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Art Film in Scandinavia

Art Film in Scandinavia. Context Institutional Changes What’s an art film? Rough Distinctions among Art Films Some Scandinavian Auteurs Vilgot Sj öman (S) Bo Widerberg (S) Mikko Niskanen (SF) Henning Carlsen (DK) I am Curious, Yellow and Blue. Crisis in the Film Business.

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Art Film in Scandinavia

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  1. Art Film in Scandinavia • Context • Institutional Changes • What’s an art film? • Rough Distinctions among Art Films • Some Scandinavian Auteurs • Vilgot Sjöman (S) • Bo Widerberg (S) • Mikko Niskanen (SF) • Henning Carlsen (DK) • I am Curious, Yellow and Blue

  2. Crisis in the Film Business • Welfare State Growth • Production Crisis • Inflationary pressure on studios • Decreasing audience demand • Arrival of television, 1956 • Bergman as model • New generational attitudes • Italian neorealism • French New Wave • Anti-authoritarian politics of 1968 generation • Crisis in film production leads to arguments for support of national art cinema (1958-1965) Everyone’s Friend

  3. 1960s Cinema Debate Sweden & Finland • Critiques • Cinema is rarified • “Typicality” of production national cinema • Freshness necessary • Generational Attack • Demands • Necessity of independence from private financing • Relief from entertainment tax • Establishment of Film Institutes • Finnish Film, Year O (1961) • Jörn Donner • Scathing critique of financial interests effect on production • Call for purification of cinema • Looking to Sweden as a model Bo Widerberg (1930-97) (1933- )

  4. Film Laws of 1960s • Expanding welfare state institutions • Welfare state support of “Quality Art” • Ticket taxes benefit film institutes • Parliamentary appropriations • Funding mechanisms • Grants • Automatic funding schemes • Committee Grant model • Swedish Film Institute est. 1963 • 10% of exhibition proceeds fund institute • Grants and professionalized education • Funding by committee • Consultant Grant Model • First Danish Film Law, 1964 • Culture Minister’s Portfolio • Film Law, 1972 • Danish Film Institute • Consultants Danish Folketing Orion Theater, Helsinki Finnish National Film Archives Theater

  5. What is an art film? • Historical form of production • Precursors of art film • Silent cinema’s with literary production values • “Modernist” cinema (Dreyer’s Joan of Arc) • Potential of film art in richness of film medium • How does the art film differ from conventional narrative cinema? (Bordwell essay) • Deals with recognizably real problems • Psychological complexity of characters • Loose narrative linkage • Authorial intention organizes narrative • Authorship and art film become issues in viewing film • Auteur cinema Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) Epitome of the narrative art film, The Seventh Seal (Sjunde inseglet, 1957)

  6. Rough Distinctions in the Scandinavian Art Film • Two aspects of Scandinavian art film 1960s-1980s • “Narrative” art film • Subjective themes • Cinematic • Mise en scène • Studio continuities • “Political” art film • Social themes • Meta-cinematic • Editing • Hostility toward figurative studio system • Establish models for “serious film” 1960s-2000s • Auteur • Art film Vilgot Sjöman’s iconic political films, “I am Curious” (1967, ’68)

  7. Vilgot Sjöman (1924- ) • Novelist and “Bad Boy” of 1960s Swedish cinema • 491 (1964) • I am Curious Films • Jag är nyfiken—en film I gult (1967) • Jag är nyfiken—en film i blått (1968) • Search for trends and patterns in contemporary Swedish life • Confronting taboos • Highly “metafictional”—a film about making a documentary • US Struggle over I am Curious • Grove Press owner, Barney Rosset buys US film rights for 100K • Custom’s Seizure leads to Supreme Court case • $20 million receipts • Changes in US film industry Sjöman on the set of Jag är nyfiken-gul (I am Curious—Yellow)

  8. Bo Widerberg (1930-1997) • Author and film critic • Visionen i svensk film (1961) • Critique • ‘Bergman and Nature’ • Need to get out of bloated system • Guerilla filmmaking • Small films • Small crew • Labor Films • Ådalen ‘31 • Dramas • Elvira Madigan (1967) • Genre and Critique • Man on the Roof (1976) • Man from Mallorca (1984) Bo Widerberg

  9. Mikko Niskanen (1929-1990) Mikko Niskanen in Eight Deadly Shots (1972) • Political Director • Soviet training • Most influential Finnish auteur • Career 1960s-1970s • Voice of new generation • Transformation of agrarian world into modern iron cage • Portraits of young people’s lives in transition • Location shooting and authenticity • Under your skin (Käpy selän alla, 1966)

  10. The Auteur and Hunger • Henning Carlsen (1927- ) • The subjective novel—Hamsun’s project • How to represent the role of the protagonist? • Self-overcoming individual • Unreliable narrator • Structure of the novel • Repetition • Uncertainty • Significance of literary adaptation in Scandinavian Cinema • Prestige • Art Per Oscarsson

  11. Conclusion • Crisis in Scandinavian Cinema • Emergence of new mode of film production • Range of political and aesthetic texts broadened • Intellectually interesting, commercially dubious • What is the political-economy of this system?

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