Vilgot Sjöman

David Harald Vilgot Sjöman was a Swedish writer and film director. His films deal with controversial issues of social class, morality, and sexual taboos, combining the emotionally-tortured characters of Ingmar Bergman with the avant garde style of the French New Wave. He is best known as the director of the films 491 (1964), I Am Curious (Yellow) (in Swedish, "Jag är nyfiken - gul") (1967), and I Am Curious (Blue) ("Jag är nyfiken - blå") (1968), which stretched the boundaries of acceptability of what could then be shown on film, deliberately treating their subjects in a provocative and explicit manner.

Works

Lena

Follows the story of the beloved and internationally acclaimed Swedish actress Lena Nyman, based on 17 paper bags with diaries that she left behind.

Release Date:2021-09-17

Character:Self (archive footage)

Vote Count:6

Feature 136

Ingmar Bergman's film Winter Light from 1963 is one of the most mythical and discussed films in Swedish history. In this documentary, director Kristian Petri uses unique archival footage to tell about the making of the film and, together with two actors bringing Bergman and Vilgot Sjöman to life, he tells about creativity, friendship, power and fear.

Release Date:2018-11-17

Character:Himself (archival footage)

Vote Count:1

Året var 1964

1964 - the year when Astrid Lindgren's 'Vi på Saltkråkan' is shown on TV, UN Swedes smuggle weapons, Khrushchev is visiting, car testing starts, the KDS is formed and the long-haired fashion starts trending - for guys.

Release Date:2014-01-29

Character:Self (archive footage)

Palme

Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was openly shot to death on a February evening 1986 on the streets of Stockholm. In one night, the country of Sweden was transfigured. “Palme” is about his life, his time, and about the Sweden he had created. About a man who altered history.

Release Date:2012-09-14

Character:Self (archive footage)

Vote Count:31

Filmmakers vs. Tycoons

How the cinema industry does not respect the author's work as it was conceived, how manipulates the motion pictures in order to make them easier to watch by an undemanding audience or even how mutilates them to adapt the original formats and runtimes to the restrictive frame of the television screen and the abusive requirements of advertising. (Followed by “Filmmakers in Action.”)

Release Date:2005-07-17

Character:Self

Vote Count:5

Filmstaden

'Filmstaden', a film studio in Stockholm where directors Victor Sjöström, Mauritz Stiller, Ingmar Bergman among others worked - as well as many prominent actors - was built 1919-1920. This documentary tells its rich history featuring many of the people involved.

Release Date:2001-01-01

Lars Forssell x 2

The poet who writes for pub scenes as well as for Dramaten. About weight and dizziness in an artistry that is related to both Evert Taube and Hjalmar Bergman. ew of theater has aroused criticism.

Release Date:2000-04-13

Alfred

The life of the Swedish engineer Alfred Nobel. How he invented dynamite and later in his life founded the Nobel-Prize.

Release Date:1995-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:2

Inför Markisinnan de Sade

Release Date:1992-04-17

Vote Count:1

Self Portrait '92

This is a sort of documentary made by Vilgot Sjoman about Vilgot Sjoman as a sort of cinematic autobiography aired on Swedish television originally in 1992.

Release Date:1992-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:Self

Fallgropen

Larry Pedersen, professor of psychology of religion, has just divorced when a student named Elisabeth student must take the exam before him. Later in the evening the same day, she is beaten by her boyfriend and then Pedersen offers her a bed for the night.

Release Date:1989-04-13

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Malacca

A young man and woman are touring around Asia with rucksacks on their backs. They meet a stranger, who turns out to be more dangerous than he seems.

Release Date:1987-02-09

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Hur ska det gå för Pettersson?

Rulle has a secret child out of wedlock in Gotland. When she suddenly turns up in Stockholm he doesn't want to explain it to his wife so he sells the fatherhood to his neighbour.

Release Date:1984-04-06

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Episode Count:3

Pelikanen

It has just been a funeral when the daughter and son-in-law return from their honeymoon. Now the house is haunted. The empty rocking chair rocks, the doors slam, the paintings fall down and papers fly through the room. In the chiffonier's maple compartment is found a letter from the dead father. This letter is hidden again, rediscovered and finally torn up. The despairing, frozen and coughing son does not give up. He drills his way to the truth. It hits hard right up until the final catastrophe, awakening and liberation.

Release Date:1982-03-17

Department:Directing

Job:Director

I am Blushing

"I am blushing" - Swedish comedy about a film crew traveling to the Philippines to find environments for a movie.

Release Date:1981-10-12

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Kristoffers hus

Kristoffer lives on the verge of poverty, just barely supporting himself on his photographic work and an allowance given him by his ex-wife to support their child. He is staying in his absentee mother's large old house, which she is preparing to sell. When he takes a photograph of a man who died by his own hand, the image fascinates him. He grows obsessed with the dead man's story and pushes his research as far as it will go.

Release Date:1979-09-19

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Tabu

Solidarity with the border people. Equal rights for the sexual deviants. Kristoffer Lohman is a young solicitor who collects stories and knowledge of different perversions. This has affected and changed his own sexual life. Sara, a young well-behaved and adorned woman, becomes interested in Kristoffer's activity.

Release Date:1977-01-28

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:4

The Garage

Psychological thriller where a religion teacher's wife is having an affair with the school principal. Guilt feelings in the situation leads to both attempted suicide and murder.

Release Date:1975-08-21

Department:Directing

Job:Director

A Handful of Love

Set against the backdrop of the 1909 general strike, Hjördis is employed as a housemaid in a wealthy Stockholm family.

Release Date:1974-02-22

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:6

Till Sex Do Us Part

This Swedish sex-comedy/drama explores the complications in the relationship of a couple who believe that if they make love to each other, they will die. They neck and are physically affectionate in public as well as in private, but have a big taboo against sexual consummation. Their situation drives them to distraction, and they unsuccessfully seek various extramarital outlets for their frustrations.

Release Date:1971-10-25

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:Man

Vote Count:1

Blushing Charlie

"Blushing Charlie" - Truckdriver and bachelor Charlie meets homeless and seven months pregnant Pia. They both dream of finding someone to share their lives with. Charlie then faces a dilemma whether to take part in a demonstration in favor of Cuba, and in addition with his employer's truck.

Release Date:1970-09-08

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:6

You're Lying!

About an alcohol-damaged young man, his life in and out of prison, his friend the art teacher and his difficulties reintegrating into society.

Release Date:1969-10-26

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:

Vote Count:6

Traveling with Father

Swedish filmmaker Vilgot Sjöman takes his old father Wiktor on a drive to his childhood environment.

Release Date:1969-05-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:

Shame

In the midst of a civil war, former violinists Jan and Eva Rosenberg, who have a tempestuous marriage, run a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.

Release Date:1968-09-29

Character:TV Interviewer

Vote Count:220

I Am Curious (Blue)

The same movie with the same characters, cast and crew as I am Curious (Yellow), but with some different scenes and a different political slant. The political focus in Blue is personal relationships, religion, prisons and sex. Blue omits much of the class consciousness and non-violence interviews of the first version. Yellow and Blue are the colors of the Swedish flag.

Release Date:1968-03-11

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:Vilgot Sjöman

Vote Count:32

Stimulantia

Stimulantia is a 1967 Swedish anthology film comprising eight episodes by eight different directors including Ingmar Bergman, Jörn Donner, Gustaf Molander and Vilgot Sjöman and starring among others Ingrid Bergman, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Lars Ekborg and Inga Landgré.

Release Date:1967-03-28

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:

Vote Count:10

I Am Curious (Yellow)

Lena, aged twenty, wants to know all she can about life and reality. She collects information on everyone and everything, storing her findings in an enormous archive. She experiments with relationships, political activism, and meditation. Meanwhile, the actors, director and crew are shown in a humorous parallel plot about the making of the film and their reactions to the story and each other. Nudity, explicit sex, and controversial politics kept this film from being shown in the US while its seizure by Customs was appealed.

Release Date:1967-03-10

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:Vilgot Sjöman

Vote Count:67

My Sister My Love

Sweden, 1782. Jacob, a young noble, somewhat wild and vehement, returns from his studies in France. After his absence, he returns home happy, but is even happier of meeting his beloved sister Charlotte again. However, she has been promised to the Baron Alsmeden, a man of great influence at court, and this fact will awake a feeling like jealousy in Jacob.

Release Date:1966-02-28

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:15

The Dress

Edit is pleased that her mother agrees to let her buy a dress she loves, but which in fact is made for an adult woman.

Release Date:1964-10-05

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:1

Dance Around the Guldbaggen

Filmed during the first ever Guldbaggen (golden scarab) awards, it was edited and developed that night and shown for the first time to the guests at the after party.

Release Date:1964-09-25

Character:Self

491

A study in forgiveness as oppression and goodness as provocation. Six youth criminals are chosen to participate in a social experiment where they are assigned to live together in a rundown apartment in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden. The six boys are being supervised by two forgiving and uneasy social workers. Their need to continue to commit petty crimes escalates out of boredom with the situation. One night they run into a young girl in trouble.

Release Date:1964-03-16

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:15

A Testimony About Her

"A testimony about her." Her being the actor and vocalist Monica Zetterlund. At 25 in the beginning of her career. Monica sings with a trio at a concert. Returns to her empty home in Stockholm. Relaxes in loneliness. Next morning. An interview with writer Vilgot Sjöman. Then off to recording at a studio with the Phillips Recording Orchestra, featuring Jan Johansson on piano. Later a concert at Nalen in Stockholm.

Release Date:1963-04-21

Character:the reporter

Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie

The year is 1961 and Ingmar Bergman is making a movie. While planted on the scene as apprentice to Bergman, Vilgot Sjöman (director, I Am Curious–Yellow, 1967), suggests to Swedish Television that they take the opportunity to record with the acclaimed director. In August, Sjöman and the television crew begin to capture what would become a comprehensive five-part documentary on the making of Winter Light, offering views of script development, set construction and lighting, rehearsals and editing, as well as intimate conversations with Bergman and members of his cast and crew. Footage from the film’s Swedish premiere delivers immediate audience reactions and the critics’ reviews the following day.

Release Date:1963-01-27

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:Self

Vote Count:15

Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie

Release Date:1963-01-27

Department:Creator

Job:Creator

Character:Self

Episode Count:[ 5 ]

Siska

A young woman struggles with life, love and career. She is courted by a young man but is unwilling to enter into a relationship if it means limiting her freedom.

Release Date:1962-12-26

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:2

The Mistress

A young woman, living in a relationship, falls in love with a married man.

Release Date:1962-02-19

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:8

Playing on the Rainbow

The school counselor Vanja believe neither in love, marriage or a woman's subservient role to the man. One day she meets the student Björn. Their romance is full of problems. Along comes a man from Vanjas past.

Release Date:1958-08-25

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Defiance

A teacher is so hard on his students that he faces a warning by the school principal. In order to at least improve the strained relationship with his own son, he turns to a priest for advice.

Release Date:1952-09-15

Department:Writing

Job:Writer