Tuesday, December 3, 2013

MOVIE ARCHIVES: I Am Curious (Yellow / Blue)


CuriousYellowPoster.jpg

I Am Curious (Yellow)

 
I Am Curious (Yellow)
CuriousYellowPoster.jpg
North American release poster
Directed byVilgot Sjöman
Produced byGöran Lindgren (uncredited)
Lena Malmsjö
Written byVilgot Sjöman (uncredited)
StarringVilgot Sjöman
Lena Nyman
Börje Ahlstedt
Music byBengt Ernryd (uncredited)
CinematographyPeter Wester (uncredited)
Editing byWic Kjellin (uncredited)
StudioJanus Films
Distributed byGrove Press
Release dates
  • 9 October 1967 (1967-10-09)
Running time122 minutes
CountrySweden
LanguageSwedish
Box office$27,686,100 (US/Sweden)
I Am Curious (Yellow) (Swedish: Jag är nyfiken – en film i gult, meaning "I Am Curious: A Film in Yellow") is a 1967 Swedish drama film written and directed by Vilgot Sjöman and starring Sjöman and Lena Nyman. It is a companion film to 1968's I Am Curious (Blue); the two were initially intended to be one 3½ hour film.[1] The films are named after the colours of the Swedish flag.

 

Plot

Director Vilgot Sjöman plans to make a social film starring his lover Lena Nyman, a young theater student who has a strong interest in social issues.
Lena's character, also named Lena, lives with her father in a small apartment in Stockholm and is driven by a burning passion for social justice and a need to understand the world, people and relationships. Her little room is filled with books, papers, and boxes full of clippings on topics such as "religion" and "men", and files on each of the 23 men with whom she has had sex. The walls are covered with pictures of concentration camps and a portrait of Francisco Franco, reminders of the crimes being perpetrated against humanity. She walks around Stockholm and interviews people about social classes in society, conscientious objection, gender equality, and the morality of vacationing in Franco's Spain. She and her friends also picket embassies and travel agencies. Lena's relationship with her father, who briefly went to Spain to fight Franco, is problematic, and she is distressed by the fact that he returned from Spain for unknown reasons after only a short period.
Through her father Lena meets the slick Bill (Börje in the original Swedish), who works at a menswear shop and voted for the Rightist Party. They begin a love affair, but Lena soon finds out from her father that Bill has another woman, Marie, and a young daughter. Lena is furious that Bill has not been open with her, and goes to the country on a bicycle holiday. Alone in a cabin in the woods, she attempts an ascetic lifestyle, meditating, studying non-violence and practicing yoga. Bill soon comes looking for her in his new car. She greets him with a shotgun, but they soon start to make love. Lena confronts Bill about Marie, and finds out about another of his lovers, Madeleine. They begin to fight and Bill leaves. Lena has strange dreams, in which she ties two teams of soccer players – she notes that they number 23 – to a tree, shoots Bill and cuts his penis off. She also dreams of being taunted by passing drivers as she cycles down a road, until finally Martin Luther King, Jr. drives up. She apologizes to him for not being strong enough to practice non-violence.
Lena returns home, destroys her room, and goes to the car showroom where Bill works to tell him she has scabies. They are treated at a clinic, and then go their separate ways. As the embedded story of Lena and Bill begins to resolve, the film crew and director Sjöman are featured more. The relationship between Lena the actress and Bill the actor has become intimate during the production of Vilgot's film, and Vilgot is jealous and clashes with Bill. The film concludes with Lena returning Vilgot's keys as he meets with another young female theater student.
In addition to the footage of King, the film also includes an interview with Minister of Transportation Olof Palme, who talks about the existence of class structure in Swedish society, and footage of Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko.

Cast

Style


Director Vilgot Sjöman together with actress Lena Nyman.
Yellow was a landmark film that helped define the emergent change in Swedish film of the 1960s. Like French New Wave, the film uses jump cuts and its story is not structured in a conventional Hollywood way. It also contains documentary elements; for example, it features a brief appearance by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who is interviewed by Sjöman about his views on civil disobedience. It was part of a wave of Swedish left wing films in the 60's and early 70's that were helped by the founding of the Swedish Film Institute when Harry Schein attempted to start a Swedish New Wave. Yellow was the only film of the wave of left wing films that made any money and the movement had little significance to the Swedish public. The interview with Martin Luther King was filmed in March 1966, when Dr. King and Harry Belafonte were in Stockholm to start a new initiative for Swedish support of African Americans.[2]

Censorship

The film includes numerous and frank scenes of nudity and staged sexual intercourse. In one particularly controversial scene, Lena kisses her lover's flaccid penis. In 1969, the film was banned in Massachusetts for being pornographic. After proceedings in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Karalexis v. Byrne, 306 F. Supp. 1363 (D. Mass. 1969)), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States (Byrne v. Karalexis, 396 U.S. 976 (1969) and 401 U.S. 216 (1971)), the Second Circuit found the film not to be obscene.[3]

Movie Info

One of the most popular and controversial films in Swedish history, I Am Curious brought the sexual revolution to Sweden's silver screen. While much of the media hype centered on the film's scandalous content, the film's blending of documentary and fictional footage was equally shocking for Swedish audiences. Content-wise, the film's more controversial parts include the defacement of a photograph of Franco and a sequence where a young couple has sex in front of the royal palace. A film in two parts, Yellow and Blue each have essentially the same vague outline of a plot. Lena and her boyfriend engage in lots of liberated sexual play -- that's the fiction. At the same time, they are working on a documentary, which is real. In the documentary footage, they investigate Sweden's political history, the state of its democracy, and the everyday lives of its citizens. In the Blue version, Lena journeys far into the deserted north, filming the beautiful wilderness and revealing a decidedly unmodern Sweden. Blue's most significant departure from the first part is in this exploration of Sweden's pastoral ideal. ~ Brian Whitener, Rovi
R,
Art House & International, Classics, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Special Interest
Vilgot Sjöman

Oct 8, 1992

Cast

Reception


Olof Palme (who played himself in an uncredited role in the movie) and Lena Nyman, taken at the Guldbagge Award ceremony. Nyman won the 1967 award for Best Actress in a leading role.
Initial reception to the films were hostile with Vincent Canby of The New York Times stating that, "I'm not very fond of this sort of moviemaking, which tries to disarm conventional criticism by exploiting formlessness as meaningful itself."[4]
An arsonist torched the Heights Theater in Houston during the movie's run there.[5]
The film was very popular at the box office, earning an estimated $6.6 million in rentals in North America.[6] One of the main reasons that it was a box office smash was that it was the first movie with sexual relations performed onscreen that was not confined to the porn movie theaters on 42nd Street, New York City.[citation needed] Millions of people who had never seen a porn movie flocked to safe neighborhood theaters to see what it was all about. Another reason was that it became popular among "stars" to be seen going to this movie, and that made the general public even more interested. News of Johnny Carson seeing the film legitimized going to see it.[citation needed] This movie ushered in a wave of nudity and sex never before shown to the general public, and it was the first shot in the war that was to begin in pushing the limits of movies for the general public.[citation needed]

In popular culture


I Am Curious—Blue Film Still

I Am Curious—Blue

Vilgot Sjöman

I Am Curious . . . Box set (Criterion DVD)

Available in

I Am Curious . . .
Box set

See product info »



Film Info

  • Sweden
  • 1967
  • 97 minutes
  • Black and White
  • 1.33:1
  • Swedish
  • Spine #181

A parallel film to Vilgot Sjöman’s controversial I Am Curious—Yellow, I Am Curious—Blue also follows young Lena on her journey of self-discovery. In Blue, Lena confronts issues of religion, sexuality, and the prison system, while at the same time exploring her own personal relationships. Like Yellow, Blue freely traverses the lines between fact and fiction, employing a mix of dramatic and documentary techniques.



Cast

LenaLena Nyman
BörjeBörje Ahlstedt
MarieMarie Göranzon
HansHans Hellberg
BimBim Warne
WomanGunnel Broström
Lena's motherGudrun Östbye
SonjaSonja Lindgren
RunePeter Lindgren

Credits

DirectorVilgot Sjöman
ProducerGöran Lindgren
Executive producerLena Malmsjö
CinematographyPeter Wester
SoundTage Sjöborg
EditingWic Kjellin and Carl-Olov Skeppstedt
MusicBengt Ernryd

Disc Features

  • New high-definition digital transfer
  • Director’s diary: Vilgot Sjöman’s commentary on selected scenes from the film
  • Excerpts from Sjöman’s Self Portrait 92, a documentary made for Swedish television
  • Deleted scene with an introduction by Sjöman
  • Reprinted 1968 interview with Sjöman
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
Title references
General references
  • Curious Yellow, a virtual world in Jeff Noon's novel Vurt.
  • A fluorescent chartreuse color named "curious yellow", which Chrysler Corporation offered as an optional-at-extra-cost "High Impact Paint (HIP)" color on its 1971 Plymouth cars.
  • Curious Yellow is the name of a network worm in Glasshouse by Charles Stross, based on the name of the worm described in this paper by Brandon Wiley: Curious Yellow: The First Coordinated Worm Design.
  • In her book You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again, producer Julia Phillips mentions a film script entitled I Am Furious (Yellow), an unproduced comedy script about a woman who becomes enraged whenever she sees the color yellow. Phillips mentions that she was considering the project as a starring vehicle for Madonna.
  • In an episode of The Lucy Show, Jack Benny (who was once a spokesman for Jell-O) tells Lucy that he's working on a film entitled I Am Curious, Jell-O.
  • In an issue of Mad Magazine, a movie theater advertises a film called "I Am Lecherous (Purple)" and in a do-it-yourself New Wave film advertisement using an assortment of random words, one of your choices is "I am ____ (____)"
  • In "Death in the Family", an episode of the BBC comedy series Steptoe and Son, Harold raises his father's spirits after the death of their horse by promising to take him to see "I Am Curious (Yellow)".

References

  1. Jump up ^ Vilgot Sjöman, I Was Curious: Diary of the Making of a Film (Grove Press, 1968).
  2. Jump up ^ Sjöman, published screenplay (Grove Press, 1968).
  3. Jump up ^ I Am Curious / Jag är nyfiken | Film International
  4. Jump up ^ The New York Times’ review of Blue
  5. Jump up ^ "Heights Theater History » Gallery M Squared". Retrieved 22 October 2011.
  6. Jump up ^ "Big Rental Films of 1969", Variety, 7 January 1970, p. 15.






I Am Curious (Blue)

 
I Am Curious (Blue)
I Am Curious Blue poster.jpg
Directed byVilgot Sjöman
Produced byGöran Lindgren
Written byVilgot Sjöman
StarringVilgot Sjöman
Peter Lindgren
Lena Nyman
Börje Ahlstedt
Marie Göranzon
Music byBengt Ernryd
CinematographyPeter Wester
Editing byWic Kjellin
Distributed byGrove Press
Release datesSweden:
11 March 1968
United States:
20 May 1970
Running time107 min.
CountrySweden
LanguageSwedish
I Am Curious (Blue), whose original Swedish title, Jag är nyfiken – en film i blått, translates as I Am Curious – A Film in Blue, is a 1968 Swedish film directed by Vilgot Sjöman and starring Lena Nyman as a character named after herself. It is a companion film to 1967's I Am Curious (Yellow); the two were initially intended to be one 3½ hour film.[1] The films are named after the colours of the Swedish flag.
Blue is a second version of Yellow, taking place before and after the first movie. It has a more somber and bitterly satiric style, and a further explication of the framing narrative.

References


  • I Am Curious (Blue) (1968) - IMDb

    www.imdb.com/title/tt0063149/
    ‎
    Rating: 6.1/10 - 758 votes
    Directed by Vilgot Sjöman. With Maj Hultén, Vilgot Sjöman, Lena Nyman, Börje
    Ahlstedt. The same movie with the same characters, cast and crew as I am ...

  • I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967) - IMDb

    www.imdb.com/title/tt0061834/
    ‎
    Rating: 6.1/10 - 2,242 votes
    People who liked this also liked... Persona · I Am Curious (Blue) · Contempt · The
    Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover · The Silence · Nattvardsgästerna.

  • I Am Curious (Blue) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Curious_(Blue)
    ‎
    I Am Curious (Blue), whose original Swedish title, Jag är nyfiken – en film i blått,
    translates as I Am Curious – A Film in Blue, is a 1968 Swedish film directed by ...

  • Images for "I am curious Blue"


  • I Am Curious (Blue)- Deleted Scene - YouTube




    ► 5:03

    		www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EGMv8xIV6s13 Dec 2009 - 5 min - Uploaded by seanpierceSweden- 1968- Directed by Vilgot Sjöman- Starring Lena Nyman.

  • I Am Curious—Blue (1967) - The Criterion Collection

    www.criterion.com/films/729-i-am-curious-blue
    ‎
    A parallel film to Vilgot Sjöman's controversial _I Am Curious—Yellow, I Am
    Curious—Blue_ also follows young Lena on her journey of self-discovery. In
    _Blue,_ ...

  • I Am Curious Blue - The New York Times

    www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res...
    21 May 1970 ... Aside from the fact that "I Am Curious (Blue)," which opened yesterday at the
    Evergreen, Cine Malibu and neighborhood theaters is decidedly ...

  • I-Am-Curious-Blue- - Trailer - Cast - Showtimes - NYTimes.com

    www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/70156/I-Am-Curious-Blue-/overview
    An overview of I Am Curious Blue , including cast and credit details, a review
    summary, and more.

  • I Am Curious... (I Am Curious Yellow / I Am Curious Blue Set)

    www.amazon.com/Curious-Yellow-Blue-Criterion.../B00007L4I8
    ‎
    Find I Am Curious... (I Am Curious Yellow / I Am Curious Blue Set) (The Criterion
    Collection) at Amazon.com Movies & TV, home of thousands of titles on DVD ...

  • Jag är nyfiken - en film i gult (I Am Curious (Yellow)) - Rotten Tomatoes

    www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_am_curious_blue/
    ‎
    Foreign Titles. Ich bin neugierig Blau (DE); I Am Curious (Blue) (Jag ar nyfiken -
    en film i blatt) (UK). Share. Help | About | Jobs | Critics Submission | Press | API ...

  • Watch I Am Curious - Blue online | Free | Hulu




    ► 107:42

    		www.hulu.com/watch/23335931 Jul 2011 - 108 minWatch I Am Curious - Blue free online. ... I Am Curious—Blue (1968). comment. Hulu Plus ...

    1. Jump up ^ Vilgot Sjöman, I Was Curious: Diary of the Making of a Film (Grove Press, 1968).

    External links

    I Am Curious—Yellow Film Still

    I Am Curious—Yellow

    Vilgot Sjöman

    I Am Curious . . . Box set (Criterion DVD)

    Available in

    I Am Curious . . .
    Box set

    See product info »



    Film Info

    • Sweden
    • 1967
    • 121 minutes
    • Black and White
    • 1.33:1
    • Swedish
    • Spine #180

    Seized by customs upon entry to the United States, subject of a heated court battle, and banned in numerous cities, Vilgot Sjöman’s I Am Curious—Yellow is one of the most controversial films of all time. This landmark document of Swedish society during the sexual revolution has been declared both obscene and revolutionary. It tells the story of Lena (Lena Nyman), a searching and rebellious young woman, and her personal quest to understand the social and political conditions in 1960s Sweden, as well as her bold exploration of her own sexual identity. I Am Curious—Yellow is a subversive mix of dramatic and documentary techniques, attacking capitalist injustices and frankly addressing the politics of sexuality.



    Cast

    LenaLena Nyman
    BörjeBörje Ahlstedt
    RunePeter Lindgren
    ChrisChris Wahlström
    MarieMarie Göranzon
    MagnusMagnus Nilsson
    UllaUlla Lyttkens

    Credits

    DirectorVilgot Sjöman
    ProducerGöran Lindgren
    Executive producerLena Malmsjö
    CinematographyPeter Wester
    SoundTage Sjöborg
    EditingWic Kjellin and Carl-Olov Skeppstedt
    MusicBengt Ernryd

    Disc Features

    • New high-definition digital transfer
    • New video introduction by director Vilgot Sjöman
    • Director’s diary: Vilgot Sjöman’s commentary on selected scenes from the film
    • New video interview with legendary publisher Barney Rosset and attorney Edward de Grazia about the controversy surrounding the film
    • The Battle for “I Am Curious—Yellow”, a video essay on the film’s censorship and trial
    • Excerpts from the transcripts of the trial for I Am Curious—Yellow
    • Theatrical trailer
    • Essay by critic Gary Giddins
    • New and improved English subtitle translation
    • Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

    External links


      
    Posted by at

    1 comment:

    1. Abay BarhoJune 3, 2020 at 11:22 PM

      Very good points you wrote here..Great stuff...I think you've made some truly interesting points.Keep up the good work.
      https://www.urdupoint.com/dictionary/english-to-urdu/curious-meaning-in-urdu/22354.html

      ReplyDelete

    Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)