Vilgot Sjöman
Birthday: Born in 1924-12-02 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden
Deathday: 2006-04-09
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.
TV Credits
Ingmar Bergman gör en film
Character: Self
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,...
Movie Credits
Dance Around the Guldbaggen
Character: Self
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....
I Am Curious (Yellow)
Character: Vilgot Sjöman
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 sei...
I Am Curious (Blue)
Character: Vilgot Sjöman
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....
Filmstaden
Character:
'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....
Inför Markisinnan de Sade
Character:
...
Lena
Character: Self (archive footage)
Follows the story of the beloved and internationally acclaimed Swedish actress Lena Nyman, based on 17 paper bags with diaries that she left behind....
You're Lying!
Character:
About an alcohol-damaged young man, his life in and out of prison, his friend the art teacher and his difficulties reintegrating into society....
Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie
Character: Self
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,...
A Testimony About Her
Character: the reporter
"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....
Shame
Character: TV Interviewer
In the midst of a civil war, a pair of former violinists in a tempestuous marriage oversee 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....
Filmmakers vs. Tycoons
Character: Self
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.”)...
Feature 136
Character: Himself (archival footage)
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....
Palme
Character: Self (archive footage)
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....
Till Sex Do Us Part
Character: Man
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....
Stimulantia
Character:
Eight vignettes on a variety of topics, including a baby growing up, Charlie Chaplin, Birgit Nilsson, the racing track at Le Mans, erotic cleanliness, French literature, and a black woman in a cupboard in the neighborhood of Farsta near Stockholm....
Traveling with Father
Character:
Swedish filmmaker Vilgot Sjöman takes his old father Wiktor on a drive to his childhood environment....
Året var 1964
Character: Self (archive footage)
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....