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By PAUL BRENNER
Vilgot Sjoman's notorious, groundbreaking companion films, "I Am Curious Yellow" and "I Am
Curious Blue" ("The only film that comes in two versions yellow and blue"), are now together in brilliantly restored
form in a box set from The Criterion Collection.
Sjoman, a titillating and incendiary film essayist who sought to include "party politics into film with the help of
sex," is the link between middle period Goddard and early, dangerous Makaveyev. His "I Am Curious" films take on the
social and political problems festering in the seemingly perfect social democratic society of the "new" Sweden of the
'60s (yellow and blue being the colors of the Swedish flag). Sjoman incorporates scripted scenes with newsreel and
television footage, meta-cinematic shots of Sjoman, the production crew, and his actors, along with interviews with such
progressive icons as Yvgeny Yevtushenko, Martin Luther King, and soon-to-be Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme (whose
assassination in 1986 belies the rose-colored Swedish socialism of the '60s). The films are liberally peppered with
hectoring man-on-the-street interviews, which, while owing their archness to the Steve Allen style, more than anticipate
Michael Moore's personal brand of badgering.
"I Am Curious Yellow" became a major cause cιlθbre when the film was seized and banned in the United States for
obscenity (chiefly because of a shot of actress Lina Lyman kissing a fellow actor's flaccid penis). The ensuing court
case kept the film out of circulation for several years as writers and critics (John Simon, Norman Mailer, Stanley
Kauffmann) attested to the film's artistic integrity. When the film was finally released in 1969, it became a major art
house triumph. Sjoman's mixture of socialism and sex was a regional critique of Swedish politics and social mores, but
its freewheeling, improvisatory manner set the style for political documentaries that came after and the film's
suppression became a watershed moment for freedom of speech in the United States. Not only that, but Lina Lyman gets to
bust up her bedroom in the Charles Foster Kane manner and stab a portrait of Franco in the eye with a carving knife.
"I Am Curious Blue" investigates Swedish society with a more focused eye, exploring the class society in the country,
the educational system, non-violence, prison reform, religion, and sexual politics in the manner of an extended news
magazine. For those uninterested in current events, there are also scenes of nude bathing and lesbianism. Sjoman likes
to keep every member of the audience alert and happy.
An assortment of extras await: "I Am Curious Yellow" includes an introduction by Sjoman, Sjoman's commentary on
selected scenes, a short interview with Grove Press publisher Barney Rosset (who imported the film into the United
States) and attorney Edward de Grazia (who defended the film in the Supreme Court), a short documentary narrated by film
historian Peter Cowie on the history of the U.S. release of the film, trial transcripts from the case, an unreleased
film trailer, and an essay on the film by Gary Giddens. "I Am Curious Blue" also includes Shaman's commentary on
selected scenes, a deleted scene, an excerpt from Sjoman's Swedish television self-portrait from 1992, and a reprint of
a 1968 interview with Sjoman by John Lahr. |
