Movies - Cinema of Sweden

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	Movies - Cinema of Sweden

Swedish cinema is one of the most widely-known national cinemas in the world, and certainly the most prominent of Scandinavia. This is largely due to the popularity and prominence of the directors Ingmar Bergman, Victor Sjöström, and more recently Lasse Hallström.

Early Swedish Cinema

Swedish filmmaking rose to international prominence with the founding of Svenska Biografteatern in 1912, which had two star directors: Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller. Stiller was responsible for the early popularity of Greta Garbo, particularly through the film The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924). Many of the films made at the Biografteatern had a significant impact on German directors of the silent and early sound eras, largely because Germany was cut off from French, British, and American influences through World War I.

In the mid-twenties, both of these directors and Garbo moved to the United States to work for MGM, bringing Swedish influence to Hollywood, where he made some of his most well-known films there (most notably The Wind
(1928). The departure of the two directors left a vacuum in Swedish cinema, which went into a financial crisis consequently. Sjöström returned to Sweden in 1928, where he made two more films.

The advent of the talking movie at the beginning of the 1930s brought about a financial stabilization for Swedish cinema, but artistic and international ambitions were sacrificed for this financial success. Some provincial comedies were filmed that were created for the local market.

Characteristics of Swedish cinema

Swedish films, and Scandinavian films in general, are known for stark landscapes and slow pacing. The playwright August Strindberg has dominated much of the filmmaking in Sweden, largely because of the close ties there between the film industry and the live theater industry.

Swedish cinema through WWII

During the second world war Swedish cinema gained artisticly, mainly due to the directors Gustaf Molander and Alf Sjöberg. Cinema had to perform the task of psychological defence during the war.

Postwar

The most famous and influential Swedish filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman, rose to prominence in the fifties. He began making films in the mid-forties, and in 1955, he made Smiles of a Summer Night
, which brought him international attention. A year later, he made one of his most famous films, The Seventh Seal
. In the 1960s, Bergman won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for two consecutive years, with The Virgin Spring
(Jungfrukällan) in 1960 and Through a Glass Darkly
(Såsom i en spegel) in 1961. He won the award again in 1983, for the early twentieth century family drama Fanny and Alexander
(Fanny och Alexander). Bergman has also been nominated for the Best Picture award once, with the 1973 Cries and Whispers
(Viskningar och rop), the story of two sisters watching over their third sister's deathbed, both afraid she might die, but hoping she does. The film lost to The Sting
, and oddly enough, it was not nominated in the Foreign Language Film category. It also gave Bergman the first of three nominations for Best Director.

Working closely with Bergman, cinematographer Sven Nykvist can be said to have had a major impact on the visual aspect of Swedish cinema. Twice the recipient of the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, for Cries and Whispers and Fanny and Alexander, Nykvist is considered by many to be one of the greatest cinematographers of all time. He also directed The Ox (Oxen) (1991), nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1992.

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