The image of Sweden
Congratulations Sweden! The Swedish state turns 500 years old, and in a series of texts on the theme “Image of Sweden”, we focus on different depictions of Sweden and the Swedes in culture.
Arne Mattson’s “Hon dansade en sommar” (1951) showed an unmarried couple under a love forest and a pair of bare breasts. It was enough to start a reputation for Swedes as the most liberated people in the world. In the USA, the nude scenes were cut, but in Germany “Hon dansade…” became the first Swedish film to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival. Two years later, Ingmar Bergman set fire to the image of Swedes as released.
Sentenced to prison
“Summer with Monika” (1953) with Lars Ekborg and Harriet Andersson took place in the Swedish archipelago, with pleasure and nude bathing. In the US, the film was cut down to enhance the “naked shock” and renamed “Monika – the story of a bad girl”. On opening night in Los Angeles, the theater manager was busted by police and the distributor was fined $750 and jailed for 90 days.
In 1955, Sweden became the first in the world to teach sexuality in schools. Perhaps it was the last straw for Time Magazine’s reporter Joe David Brown, who that same year wrote a report with the title “Sin and Sweden” – outraged by the Swedes’ relaxed attitude to sex, abortions and the church.
The article came at the same time as the horror of the Cold War, and the Swedish sin was claimed to be a result of the pampering of the socialist state.
“From the language of love” (1969) became a new milestone. Torgny Wickman mixed sex scenes with clinical conversations with sex whistleblowers and the film provoked heated anger abroad. 30,000 Londoners went out and demonstrated before the premiere.
According to Aftonbladet 26/9 1971 there were posters with the text “Sweden – more porn, more suicides, more alcoholism and more gonorrhea every year”.
The director Vilgot Sjöman and Lena Nyman made a scandalous success in the 60s with the leftist message and the nude scenes in the film “I’m curious – yellow”. Stock image. Mailer impressed
“From the Language of Love” went through a 20-month legal process in the United States after the film was seized at customs. Maj-Briht Bergström-Walan, who was Sweden’s first authorized sexologist, was allowed to testify. After an appeal to the Supreme Court, the film was acquitted in Washington in 1971. In the same year, pornography became legal in Sweden, the second country in the world after Denmark.
A similar dispute with US censorship affected Vilgot Sjöman’s “I’m curious – yellow” (1967), which then became a great success in American cinemas. The mix of documentary, metafilm and fiction, left-wing politics and nudity led writer Norman Mailer to call it “One of the most important films I’ve seen in my entire life”.
The Swedish gay porn was simultaneously exported, with titles that referred to Sweden. For example “Swedish sex games” (1974), “One swedish summer” (1968) and “Anita – swedish nymphet” (1972).
‘Thriller’ inspired ‘Kill Bill’
Since pornography became increasingly available in the rest of the world, the Swedish sin has lived on old merits. Director Quentin Tarantino was inspired for Uma Thurman’s avenger in “Kill Bill” (2003) by Chistina Lindquist’s character from “Thriller – a grim film” (1973) – about a young woman who is forced into prostitution and takes bloody revenge on her pimp.
Tarantino also mentioned “Curious – Yellow” in the novel version of “Once upon a time in Hollywood” (2022). In one chapter, the stuntman and film geek Cliff Booth (played by Brad Pitt in the film) goes to the cinema and is impressed by the sex scene between Lena Nyman and Börje Ahlstedt for its unusual realism. He especially appreciates the hasty cleaning before the act.