Jag är nyfiken - en film i blått (1968)

Director:

Vilgot Sjöman

Writer:

Vilgot Sjöman (writer)

Release Date:

11 March 1968 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

You'll wonder where the (yellow) went?

Plot:

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...

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Social Democrat | Social Commentary | Scabies | Social Justice

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Maj Hultén	...	Doctor
Vilgot Sjöman	...	Vilgot Sjöman
Lena Nyman	...	Anna Lena Lisabet Nyman / Lena
Börje Ahlstedt	...	Börje
Sonja Lindgren	...	Sonja Lindgren
Bertil Wikström	...	Bertil Wikström
Gunnel Broström
Hans Hellberg	...	Hasse
Bim Warne	...	Hasse's Girlfriend
Peter Lindgren	...	Lena's Father
Gudrun Östbye	...	Lena's Mother
Ulla Lyttkens	...	Lena's friend
Magnus Nilsson
Gun Jönsson	...	Woman
Pierre Fränckel	...	Man

Also Known As:

I Am Curious (Blue) (USA)
Jag är nyfiken - blå

Runtime:

107 min | West Germany:80 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (2006) | Germany:12 (re-rating) (2007) (uncut) | West Germany:18 (original rating) (heavily cut) | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario) (cut) | Finland:K-18 | Norway:18 (1970) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Gröna Lund, Djurgården, Östermalm, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company:

Sandrews

Quotes:

Vilgot Sjöman: You get a love scene with Lena. A love scene with consequences.
Börje: What kind of consequences?
Vilgot Sjöman: I don't know. I'll think of something.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Psych-o-cysts (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

NU SKA VI OPP, OPP, OPP

Like eyebrows, I Am Curious comes in two - which doesn't mean they're perfect eyebrows or well-matched

I Am Curious: Blue is the second version, almost interchangeable in the respects of a) certain scenes overlapping or just cut and pasted from version Yellow to version Blue and b) many similar themes and the same characters, following version Yellow. Both films look at Sweden in the late 1960s, and it's all filtered through the unique perspective of Vilgot Sjoman, who makes a cinematic smoothie, if you will, of documentary, 'making-the-movie' dramatic scenes, drama involving the character Lena, scientific type questions posed by Lena (in glasses of course!), and a good deal of sex and nudity to keep the art-houses lapping up at the mouth. It's also potentially one of the most pretentious art-house experiments ever concocted, but at the same time its own self-consciousness and "Hey, it's a movie about movies, so lets make this movie and then forget its a movie for a while until I, Sjoman, pop up on screen again" style has its advantages for the willing participant.

Basically, there is no exact "plot" to either of the I Am Curious movies, and arguably even less so in Blue. While there is some connection to be made with Lena (Lena Nyman) and a married man, it's once again like Yellow mostly an amalgamation of interviews Lena does with everyday Swedes (topics this time range from wealth and jobs and income to religion to boys and girls at a dance) and Lena's wanderings in the Swedish countryside doing either her own kind of sociological experiments (or, as well, going skinny-dipping with a friend or not knowing she has scabies), or responding to Sjoman, who makes himself a character as a "director" of the project. It's hard to peg Sjoman, since he has created what is an alternate universe for himself to act in, which can be both fun and occasionally dull. Lena, however, is only somewhat talented as an actress, better at asking tough questions (I do love the scene with her and the Catholic stooge in the car) and taking her clothes off than giving a fully rounded performance.

In general, from my point of view, Blue isn't quite as consistently fascinating as Yellow. It stands out fair enough as far as the parts go- everything involving the interviews or docu/drama type things like Lena bicycling the opposite way of protesters is at least captivating and at most some of the best stuff of either movies- but on the whole its experimental style doesn't flow quite as well. Yet I still recommend it because it's attached to the Yellow part - the only movie that comes in two versions! Sort of.