For those of you from this moment in time, that’s me for a starter, this film is huge injection of nostalgia and nervous laughter as you remember your own past amongst the beflared kids that you hung around with. The Blu ray copy of this film was crisp and clear and looked as if it could have been filmed yesterday which certainly helped with the enjoyment.
Filmed in that naturalistic Euro-style that infuriates half the audience and is a great love of the chin-stroking crown (me). Despite the film being 47 years old the themes are timeless as we watch the charming youngsters Par and Annika go from awkward glances to full on teenage-love. Andersson got two leading and young cast members that helped the natural film of the story both being charismatic and very believable.
The moped riding, hanging around in parks and cafes immediately hit the mark with me and probably many similar aged watchers that the overall experience and opinion of the film is going to be biased. For other age groups watching perhaps the slow pace and the ‘nothing really happens’ feel will drive them to despair.
To sum it up the unsophisticated story revolves around two 15-year olds fancying each other whilst adults, who seem incapable of sorting their own lives and prejudices out, look down on them. Annika’s aunt’s live is a series of regrets and missed opportunities which she is more than happy to share with her, meanwhile her parents seem to be seething in resentment and unhappiness, mainly at their position on the social scale. Meanwhile Par’s family own a garage/workshop and though seemingly better off and held in higher esteem than Annika’s family seem no better at having happy relationships. Against the background of angst and adult foibles Par and Annika despite their relative youth and inexperience seem to have found true happiness.
The romance is full of problems that teenagers had at the time, fights, storming off, not understanding why you said and did the things you did and apparently endless smoking – well it was the 70s – but all of this is written and filmed with an incredible understanding of that time in most people’s lives. From experience perhaps?
More problematic is the scenes involving the adults which seem perhaps too dire and miserable and the histrionic ending seemed very stagey but ultimately was funny. If the hand that guided the youthful actors had been used on the adults the film could have been a fantastic slice of socially realistic love story from 1970s Sweden.
That’s not to say this film is not good because it undoubtedly is but if you are looking for something dramatic to happen, big showy arguing and confrontational scenes then you are going to be disappointed. Even more impressive considering that this was renowned Swedish director Roy Andersson’s first feature length movie.
For a certain age group, I guarantee the scenes involving the teenagers will instantly bring all those memories of your youth bubbling to the surface and that is no bad thing. A Swedish Love Story is a film for certain cinematic tastes but if you have those tastes you’ll love this.
Cigarette smoking aficionados this is the film for you but just watch it to show youngsters how we took selfies in those days.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2017-06-03T20:40:27Z
For those of you from this moment in time, that’s me for a starter, this film is huge injection of nostalgia and nervous laughter as you remember your own past amongst the beflared kids that you hung around with. The Blu ray copy of this film was crisp and clear and looked as if it could have been filmed yesterday which certainly helped with the enjoyment.
Filmed in that naturalistic Euro-style that infuriates half the audience and is a great love of the chin-stroking crown (me). Despite the film being 47 years old the themes are timeless as we watch the charming youngsters Par and Annika go from awkward glances to full on teenage-love. Andersson got two leading and young cast members that helped the natural film of the story both being charismatic and very believable.
The moped riding, hanging around in parks and cafes immediately hit the mark with me and probably many similar aged watchers that the overall experience and opinion of the film is going to be biased. For other age groups watching perhaps the slow pace and the ‘nothing really happens’ feel will drive them to despair.
To sum it up the unsophisticated story revolves around two 15-year olds fancying each other whilst adults, who seem incapable of sorting their own lives and prejudices out, look down on them. Annika’s aunt’s live is a series of regrets and missed opportunities which she is more than happy to share with her, meanwhile her parents seem to be seething in resentment and unhappiness, mainly at their position on the social scale. Meanwhile Par’s family own a garage/workshop and though seemingly better off and held in higher esteem than Annika’s family seem no better at having happy relationships. Against the background of angst and adult foibles Par and Annika despite their relative youth and inexperience seem to have found true happiness.
The romance is full of problems that teenagers had at the time, fights, storming off, not understanding why you said and did the things you did and apparently endless smoking – well it was the 70s – but all of this is written and filmed with an incredible understanding of that time in most people’s lives. From experience perhaps?
More problematic is the scenes involving the adults which seem perhaps too dire and miserable and the histrionic ending seemed very stagey but ultimately was funny. If the hand that guided the youthful actors had been used on the adults the film could have been a fantastic slice of socially realistic love story from 1970s Sweden.
That’s not to say this film is not good because it undoubtedly is but if you are looking for something dramatic to happen, big showy arguing and confrontational scenes then you are going to be disappointed. Even more impressive considering that this was renowned Swedish director Roy Andersson’s first feature length movie.
For a certain age group, I guarantee the scenes involving the teenagers will instantly bring all those memories of your youth bubbling to the surface and that is no bad thing. A Swedish Love Story is a film for certain cinematic tastes but if you have those tastes you’ll love this.
Cigarette smoking aficionados this is the film for you but just watch it to show youngsters how we took selfies in those days.