trip to Spain to be greeted by Sven’s aunt, Barbro [Barbro Hjort af Ornäs, who not only stared in many Swedish erotica movies (keeping her clothes on of course) but also acted in several Bergman movies too] Shortly after, their friend and maid Hedwig [the stunning Solveig Andersson] moves in with them. Andersson who you may have seen in the leading role of Wickman’s previous film Eva – den utstötta 1969 (Eva: Swedish and Underage), which also featured Wahlgren, and Hjort af Ornäs. She can also be seen as Christina Lindberg’s bordello mate in Bo A. Vibenius extraordinary Thriller – En Grym Film 1974 (Thriller - A Cruel Picture, Aka They Call Her One Eye)
Anna is suffering from her pregnancy, she can’t sleep and she’s having strange visions, and hasn’t slept for ages. She can’t stand lying next to Sven who sleeps like a baby all through the night. Hedwig starts her manipulation on a small scale suggesting that Sven could sleep in the library as to let Anna rest in peace. Obviously Anna suggests this to Sven who without any major objections gathers up his stuff and shuffles into the guestroom. Needless to say Anna turns up in her sexiest nightgown (definitely a Jean Rollin moment if ever there was one...) and after seductively slipping it off glides into his bed for a hefty session of lovemaking… but is it really Anna?
The movie ponders on; Hedwig seduces both Anna and Sven. In between sessions of seduction she’s tormenting Anna with fake visions, like the great scene where she exchanges the ordinary baby leggings that Anna is knitting for a three legged version! Anna find’s it screams and faints. The sinister Hedwig, switches back to he ordinary pair and claims that Anna imagined it all. To make things worse Hedwig keeps a bunch of self crafted Voodoo dolls that she uses to torment Anna, and even drives Barbro to her untimely death as she discovers Hedvig’s hidden past. Even the warm homely bread gets used as an ominous tool of Hedvig’s witchcraft. The seduction/mind games progresses until the threesome have a full-blown orgy after Barbro’s funeral where Hedwig going all in makes Sven smash a crucifix and then carves an inverted cross on the naked torso of Anna.
Plot wise the movie is in shambles. In at nutshell the problem is that there is never any real value at stake, Hedwig has no apparent agenda. She just sells her soul to the devil, seduces Anna and Sven the Vicar and goes about corrupting them, which also kind of fails, Anna leaves the house by her own free will with out any major obstacles but crawling up on the kitchen sink. Sure Sven smashes a crucifix and chucks it on the fire to keep them warm during the final orgy, and he’s already been unfaithful to his wife with the Seductive witch, but it’s not of free will as he’s put under Hedvig’s spell and has no recollection of the incidents at all when the firemen pull him from the burning vicarage. There’s never a conscious decision to abandon his faith as its all Hedvig’s doing. The same goes for Hedwig, she never really has that agenda written out, apart from selling herself to do the devils work. But opportunity is there, even though it is completely ignored by Wickman in his script. Was she planning on taking Anna’s child? Did she want to corrupt the vicar? Or what? We never know as the movie ends with the naked Hedwig laughing at the fire brigade and police officers outside the burning rectory, during their feeble efforts. It’s a strange and confusing ending. Neither do any of Hedvig's foes really make any honest threat to her, she easily manipulates Anna into believing that she’s going insane, and every other major threat is taken care of in the next scene. Sure she kills off her antagonists, but that’s all she does, there’s no build or suspense created around it.
Supposedly Wickman based his screenplay on a series of events that happened in a small rural village where he spent his childhood, and that could be the case, there’s nothing to prove the opposite.
Now perhaps the movie doesn’t make much of an impression with today’s standards, as it solemnly finds a spot somewhere in between the nudie-cuties/ roughies of Doris Wishman, Russ Meyer, George Harrison Marks and the wave of innovative porno chic movies that where to be produced a few years later, both in Sweden and outside it. The novelty of porno chic decimated the demand for soft erotic imagery; especially as full hardcore could be seen on the big screen in almost every major city. But there is a certain charming innocence to these movies of the past as they explore how far they can go without crossing the border. Ironically they could have gone much further with the events about to take place.
Skräcken har 1000 Ögon was one of the first really genre specific movies out of Sweden that I saw many years ago after a dear friend gave me a few VHS tapes with Swedish titles he demanded that I watch. (This guy was amazing at locating former starlets of the seventies and getting interviews with them for the magazine we used to work for back then. Christina Lindberg was one of them he profiled in the magazine. He’s still a, finger on the pulse guy, currently working for one of the leading Swedish movie magazines.)
I had always ignored Swedish film, apart from the mandatory; Ingmar Bergman, Vilgot Sjöman and Victor Sjöström, so these tapes really blew me away! Watching stuff like Bo A. VibeniusThriller – En Grym Film 1974, Arne Mattson’sSmutsiga Fingrar 1973 (Dirty Fingers) and Wickman’sSkräcken har 1000 Ögon 1970, opened my eyes to a complete new world in my own backyard. Yes backyard, as these movies where shot in and around Stockholm, and a ten-minute walk from where I lived at the time. And the basic fact that these movies where shot in the same studios as Bergman used is exhilarating. I’ve said before that a whole bunch of Swedish directors vanished under the shadow of Bergman’s marvel, and that’s where you find these guys.
Although I’m sure that VHS version of Skräcken har 1000 Ögon was longer and contained more nudity, and it’s often rumoured that there was a longer print, which could partially be responsible for the erroneously quoted 99 minute run time. But for there to be an additional almost half-hour there has to be a whole load of stuff missing, I’m only missing a few longer scenes of seduction, especially the one where Sven pulls the wig of Anna only to reveal Hedvig. Then again there could be a whole lot of shagging in 26 minutes of missing footage so perhaps that rumoured longer version could have contained the sex Wickman was accustomed to directing. It’s a teasing thought, but producer Inge Ivarsson says in the interview featured on the disc that he had to hold Wickman on a short leash so that the “erotic” elements didn’t get out of hand. So presumably the longer print is a figment of wishful thinking, and if there were an extra half hour of skin and smut, the movie probably wouldn’t have faded into oblivion shortly after it’s release.
What I find so fascinating about the movie is how obvious the Sweden + Nudity + Horror epithet worked so well as a marketing banner. According to producer Inge Ivarsson the movie regained all it’s costs on the international market alone, which he also claims was the prime target audience for these flicks and the two words Swedish Erotica will even today receive a joyful grin from people acquainted with the genre. There was a huge market for Swedish erotica overseas, and recently this retro niche has been rediscovered with the advent of DVD. I think it would be fair to claim that starlet’s of the seventies, like Christina Lindberg for an instance, have a larger fan base now then all those years ago. Well perhaps not the same kind of fan base at least.
Yeah, in many ways The movie is a kind of cute and innocent flick, and all credit has to go to Wickman and Ivarsson who at least tried to create the first erotic horror ever produced in Sweden, and I say cute in the context to Wickman’s previous movies like Kärlekens Språk and Eva - Den Utstötta and his later ones, as he just like so many other directors that had been dabbling in erotica, ended up directing full blown porno’s at the end of his career. Also to that discussion there’s the fact of the casts of these movies. There are many really great well known and recognizable actors seen through out these movies, many beloved Swedish faces and names, even though there’s some nudity and erotic subplots going on. Even a few international Swedish stars, Stellan Skarsgård to name the most renown of them all, participated in these movies. There’s almost the same type of mentality as the Japanese actors took when they where only offered pinku roles during the pinku era of Japanese Cinema. They took it at face value, a job is a job and you do the work that is requested of you as an actor. This is quite an admirable approach to your acting career, as a few years later actors in movies containing eroticism and sexually graphic imagery where considered porn actors and that brings a complete different set of luggage with it. Eroticism to enhance your story, and a story to motivate your eroticism is one thing, but when fuck scenes after fuck scenes are all that your movie is about it’s no longer interesting
Finally the biggest surprise of the film comes with the soundtrack! The score that Mats Olsson put together for this one is a fantastically suave new-Jazz groove strut that definitely could have been found on Italian Giallo and Poliziceotti flicks of the time. Great stuff that someone should re-release some day, it’s a winner to say the least.
Image: Originally shot in 1,66:1, but brought into some kind of semi 4:3 full screen in the scan.
Audio: Swedish dialogue, Mono. Unfortunately as I have whined about before no subtitles at all are available on the KlubbSuper8 DVD’s.
Extras: Bolmört i mitt öra (Henbane in My Ear - the intended original title), a nine minute short interview with producer IngeIvarsson and Klinga Wickman about he movie and the actors. A few deleted scenes (once again perhaps from that legendary longer version?) unfortunately without any audio, a whole load of still from the movie and behind the scenes, Biographies for cast and crew and theatrical trailers for Fear has 1000 Eyes 1970, Anita 1973, and Kärlekens XYZ 1971 also available from KlubbSuper8.com
Aka My Love and I, aka Obsession Sweden, 1964 Thriller, 106 min. Distributed by: KlubbSuper8
Story: A middle aged man takes a walk on Kungsleden, a trail that goes through the Northern Swedish highlands. A trail he previously walked ten years ago with his girlfriend Leni. That trip ended in the couple calling off their relationship and each going their separate ways… Even though it was a decade ago he last saw her, the man can’t forget Leni, the only woman he has ever loved, and the further through the trail he gets the more confused he becomes over what really did happen all those years ago on Kungsleden…
Me: A trippy, enigmatic and amazing flick to say the least. There’s a fair amount of these splendid Swedish gems from the sixties/seventies with directors like Torgny Wickman, Arne Mattson and Bo Arne Wibenius to name a few, showcasing some awesome themes, great imagery, fabulous women and suggestive movies in the wake of Ingmar Bergman’s art house recognition. Most of them where already established national auteurs’ that unfortunately got stood standing in the shadow that I feel Bergman held over loads of Swedish filmmakers for a very very long time.
Director Gunnar Höglund had previously written scripts in the romantic drama area using the topic of lost love in the 1952 movie Han Glömde Henne Aldrig (aka Memory of Love) Kungsleden also builds off the themes of lost love, as “You” [Mattias Henriksson] (“You”, yeah that’s the only name he ever gets in the 106 long movie) walks his trail looking for that long lost girlfriend that he walked away from all those years. The movie flagged the tagline: “A Romantic Thriller” which is rather a bold statement I feel, because the movie is indeed a thriller, but there little or next to no romance within. Tomas Seidevall, the responsible publisher of the KlubbSuper8 DVD's, once told me that the movie could be looked upon as a Fight Club in the Mountains, and after watching the movie I really agree, it is like a Fight Club in the Mountains. The movie is very existential as “You” searches for something during his walks over marshes, crosses rapids, and climbs mountains, pondering the mysteries of his life. It should have been called an Existential Thriller instead, which would have been a much better, because the movie is existential to claim the least. And this is set right from the start with an extremely weird surreal opening sequence where a subjective scene of a woman (It’s Leni, [Maude Adelson] the long lost love, we will understand in a few moments) saying that they can’t continue anymore, not after “that”. The camera pans away and starts walking towards the mountains, stops and looks back at her, who replies with a shake of the head. A no is a no. The camera pans away again and once again walks away from her into the wilderness. Then a sharp cut to a close-up of Leni’s face turning to face the camera, gone is the openness of the mountain range, and instead a claustrophobic darkness surrounds her, and for each time she turns her face towards the camera her facial expressions change. From happy to lustful to scared to blank. And after that rather strange set up (which I’ll get back to later on) the title sequence starts. “You” walks the starting trail and pretty soon he starts seeing and hearing stuff that has him remembering his hike ten years earlier with Leni. Enter the flashbacks. Kungsleden relies heavily on flashbacks that run parallel to the main narrative to tell the tale of what happened ten years back as “You” did the walk with his love Leni. Some are confusing, and some are magnificent. In one the use of crashing porcelain brings us back from a confrontation between the two agitated lovers to the somber “You” left in awe as it all starts coming back to him. It’s a great sequence that is excellently composed. Anyhow, quite quick Leni comes across as a pretty unsympathetic character. She isn’t very nice to “You” as she taunts him when he’s afraid to cross the bridge over the rapids, she teases him at bedtime, she makes fun of him when he awkwardly rolls on a condom before they have sex, she mocks him when he falls into the rive they are crossing, she scolds him when he is fascinated by the Lapps violent marking of their reindeer herds comparing it to the Nazi’s number tattooing of WW2, she laughs at him when he tries to make advances on her, she provokes him when he gets jealous that she’s bathing in the nude and flirting with the strangers that she meets on the mountain, and to top it all off she ignores his hurt emotions and goes out for coffee with the Lapp she just met moments ago instead of staying with the distraught “You”. So no, she isn’t a very likeable character. She annoyed the hell out of me to say the least. But then “You”, who hasn’t been a very considerate character either, rather the opposite, a pretty silly, weak person, overthrows the tables when he misreads the signals and rapes Leni, pushing her further away from him than ever before.
So in the past part of the movie, neither character is especially empathetic, but for some strange reason the older “You” evokes empathy. Those lines uttered by Leni in the flashback before the title sequence, “It’s impossible; you must know that, not now. Perhaps in Ten years time when we both have grown older…” are repeated over and over again as well as the sensory reminders of Leni, the scent of myrrh that she washes her hair with, her questioning of local fauna, the things one remembers from the old times. Which gives some sort of nobility to “You” and his quest for the love he once lost. We still do not know what happened, and as the flashback narrative tells us of the past, we are drawn in by the forward movement of the present narrative because those ten years have passed and we feel that “You” should be redeemed and reunited if possible with Leni. And when the imaginary indicators start turning into reality, Leni’s name in the cabin logbook, the myrrh scent on the pillows, the still burning fire, it all adds to the forward movement as we realize that Leni too has returned to Kungsleden, and if she has returned she may quite well be looking for “You” just as he searches for her. Deep inside of our exploitation loving hearts we are all suckers for a happy ending.
Then the Höglund and Bosse Gustafsson (who wrote the original novel and co-wrote the script with Höglund) throw us a curveball as they show us what happened all those years ago, how “You” driven by his jealousy, guilt from raping Leni and fear of rejection takes drastic actions. Actions so terrible that they still haunt him like the day they occurred. The movie grows very dark and harrowing from this moment. Mentally the older “You” relives in his older state how he buries Leni on the mountain, stumbles into a dark cabin and sees the younger version of himself tossing and turning in post murder angst in the cot on the other side of the room, and finally he has terrifying nightmares as the past catches up with him. (There are also glimpses of a possible accident scenario to add to the confusion) The next morning “You” awakens and meets “The Other” [Lars Lind] who is sharing the room with him, a man possibly ten years his senior, who tells him a strange story about the mountains and how time has no influence there. “You” agrees confusedly and remarks that his watch has stopped since he got on Kungsleden, before he notices (or has visions, jus like the visions of Leni earlier on that lead him to the flashbacks) items that used to belong to Leni, her camera rolls and her scarf… “You” becomes convinced that “The Other” was Leni’s killer and follows him up into the high mountains struggling up sharp rocks and harsh mountain faces just too confront “The Other” with his theories. “The Other” laughs at his accusations, and the fact that “You” suffering from severe vertigo is cowering on a small ledge. Never the less, “The Other” pities “You” and offers to help him down the mountain, even though he’s just accused him of being a murderer. “You” climbs down, but snags the rope on a ledge, and when “The Other” instructs him to loosen the cord he yanks it, sending “The Other” falling down the face of the mountain to his death. “You” gathers strength, climbs down the mountain and without finding the body of “The Other” starts hiking back to civilization. End credits roll…
Now how the hell do you interpret this strange and bizarre movie? Well here’s my take and answers to the clues hidden without the flick. The opening shots of Leni shot from “You’s” point of view and the series of close-ups on her face; well this is in a nutshell the movie isn’t it! The rejection is what drove “You” into his personal hell, and when Leni’s face goes from happy as in the start and finally to the dead face of the drowned Leni in the end represents her journey in four quick shots. Obviously “You” is chasing himself; his own guilt drives him into the mountains searching for answers, as he tries to redeem himself for the events that took place there.
That ending when “The Other” falls from the cliff and there’s no body to be found… Here’s my interpretation; “The Other” is “You” as an older man! Stick with me now, because this is going to get heavy. Remember that dialogue between “The Other” and “You” the morning after his nightmare? “The Other” points out that time means nothing in the mountains. Things that happened years ago could just as easy have happened a few days ago, and vice versa… Then together with that voice over just after the title sequence, that warns not to leave the trails with the words “As long as you wander here on the paths nothing can happen to you…” Well if you pay attention you will notice that “You” cuts his cheek just as he sets foot on solid ground again… hence creating the cut that the middle age version of “You” has had on his face all through out the movie. Time does stand still, the young, middle age and older “You” have never left Kungsleden, he’s trapped there, damned to walk the Kungsleden for all eternity. But when he come face to face with the reality he has been neglecting he is freed, you could say that he redeems himself by creating an imaginary him that killed Leni. By killing himself to live he has now found peace and the last scene before the masters hot of him walking away shows his watch now ticking once again.
Kungsleden is a confusing, strange and facinating movie that definitely is a showcase for Mattias Henriksson who portrays both the middle age and young “You” to such perfection that I on more than one occasion was convinced that it was two different actors. Henriksson stared in a few more movies before ending up playing bit parts in TV serials for the remains of his career, a shame on such a promising actor. But once again there’s that looming shadow of Bergman that I started out talking about.
Apart from the hazy wide shots of desolate landscapes, Kungsleden uses an even stranger soundtrack to add to the mystery. Remember Gene Moore’s evocative Wurlitzer score for Herk Havey’s 1962 Carnival of Souls? Well imagine that on a Hammond organ and you have Karl-Erik Welin’s equally disturbing score for Kungsleden. But all in all it adds up for a really surreal, haunting and enjoyable movie.
Höglund followed up Kungsleden with the 1969 Swedish Sin classic …som havets nakna vind (Aka One Swedish Summer) which caused outrage at the censors, and became known as the “most scolded intercourse movie” for it’s explicit content. If this is what made it sell to over forty countries outside of Sweden I will let go untold, but controversial criticism always adds a fair amount of interest for new titles doesn’t it. Next he directed the raunchy sex comedy Som hon bäddar får han ligga (aka Do You Believe in Swedish Sin?). Both films are available from the guys at KlubbSuper8, and his last directorial effort, the splendid kid’s detective/thriller Dante – Akta-re för Hajen! (Aka Dante, Beware of the Shark!) which I have fond memories of watching as a kid back in the golden age of VCR, is on their TBA list along with the interrelationship melodrama Vill så gärna tro’t (aka Want so Much to Believe) where Christina Scholin falls in love with Robert Nash! Groovy stuff to keep an eye open for or pick up what’s available already now.
Image: 1:16.66, color.
Audio: Mono, Swedish dialogue, sometimes English with Swedish subtitles burned in. Unfortunately there are no English subtitles, on any of the KlubbSuper8 titles except for Sweden Heaven and Hell, which is a pity as they should subtitle them, so fans of wild and wonderful cinema outside of Sweden can enjoy the gems in their catalogue.
Extras: A short reel showing the pressbook and poster art for Kungsleden, and trailers for Kungsleden, Aldrig med min kofot, Anaconda, Drrapå –kul grej påväg till Götet, Flamman, Jangada, Johan på snippen, Johan på snippen tar hem spelet, Linje sex, Mord i Marstrand, and Morianerna all available from KlubbSuper8.
Sorry no trailer as KlubbSuper8 haven't upploaded one yet and the only one available encourages you to download the movie, and that is just wrong isn't it. :)
Kärlekens Språk Directed by; Torgny Wickman, Sweden, 1969 Documentary / Drama, 98 min Distributed by: Klubb Super8 Video
Story: Four scientists, Inge & Sten Hegler, Maj-Britt Bergström-Walan and Sture Cullhed, specialising in sexual studies get together in an apartment to smoke and discuss human sexuality.
Me: One of the great Swedish classics with out any doubt. Banned in Norway for being too explicit, confiscated by the UScustoms and entangled in a 20 month long court case before it finally was acquitted, forcing Sir Cliff Richard lead a demonstration of 30.000 enraged Englishmen to protest against this piece of filth, you know it has to be something that makes an impression. According to rumour the movie was so strong that it made the head of the Swedish censorship board take three days off from work after seeing it. Ok, so by today’s’ standards it mostly just a laugh and pretty harmless. You’ve seen more explicit stuff on Discovery Channel and you won’t hear or see anything you didn’t already know before watching it. Unless you are a fucking virgin who has been living in a cave for the last thirty years. But thirty-seven years ago it was one of the first movies where visual and graphical acts of sexuality where seen on the big screen, and a seven foot vagina is enough to scare anyone. The set up, the doctors talking and discussing sexual behaviour is safe enough; they talk about sexuality, what it is and how it affects the human body. They illustrate various behaviours with a few tongue in cheek sketches with titles like Communication failures, Male vanity etc. The sketches move from fully clothed to semi nude and some skin is on screen after nine minutes. Then they work their way over to how the human body works, and this is where the fleshy bits get into shot. Both through animated illustrations showing how the body works and graphically detailed close-ups of human genitals. Male and female, no gender discrimination here. Foreplay, intercourse, birth control, they go through everything here in fully illustrated meaty close-ups. But don’t be ashamed my friends, nope, just remind yourself that this is a documentary, there’s nothing to be ashamed of! You have to hand it to Torgny Wickman and producer Inge Ivarson for actually making and getting this weird piece of celluloid on screen at all, even though it claims to be a documentary you can’t escape the fact that it is an exploitation cinema classic. I also have to point out that this movie is supposedly under its US title “Swedish Marriage Manual” the film that DeNiro takes Cybill Shepherd to see in Scorcese’s Taxi Driver 1976 but even though they walk into the cinema under a billboard promoting Swedish Marriage Manual. But that movie is not Kärlekens Språk, even though it makes for a great anecdote.
Image: Full frame 1:1.37. Digitally remastered from a restored 35mm print the film looks. There are a few scratches and noise here and there, but that just works with the movie. No subtitles.
Audio: Swedish dialogue with a mono soundtrack, and if you buy this movie you’re not buying it to test your surround system anyhow are you?
Extras: An eighteen minute retrospective with producer Inge Ivarson and Maj-Britt Bergström-Walan look back on the movie and its impact. A five minute photo gallery with images never seen before, from the shoot and the set. Film facts, biographies for Inge Ivarson, Maj-Britt Bergström-Walan and director Torgny Wickman. Also included are four hot trailers for other Klubb Super8 releases.
You have to applaud the guys at Klubb Super8, who for the past decade have been organising shows, hosting and visiting film festivals, keeping the wild and weird stuff on Swedish cinema screens. Through them I have personally had some of my best cinema experiences. For fucks sake how would I otherwise have ever been able to see Night of the Living Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Undertaker and his Pals and Evil Dead on the big screen? Actually get to meet Dave Friedman in the flesh or even see Flesh for Frankenstein uncut in 3D in with my wife in a Swedish cinema? No these guys are the real deal, after releasing Swedish rarities on VHS for several years they have taken an ambitious step into the world of DVD adding everything that they can get their hands on and digging out the lost stars behind these gems. Kärlekens Språk is the first of their titles and previewing the future releases to come these guys need all the support we exploitation fans can give them. Get out there and buy there discs right away.