Review of Vem älskar Yngve Frej (1973)
Seen in 2016.
I was somewhat shocked to see Janne Carlsson in this role, from a time before he endeared himself to the public. He dresses like a cartoon character but is otherwise less farcical than his later persona as an entertainer. Anyway, the story about the reduction of Sweden’s domestic agricultural footprint and the old people left behind by urbanization is well told and memorable, except that death is used, too cheaply, to sharpen the point. The motif of the quiet little forest lake, made frightening and erotic by the withdrawal of human influence, links this realist drama to fantasy. The city dwellers' fetish for impractical rustic things remains current as of 2016, but now the urban middle class settles for cheaper simulacra.