Review of Barnvagnen (1963)
Seen in 2017.
The main character wonders aloud whether her premarital affair is the sort of thing meant by “the Swedish sin”. This film has none of the exotic sensation of Joe David Brown’s April 1955 Time article “Sin & Sweden”, nor any of the nudity mocked in I rök och dans (1954), but the correct answer would be yes.
Barnvagnen is an elegant illustration of the way that feminism, secularization and material prosperity were changing the way people had children. Its focus on the working class makes it representative, as does the late scene of Britt shouting at her baby to be quiet and smoking a cigarette. The stylistic imitation of Breathless (1960) is mostly intelligent, only occasionally empty in deliberately disruptive cuts. It beats Godard’s own My Life to Live (1962). Thommy Berggren tries and fails to steal the show in every scene.
References here: Dom kallar oss mods (1968).