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Den vita väggen [The White Wall] (Stig Björkman, 1975)
May
17
från Sverige
Monika (Harriet Andersson) (via). DP: Petter Davidson.
Monika – in spirit the Monika from Bergman's Sommaren med Monika (1953) – is middle-aged, unemployed, and in limbo. We follow her life for a single day.
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Ormen: Berättelsen om Iréne [Ormen / The Serpent] (Hans Abramson, 1966)
Jan
29
Lunar New Year – 巳
The German poster. An illustration of a nude woman with a serpent's head. DP: Mac Ahlberg.
Snakes (巳) in celebration of Lunar New Year.
Ormen is an adaptation of the first two chapters of the novel Berättelsen om Iréne (Stig Dagerman, 1945).
In an army barrack, a sergeant is bitten by a snake. A soldier hides the animal in his bag in order to blackmail his superior. Iréne – who works in the same barrack's mess and is the soldier's lover – pushes her mother off a train during a quarrel about the daughter's lack of morals.
Dagerman's novel is a metaphor of Sweden's uncomfortable position in a post-WW2 world (it had declared itself neutral, which by default made it complicit in helping the Nazis). Due to its violence and nudity, outside its homecountry the film adaptation mostly played porn theatres.