3b1h2k

Harsh noise inside our minds to drown out the harsh noise around us.

we had to keep our love hidden for so long
trapped away from the light of day
this desire was all that would keep us warm
in these decrepit halls of years past
my memories of you keep playing on repeat
but the pain keeps returning just the same
don't leave me hanging here all alone
I'm your body, you're my soul
if we bleed the same blood, we're forevermore

We're punished for not conforming. We're punished for not thinking that everything is fine. To buy into this blind naivety that people in power always tell the truth and want what's best for us, you might as well be selling your soul. An empty husk of our former selves, going through the established motions, is that any way to live? Suicide may be an option to detach oneself entirely from this material hellscape, but it's not the solution. Thinking you're alone in this struggle will only make you lose track of what matters to you, so keep searching no matter how long it takes.

Watched on the national day of Sweden, celebrated in honor of the election of Gustav Vasa in 1523, which the events of this film predate by three years.

Felt like the kind of state-funded period piece history lesson that they commissioned a bunch of teachers to act out like a school play, because holy shit, the performances here were goofy as hell. At least there was fun to be had with Vasa constantly evading the oppressive Danes across grand winter landscapes, which again tied back to the national day when we gained independence, but I doubt this would have much of any impact in a classroom setting beyond laughing at the acting.

Whenever articles like "100 Palestinians killed in a single day" get published now, people don't even bat an eye, because it's been reduced to an everyday occurrence. We can't let ourselves become that desensitized to cruelties around the world.

Case in point, this film feels like it's a result of that desensitization. I don't know about you, but if I was a child who lost my parents and had to escape my country while being taken away by a human trafficker through near-death experiences, I wouldn't really feel empowered or comforted by seeing my struggles reduced to a weirdly light-hearted road trip film that gives the human trafficker a redemption arc.

Sure, it tries to bring hope and show that "not everyone is bad", but at that point, it serves more as safe entertainment, toned down and polished for a wider audience, completely glancing over the very real trauma these people have experienced. As such, there's no real grit or weight being conveyed to really shake you to your core and empathize with these struggles, just leaving you as a ive observer because "it's not so bad".

A film like Lilya 4-ever (2002) wouldn't give the human traffickers a redemption arc, because dancing around those issues only serves to downplay them. We should let art upset us, because these atrocities happening at all is what's truly upsetting.

Society is one big role-playing game. To take on new roles as a form of escapism, we become more fragmented. We might think we play by our own rules, but all games must end eventually.

I don't who I first heard this from, but I always remind people that either you work to live or live to work. I'm in the camp of working to live, since engaging with my interests and talking with my loved ones is what gives me life outside of work, while my boss said that she lives to work due to the situation she has ended up in.

But what happens when work gets so demanding and dehumanizing that there's no semblance of life left in you? Where either you lose your humanity towards others to become an empty husk of your former self, or everything around you collapses in on itself because this way of living is not sustainable. Where you feel like you might as well drop dead during your shift, but stop yourself since you know how expensive the funeral costs are, or because you're afraid that the higher ups will blame your co-workers and only make it harder for them. After all, you should be happy that they even gave you two hours of work, right? Two hours dissociating in a waking nightmare.

This film embodies that crushing anxiety of capitalism without forgetting to remind us that things shouldn't have to be like this. Money doesn't create happiness, people do. Yet companies try to create this illusion that they're one big family that needs to stick together to succeed, just as a way to shame people for not spending every waking moment on maximizing the company's profit. We need a community that sticks up for each other not for some deeper personal gains, but out of basic comion. I scratch your back, you scratch mine.

We all have it hard out here, you don't need to make it even harder on others to succeed. So for all the people out there slaving away at a job that makes you feel like the days are stuck on repeat with no end in sight, you deserve to live. It's yours to value.

A nice idea to show people with intellectual disabilities in love and getting kids as a way of humanizing and challenging prejudice through representation, but a lot of the writing boiled down to the same "neurodivergent traits of social awkwardness as a tool for quirky indie humor" schtick that Simple Simon (2010) used, except now they actually bothered to cast people with intellectual disabilities. Again, nice idea, but it deserved more than this.

Sorry honey, daddy forgot to go home because he didn't watch this "come home safe" PSA.

Jarring editing and awkward romance on par with the first act of Birdemic.

Mattsson making dreary and aimless softcore erotica as a vehicle for venting his frustrations (through a self-insert director character) with film critics "interpreting his work" and how he values the mass audience more (because why wouldn't he as an exploitation filmmaker?) to make it appear thought-provoking only made it insufferable. This isn't experimental, just self-indulgence to make a quick buck.

On one hand, it's wild that no one is talking about this film, seeing as it stars Sven Wollter and Bibi Andersson (two of Sweden's biggest actors) and makes for a really bleak psychological drama about domestic abuse.

On the other hand, it's stuck on a shitty VHS transfer where the night scenes are nearly pitch black, and focuses way too much on child nudity to where it just starts to feel exploitive. There's some affective stuff here, but I don't blame anyone for not wanting to restore this.

Based on that tacky poster, I did not expect such a heartfelt and biting commentary on the media's obsession with beauty standards and how people who don't meet those standards have their struggles made into the butt of a joke. It's not even accurate to how those two characters look in the film, so I'm guessing it was just some teaser poster they made in pre-production and stuck with it.

Granted, it still went through a lot of the expected beats (like the third act misunderstanding) and relied a bit too much on the main character being socially awkward for laughs, but it won me over by the end. Nothing mind-blowing, but a pleasant and uplifting surprise nonetheless. Just please hire a better poster designer next time, so people like me don't get turned off from it.

(Also, you can tell this was an Irish production since they had to throw in Johnny Logan's "Hold Me Now" at the start. Very subtle.)

A very rough and amateurish hobbyist doc on film collectors in Scandinavia, centered around one of their convention meetups.

Seemingly no one there was under the age of 40, which made sense when it boiled down to them just waxing nostalgic, but it's going to take way more than a doc full of stock music and elders struggling with language barriers to carry over their film knowledge and ion to younger generations.

Maybe I should attend their next meetup in August to at least lower the average age and show that film appreciation doesn't have to be limited to nostalgia.

Basically just a rehash of the "young lovers forbidden to meet by their parents yet take matters into their own hands with tragic results" formula from One Summer of Happiness (1951) which Mattsson wanted to recreate the success of, presumably why it also competed at Cannes. The kind of predictable and heavy-handed melodrama that started to drag around the second half, but what helped it stand out was the camerawork.

Because nearly every scene had at least one shot that would catch your attention from how bold and striking it was, although not always the most subtle, like when they showed a hanging noose in the foreground and the female lead in the background to hint at the tragedies in an otherwise innocuous scene.

At its best, you could've mistaken this for a Sven Nykvist t, but that ultimately doesn't say much, considering he too, in his early years, would elevate otherwise mediocre films through visuals, and judging by the fact that seemingly no one is talking about this film anymore, it takes much more than striking visuals to make something timeless.

Coming of age as a necessity when left to our own devices might seem daunting, but it's from that adaptability that we grow wiser, as symbolized by the omnipresent crow. If the most dangerous thing one can do is to forget, then we can't forget those vulnerable moments that shaped us into who we are today. I'm not afraid of losing you, I'm afraid of forgetting you.

Damn, a portrait of an author that honors not only her advocacy for women's rights and personal working class struggles, but also how those things were reflected in her writing to make her one of the most beloved artists in Swedish history without reducing her life story to interchangeable period piece misery? This is what the Astrid Lindgren biopic wishes it was.

Sex as a means of feeling empowered and validated even when we know it's completely wrong, then having to live with that regret. Performative confidence, like trying to invite someone to dance, but if we are both only trying to run away from our misery, we'll just end up crashing.

Jewish diaspora slice of life on learning to let go of the facade you've held up for so many years and it that everything isn't fine. Mainly notable now for being the debut of Susanne Bier, rather than its messy family melodrama and hamfisted use of Freudian psychoanalysis as a character quirk, hence the title.

Crossdressing in Swedish comedy was certainly nothing new at this point, thinking back to The Girl in Tails (1926) or Elis Ellis' adaptation of Charlie's Aunt the same year, while the stereotype of people using it as a means of deceiving others and gaining an advantage unfortunately persists to this day. At the very least, some of the dialogue here could be pretty amusing when read from a trans lens, like "this young man suddenly turned into a young lady" or "a man can be so dumb that he falls in love with a woman who used to be a man".

Could that have been seen as progressive, knowing that the Nazis had recently begun targeting queer people in ? Maybe. But the film itself was far from progressive. These kinds of sailor farces with people running around (often after some kind of MacGuffin) and performing musical numbers on ships were already becoming a mainstay formula in Sweden, even repeated by director Edvin Adolphson himself in Klart till drabbning (1937), right down to having a woman sneak aboard.

In other words, it hasn't aged well, especially when you take the rough transition to sound film into consideration, leading to a lot of awkward stretches of silence, made even more jarring when the ship's horn signal is supposed to go off. Or when the film ends by basically telling the audience that money solves everything and to get domesticated through marriage, because, to quote, "Lady Liberty doesn't know that the loveliest thing on earth is to NOT be free". You know, coming from the same dude, played by Adolphson, who bitch slapped the woman he's saying this to and finally put an end to her crossdressing deception. How romantic.

Another Hamilton film, another kid getting kidnapped and talking over the phone to make it all melodramatic, and another moment of Swedish cinema wasting my time with an absolute nothingburger of a thriller franchise.

Hamilton directly telling the audience that this is just mindless escapism for you to let go of your worries because it assures you that stoic white dudes are out there killing people for us. It's in my own interest to not watch these films any longer.

Pure desperation, which should already be evident by the "cool guys don't look at explosions" poster. Just because you spend millions of dollars (the most expensive Swedish film at that time) on getting Mark Hamill to punch Peter Stormare in the face to make it seem to be on the same level of dumb Hollywood action, that doesn't say much when Hollywood action in itself has its history of running the formula dry just like this franchise. At least we got Hamill to talk like the Swedish chef from The Muppets, because that's emblematic of the film hamming it up.

I guess the idea for this and The Interrogation (1989) both being made-for-TV court dramas adapting a mere age from a book was that they were quickly churned out the same year as the theatrical Hamilton installments to capitalize on their success. Because that's totally the recipe for a timeless classic that people will be talking about 30 years down the line and not just low-effort filler to generate interest in your next product.

Not sure if it was a stylistic choice to not include subtitles during the Italian dialogue (because foreign language = mysterious and scary) or if the streaming service I used just fucked up there, but that sure made those two hours feel all the more mind-numbing on top of the already stale revenge thriller contrivances, while also milking the Carl Hamilton franchise dry as Stellan Skarsgård already had enough. Not even Erland Josephson could save this.

What the films wants you to know:
- is a depraved shithole
-RAF wanting to attack the CIA is bad
-Explosions go boom because this is not a court drama like the last film
-Being labelled as "probably homosexual" on a computer registry is a kind of violence that a knife can't inflict
-Stellan Skarsgård is hot

When it comes to the Carl Hamilton franchise, it's often described as "James Bond but more realistic" (hell, the main character is even referred to as a "James Bond type" here), which should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt considering all the action bombast that often occurs, but if there was one installment that truly embraced its realism, it was this.

With it being a much cheaper TV production at only 60 minutes and primarily limited to one location as per court drama tradition, it was a complete 180 from the previous film's costly globe-trotting action. While the stripped-back production could seem like a breath of fresh air, it also emphasized how this was likely rushed to simply fill up TV airtime, as the nature of court drama allowed people to read directly from the script and rely on the most repetitive shot-reverse shot editing the entire way through to save time.

On the other hand, the cheap TV format worked in its favor in of the aforementioned realism. Because as it starts, you see text advertising programs that will air afterward. Then, whenever a new character started talking in court, that same font appeared to show their names. So similar to Rätt ut i luften (1978) acting out a TV studio interview, uninitiated viewers could've mistaken this for a live congressional hearing, which is ittedly a pretty effective way to utilize the TV format.

But beyond that initial novelty factor, the repetition kicked in again once you realized it's just an hour of mostly questions and answers, and since the material was taken straight out of a age from one of the Hamilton books, you're just dropped in without the full picture to truly get invested in any of the political intrigues or suspense from expecting the main character to accidentally slip up.

So unless you really have a thing for the pseudo-documentary style or Stellan Skarsgård's cold and monotone demeanor, just read the book instead.

At the very least, I could appreciate how it depicted the police as conservatives who are too quick to blame Palestinians and left-wing radicals for terrorism while Israel was behind it all along, especially as the main character went out of his way to defend a PLO group (even though their deaths were treated more as a way for him to pity himself since we never really got to know the group), but that didn't distract much from the fact that the Carl Hamilton franchise, marketed as "Sweden's James Bond", doesn't have much to offer beyond the globe-trotting spy action spectacle. Apparently that's more than enough for a lot of people though.

Life is all around us, we just have to grab hold of it. I may not be able to pick every flower in the world, nor am I able to count all the stars in the sky, but I'm more than happy to try it with you. Because like the crescent moon above, your light makes me feel whole again.

A landscape of skin glistening in the sun, a sweeping view where I lose myself in my hyperfixated self-image

To serve a God or mistress, we transcend above all pain as angels on earth.

Meshes of the Polycule Knife Play

sunflowers in Plants vs. Zombies waiting for the next wave of enemies:

pain on display, illustrating my downward spiral

To stay with the man you fell in love with even though he sees you as a mere housewife while in service of God, or to stay with a man you're not in love with, yet can see a potential future with since he values your freedom. Just as Charlotte can finally breathe out after years of defying and feeling trapped by societal pressures and strained bonds, the film stays on its final shot for over a minute to let it all sink in. No end credits, barely any music, just a moment of pure tranquility to ponder what it truly means to love on our own .

We get it, the main character works as a flight attendant and keeps up the same pandering tone when talking even outside work (because that was supposed to be funny, I guess), but beyond that, this whole thing truly just came across as superficial and disingenuous. At most, one could read that as the lengths we go to put on a facade to please other people, but seeing as most of the humor revolved around one-note caricatures being socially awkward and unhinged, it never really served any greater purpose than desperately trying to hold the viewer's attention like the children's show she watches.

Sure, it tried to sell itself as feel-good entertainment, but what's so feel-good about a kid walking in on his dad having sex? Or an old man assaulting children? Or the main character mimicking her mother in the most childishly mocking way possible? On the other hand, when it tried to sell itself as some "everyday snapshot" of the life of a struggling woman finding the right person at the wrong time (as an excuse for the open ending that just made everything feel all the more aimless), it quickly fell apart as well when everything was so cartoonishly exaggerated, jarringly edited for maximum brainrot, and downright mean-spirited.

The film was labeled as a "black comedy", but it was neither "black" enough to actually push any boundaries beyond juvenile shock value nor "comedic" enough to even make me laugh once. "Frisk" is Swedish for "healthy", but that's false advertising considering the headache this confused mess left me with.

I know I'll be long forgotten, lost in the void, but if my words can echo throughout history, then maybe it was all worth it

Even at such a garish and uptight event as Cannes, Hernández manages to squeeze out every drop of humanity and grace that he can find.

before you know it, our sweet summer idyll es by in a flash, so make sure to savor the taste

we shouldn't have to hide our true selves
who will pull me out of the shadows
and love me unconditionally
to share our joy and pain together
for when the world is against us
we'll just have to bite back

lesbian vampire rave girls are the future

The love a son has for his mother to make her the subject of his experimental film, and the love a mother has for her son to his artistry. Symbiosis of artist and subject.

scared to fall asleep because my dreams in the waking world are already tearing me apart

feeling trapped and unsettled when you gaze into the void of the mirror, reflecting our deepest insecurities

my fellow sea slug sisters must continue to fight for freedom so we can live to tell the tale

Don't let consumerism take control over you, don't let it corrupt your soul that's still waiting to bloom.

Lost in an instant, in the fog of my mind. Only the pale horse may find me here, my only companion in these barren lands. What little life remains will be for him to take.

I can vibe with the experimental piano music and mountain scenery, but this is just goofy as hell

Misty Day, Remains of the Judgment
It's him

a moment of carefree joy and bliss where you wish time would stop so you can savor that moment as long as possible. that's why we make films.

In the journal Gina Kim kept in 1996, she wrote:
"I don’t know what exactly it means to pursue this [as in to record a video diary nearly every day], but I am doing it because I know it will mean something to someone someday. I know in my gut that my struggle is not limited to myself. It is about a young woman who didn’t have voice in this post-colonial male-centric world. Maybe someday, someone will be able to tell me what these images all mean."

It certainly means something to me. The democratization of art means that you're not alone in your struggles, so to share them with the world and for us to see ourselves in them makes our voices that much stronger. I hope these images continue to reach out to more people, because to share a piece of yourself through art enriches the world.

Films reviewed on the podcast Tveksamt, dedicated to Swedish "classics" of questionable quality.

Not on Letterboxd:
Desperata (2010)

www.podcastics.com/podcast/tveksamt/

• Pillertrillaren
• Three Suns
• Asa-Nisse - Welcome to Knohult
• Svart Lucia
• Angel
• Zingo
• Only We Can Love Like This
• Drowning Ghost
• Naked
• Blue Monday

...plus 258 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Getting closer to my goal of 2K films, so finally doing the "official" count. Excluding international co-productions, documentaries, shorts, TV shows, and filmed stage shows (like concerts, revues, stand-up comedy).

• The Father
• The Springtime of Life
• Ingeborg Holm
• Brother Against Brother
• For the Fatherland
• Madame de Thèbes
• The Avenger
• The Sea Vultures
• Love and Journalism
• Kiss of Death

...plus 1447 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Listed in chronological order of when I watched them.

• Bullet Ballet
• Open House
• Videophobia
• Love & Pop
• Peep "TV" Show
• My Big Fat Father
• Sami Blood
• Sound of Noise
• Emilia Pérez
• One Day All This Will Be Yours

...plus 278 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

It's no secret that Swedish cinema heavily relies on adaptations (of plays, novels, poems, comics, TV shows, etc), remakes, sequels, prequels, spin-offs, and so on, all in the name of luring in viewers with existing IPs. So I went out of my way to make this list of "original" films, though you're sure to find ones that are very derivative because Sweden loves to rehash ideas even if they can't get the rights to them.

This list will also exclude documentaries, shorts, TV shows, filmed stage shows (like concerts, revues, stand-up comedy), as well as biopics and films that heavily rely on specific historical events/figures.

Sorted from highest to lowest average rating. More films will be added as I watch them.

• Autumn Sonata
• Fanny and Alexander
• Persona
• Scenes from a Marriage
• Wild Strawberries
• The Sacrifice
• Winter Light
• Cries and Whispers
• Shame
• Through a Glass Darkly

...plus 700 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These are films that I was the first to log on Letterboxd. Might be forgetting some at the moment. Not including shorts, documentaries, concert films or mini-series.

• The Peerless Beauty
• The Crimson Palm
• Forever and Ever
• The Chinese Amazons
• The Prominent Eunuch Chen Ho
• Dream of the Red Chamber
• The Imperious Princess
• Imperial Matchmaker
• A Fairy to the World
• The Lost Generation

...plus 84 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Seoul Music: The Rise of Korean R&B
• Mike and Metal in Korea
• Minori Chihara 10th Anniversary Live - Sanctuary
• Minori Chihara 1st Live 2008 -
• K-Pop: Korea's Secret Weapon?
• Our Exchange Year
• Cry Cry
• Traces of the Heart
• Difficulty Breathing
• I Can't Breathe

...plus 399 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Urban Dictionary defines a gore whore as "having extreme interest in blood, death, the undead, scars, gore". For the past few years, I've viewed it as a kind of subculture/fandom here on Letterboxd, where particularly alt girls with 𝖘𝖙𝖞𝖑𝖎𝖟𝖊𝖉 𝖙𝖊𝖝𝖙 share their ion for gore/horror films, so I guess I would be somewhat of a gore whore myself.

These films often come up in such circles, so if you're a fellow gore whore, feel free to post suggestions for the canon. And no, they don't all have to be "gore films" necessarily. You know the vibe.

• Gore Whore
• Gorgasm
• Nekromantik 2
• Guinea Pig: Mermaid in the Manhole
• Vania
• 13 Ghost Story Confrontation 1: Cherishing
• 2LDK
• 555
• 964 Pinocchio
• 976-EVIL

...plus 311 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

If you know where to , stream, rent or buy (on DVD for example) any of these films, please let me know.

• Storstadsfaror
• Familjens traditioner
• A Fortune Hunter
• A Scarlet Angel
• A Maid among Maids
• Hattmakarens bal
• Northerners
• När rosorna slå ut
• Frida's Songs
• The Two of Us

...plus 52 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

easternKicks is a UK-based website launched in mid-2002 dedicated to Asian films.

• Bullet Ballet
• Spirited Away
• Hero
• The One-Armed Swordsman
• House of Flying Daggers
• Saviour of the Soul
• Infernal Affairs II
• Come Drink with Me
• The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk
• Shaolin Soccer

...plus 1534 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films I've seen that feature artists that have competed in Melodifestivalen, the annual song competition that determines Sweden's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Excluding documentaries, shorts, filmed stage shows, compilation films, or TV shows. Read additional notes to see which artists are featured in the cast.

• Once in a Lifetime

  Lasse Holm
  Carola Häggkvist
  Björn Kjellman
  Lasse Kronér
  Lena Philipsson
  Jean-Pierre Barda
  Lars-Åke Wilhelmsson
  Casper Janebrink
  Nanne Grönvall
  Maria Rådsten
  Christer Björkman
  Jessica Andersson
  Regina Lund
  Camilla Henemark

• Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

  Loreen

• ABBA: The Movie

  Anni-Frid Lyngstad
  Benny Andersson
  Björn Ulvaeus
  Agnetha Fältskog
  Lena Andersson

• The Dream House

  Jan Malmsjö
  Tommy Körberg
  Björn Skifs
  Christer Sandelin
  Anders Ekborg
  Johan Rabaeus
  Robert Gustafsson

• Sean Banan Inside Seanfrica

  Kikki Danielsson
  Sina Samadi / Sean Banan
  Dr. Alban

• Snövit och de sju små dvärgarna

  Kjerstin Dellert
  Tomas Ledin
  Kisa Magnusson
  Björn Skifs
  Lasse Åberg
  Janne Schaffer

• Hälsingar

  Eric Öst

• Thunder and Lightning

  Alice Babs

• 'Swing It' Teacher

  Alice Babs

• Magistrarna på sommarlov

  Alice Babs

...plus 286 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• The Phantom Carriage
• Häxan
• A Page of Madness
• The Seashell and the Clergyman
• The ion of Joan of Arc
• Girl with Hyacinths
• Eyes Without a Face
• The Enchanting Shadow
• Last Year at Marienbad

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
• The Dream Songs
• August in the Water
• The Company of Strangers
• A Bride for Rip Van Winkle
• Nazar
• The Sacrifice
• Werckmeister Harmonies
• Eternity and a Day
• A Touch of Zen

...plus 36 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I'm sure Netflix has nothing to do with this trend.

• Red Dot
• Dancing Queens
• One More Time
• Canceled
• Feed
• Breaking Surface
• Shadow Island
• The Average Color of the Universe
• Dogborn
• Watch the Skies

...plus 11 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Swedish films reviewed on the Youtube channel Sam & Sebbe Snackar.

• Inland
• The Evil Next Door
• Orca
• Run Uje Run
• The Jonsson Gang
• Red Dot
• Glacier
• Most Unwanted
• Tigers
• JJ+E

...plus 49 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The fifth annual Masochist March challenge, to watch films with an average rating of 3.0 or lower throughout March, this time commemorating the fourth year in a row of Swedish shit.

Edit: Finished the challenge on March 21st.

• Landstormens lilla argbigga
• The Frozen Leopard
• Lust
• The Tears of Saint Peter
• Sherdil
• En förälskelse
• Deadline
• Utanför din dörr
• Paradiset
• Don't Cry Wolf

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films featured in this Cinemassacre video.

• Fist of Fury
• Winners & Sinners
• Police Story
• Millionaires' Express
• In the Line of Duty 4
• She Shoots Straight
• Drunken Master
• Drunken Master II
• My Lucky Stars
• The Young Master

...plus 66 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Other stuff that LB has added:
-Adult films
-TV shows

• Dear Brother
• Chobits
• Strawberry Panic!
• Devil May Cry
• Blue Drop
• Dragonaut: The Resonance
• Ga-Rei-Zero
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
• Dean Wonderland
• Another

...plus 19 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Based on what's stored here in my apartment. Obviously there's a lot of stuff back at my childhood home that I couldn't bother to bring with me.

• The Gyurkovics Boys
• Faust
• The Golden Clown
• For Her Sake
• The Wrong Millionaire
• His Life's Match
• I married - never
• Augustas lilla felsteg
• Saturday Nights
• Dear Relatives

...plus 904 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Pretty cool milestone tbh. Thanks again for the years of and for putting up with my autistic bullshit. If you have any questions or just wanna chat in general, feel free, comments are set to public.

(list is just a bunch of random concert films I like)

• Dragonforce : In the Line of Fire...Larger Than Live
• Stratovarius: Under Flaming Winter Skies - Live in Tampere
• Sonata Arctica - For the Sake of Revenge
• Avantasia - The Flying Opera: Around the World in Twenty Days
• Freedom Call: Live in Hellvetia
• Yngwie Malmsteen: Concerto Suite
• Hammerfall: Gates of Dalhalla
• Kamelot: One Cold Winter's Night
• Alestorm – Live at the End of the World
• Nightwish: End of an Era

...plus 35 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Inspired by Darren's list.

I reaching 100 followers felt immense. Then 1K was just insane, and now to have doubled that number doesn't even feel real. Honestly, I'm beyond grateful for everyone who has stuck around with me and my silly film ramblings.

I think a milestone like this calls for another Q&A session, so feel free to send in random questions, and I'll answer whatever I can. Or, if you want, you can answer the questions I've written here. I'll be providing my own answers to them as well.

The questions (and my answers):
1. Where do you come from?
Born and raised in Sweden, specifically Västerås, commonly referred to as gurkstaden (the cucumber city). Home of actress/director Mai Zetterling.

2. Where would you like to travel one day?
Japan, especially next year to coincide with Precure's 20th anniversary celebration. Hong Kong is also a big one, but obviously both are on hold until COVID restrictions have calmed down.

3. What are some of your favorite films or artists/bands from your country?
In of films, those are the ones I've included in the list. When it comes to music, I'm especially fond of our power metal bands, such as Twilight Force, Majestica, Lost Horizon and Metalite.

• Persona
• The Phantom Carriage
• Häxan
• The Girls
• The New Land
• In the Archipelago
• The Sacrifice
• The Tenderness
• The Ox
• Container

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My old favorites list from 2019 is super outdated so I figured it was time for a new one. One film per director, mainly sticking to stuff I've reviewed here, which should give a general overview of my taste in recent years.

• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• The Phantom Carriage
• A Page of Madness
• The Seashell and the Clergyman
• The ion of Joan of Arc
• Limite
• The Blood of a Poet
• Last Year at Marienbad
• The Love Eterne
• Woman in the Dunes

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

In case people wanna get to know me better.

• The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

  This was my favorite film since I first saw it on January 15th, 2011, until it was replaced by Bullet Ballet. I've watched it roughly 20+ times, usually as a yearly tradition in December because that's when the film takes place. I've rewatched it with several people, even one time in school.

  I had become a big fan of the Haruhi Suzumiya series a few months earlier but this was on a whole new level for me. I don't think I've cried as loudly on a first watch as with this one. It's also one of the few movies I own multiple copies of on DVD.

  If you're curious to see what my other favorite films are, check this list.

• Airplane!

  Countries I've traveled to:
  Denmark
  
  Greece
  Norway
  South Korea
  Spain
  Turkey
  United Kingdom
  United States

• Chungking Express

  I suffer from anxiety. Not only is this an effective comfort film for me, but it also represents my love for Faye Wong. Her voice and music is otherwordly and helps me cope with my personal issues, in turn inspiring me to pick Faye as my name.

  Just watch this music video and you'll see what I mean.
  Or this live performance.

• Metal: A Headbanger's Journey

  Metal has always been a big part of my life, initially stemming from my mom's vinyl collection including bands like Twisted Sister and Mötley Crüe. In 2012, I started getting into black metal which made me go even deeper. Since then I've been an active contributor to Metal Archives. (update: I'm even a mod on there now, so that should tell you something lmao)

  Another update: I'd say around 2018 was when I started getting REALLY obsessed with power metal in particular. It's something I've already listened to for a while, mostly thanks to Dragonforce being featured in Guitar Hero 3, but now it's easily my most listened music genre. As such, I'll make a separate list below just for power metal bands.

  Here are some of my favorite bands:
  Anaal Nathrakh (UK)
  Bell Witch (USA)
  Boris (Japan)
  Chthonic (Taiwan)
  Darkspace (Switzerland)
  Dol Ammad (Greece)
  Enslaved (Norway)
  Ethereal Shroud (UK)
  Firienholt (UK)
  Opeth (Sweden)
  Sad Legend (South Korea)
  Sunn O))) (USA)
  Whourkr ()
  Xasthur (USA)
  +many more

  Here are some of my favorite power metal bands in particular:
  Twilight Force (Sweden) (my GOATs)
  Skeletoon (Italy)
  Kaledon (Italy)
  Fellowship (UK)
  Stratovarius (Finland)
  Power Quest (UK)
  Dark Moor (Spain)
  Sacred Outcry (Greece)
  Skywings (Japan)
  Edenbridge (Austria)
  Skyblazer (Sweden)
  Freedom Call ()
  Phantom Excaliver (Japan)
  Majestica (Sweden)
  Terra Atlantica ()
  Sonata Arctica (Finland)
  DragonForce (UK)
  Galneryus (Japan)
  Imperial Circus Dead Decadence (Japan)
  Heavenly ()
  +many more

• I AM.: SMTOWN LIVE WORLD TOUR in Madison Square Garden

  Update: I'm not as invested in the K-pop fandom now as I was in my teens, but that was absolutely a formative time and made a lot of precious memories. I'm really out of the loop with newer groups, but there's still a lot of nostalgia for the groups I grew up with, as well as the 90s classics.

  Here are some of my favorite groups:
  B1A4
  Cosmic Girls (WJSN)
  Dreamcatcher
  EXO
  Fromis_9
  GFriend
  Girls' Generation
  Papaya
  H.O.T
  Ladies' Code
  Lovelyz
  Oh My Girl
  S.E.S
  Sechs Kies
  SHINee
  VIXX
  +many more

• Beyond Ultra Violence: Uneasy Listening by Merzbow

  Yes, I'm one of those weirdos that like noise music.

• The Art of Listening

  Music means a lot to me in general. Whenever people ask me what I want to work as in the future, my mind is left blank unless it's fixated on music-related occupations. I don't think I'd be able to make music though, at least not of the standards I wish for. I see myself more as an observer, and as such, I think being a music journalist or something along those lines could work.

• We Are the Best!

  The band in this film has a gig in my hometown Västerås. It goes along with my love for punk music, the same as my mom who was active in the 80's scene.

• Edge

  On the topic of punk culture, I'm committed to a straight edge lifestyle. I've never gotten drunk or high on drugs because I don't believe you need that to have a good time. It's not worth it in the long-run considering how badly it affects your health.

• Pokémon: The First Movie

  This was the first film I ever saw in theaters. I was barely a year old but my mom took me to see it since she knew I loved Pokémon.

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Listed in chronological order of when I watched them.

• Bullet Ballet
• Container
• You're Lying!
• Duet for Cannibals
• Mirage
• La Torture
• Flash ion
• 3. VII. 1973
• Smoking
• Double Labyrinthe

...plus 507 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The giveaway is closed, so here are the three winners:
rei
Violet
freaknasssty

Congrats to them, also thanks to everyone who participated and showed off their favorite films of the year. Hope you're all having a great holiday season.

_______________________________________________________

Same as last year, I'm giving out THREE pro hip upgrades!

Here are the rules (please follow every step):
1. Like this list.

2. Comment one of your favorite films that you saw this year. It will then be added to the list, so make sure the film you're picking isn't already listed.

3. The three winners will be chosen at random and get the upgrades on December 25th, assuming something doesn't happen like their s suddenly going missing, in which case I'll just pick another random .

4. Obviously this won't apply to that are already pro or patron.

Totally optional to follow me, but would be appreciated since I'm nearly at 4K. Either way, feel free to participate, and happy holidays :)

• Uski Roti
• Imitation of Life
• Aniki-Bóbó
• The ion of Joan of Arc
• In the Realms of the Unreal
• The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
• Monster
• Faust's Other: An Idyll
• Video Diary of a Lost Girl
• The Age of the Earth

...plus 70 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Other stuff that LB has added:
-Anime shows
-Adult films

• Halsduken
• Life on Seacrow Island
• Bamse
• Kullamannen
• Bombi Bitt och jag
• Markurells i Wadköping
• Pippi Longstocking
• The Red Room
• Söderkåkar
• Broster Broster

...plus 35 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

One film per director, from oldest to newest.

I also made this accompanying video with clips from each film.

• The ion of Joan of Arc
• Au Hasard Balthazar
• Marketa Lazarová
• Uski Roti
• India Song
• The Meetings of Anna
• From the Clouds to the Resistance
• Son of the White Mare
• The Company of Strangers
• Orlando

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Source: www.filminstitutet.se/sv/fa-kunskap-om-film/analys-och-statistik/biografstatistik/

See additional notes for ission numbers.

1. Package Tour

   2,038,785 issions

2. Docking the Boat

   1,837,141 issions

3. Emil i Lönneberga

   1,771,380 issions

4. A Man Called Ove

   1,715,093 issions

5. Ronja Rövardotter

   1,646,225 issions

6. The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

   1,567,632 issions

7. Tjorven and Skrallan

   1,563,995 issions

8. Pippi in the South Seas

   1,543,549 issions

9. Snowroller

   1,538,958 issions

10. The Accidental Golfer

    1,525,347 issions

...plus 190 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Bullet Ballet
• NEKO-MIMI
• One Day Before the Rainy Season
• Container
• Sleep Has Her House
• The Love Eterne
• The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
• Still Life
• Camp de Thiaroye
• Funeral Parade of Roses

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Source: pressroom.filminstitutet.se/posts/pressreleases/rekord-for-den-sista-resan-mest-sedda-svenska

See additional notes for ission numbers.

1. The Last Journey

   328,851 issions

2. A Respectable Life

   315,218 issions

3. Palme

   242,459 issions

4. Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words

   191,319 issions

5. They Call Us Misfits

   178,903 issions

6. Hasse & Tage - En kärlekshistoria

   151,717 issions

7. Searching for Sugar Man

   147,610 issions

8. A Thousand Pieces

   135,231 issions

9. Nice People

   125,882 issions

10. Becoming Zlatan

    82,966 issions

Source: www.filminstitutet.se/sv/fa-kunskap-om-film/analys-och-statistik/filmaret-i-siffror/

See additional notes for ission numbers.

1. Håkan Bråkan

   232,800 issions

2. Nelly Rapp - The Dark Forest

   148,300 issions

3. Second Act

   127,400 issions

4. The Final Race

   119,200 issions

5. Hammarskjöld: Fight for Peace

   98,500 issions

6. Canceled

   98,300 issions

7. The Abyss

   95,500 issions

8. Together 99

   95,500 issions

9. Long Live the Bonus Family

   79,300 issions

10. The Pinchers' High Voltage Heist

    78,063 issions

Excluding covers.

• Mosquito
• Huge
• Flood
• Rattlesnake
• Death Valley
• Ibitsu
• A Bao A Qu
• Your Name.
• Farewell
• Pink

...plus 58 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

(Source)

1. Metal: A Headbanger's Journey
2. Whiplash
3. Lemmy
4. Wayne's World
5. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
6. Airheads
7. Detroit Rock City
8. Get Him to the Greek
9. Little Nicky
10. Heavy Trip

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• DAICON IV Opening Animation
• HUGtto! Pretty Cure♡Futari wa Pretty Cure: All Stars Memories

I'm always looking for potential bangers, so something along these lines would do wonders.

• Sleep Has Her House
• Nostos: The Return
• Night Awake
• 24 Frames
• The Company of Strangers
• By the Time It Gets Dark
• Container
• NEKO-MIMI
• One Day Before the Rainy Season
• Last Year at Marienbad

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films mentioned and shown in this RedLetterMedia video.

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• The Fall Guy
• The Garfield Movie
• Avengers: Endgame
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• Jurassic Park
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• The Matrix
• Back to the Future
• Raiders of the Lost Ark

...plus 41 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Meshes of the Afternoon
• To Joy
• The Love Eterne
• 10/65: Self-Mutilation
• The Mermaid
• Dog Star Man
• Bad Girls Go to Hell
• Patriotism
• Darling, Stay at Home
• When Twilight Draws Near

...plus 117 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Funeral Parade of Roses
• Coming Out
• Peking Opera Blues
• HeartCatch PreCure!
• The Love Eterne
• Desperate Living
• Faye Wong – Live In Concert
• Madame
• Sailor Moon R: The Movie - The Promise of the Rose
• Looking for Magical Doremi

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films mentioned and shown in this RedLetterMedia video.

Not on Letterboxd:
Exorcist Bloodline (2015)
Revenge of the Exorcist (2018)
Nurse Exorcist (2018)

• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning
• Titanic 666
• The Exorcist
• Ouija: Origin of Evil
• Oculus
• 19 Doors

  (as American Ouija)

• Ouija House
• The Conjuring
• Conjuring Curse
• Conjuring: The Beyond

...plus 116 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Shoutout to the Letterboxd crew for putting up with this.

• Fantômas
• Ingeborg Holm
• The Vampires or, The Arch Criminals of Paris
• Judex
• Satan's Rhapsody
• The Outlaw and His Wife
• Night Music
• Thomas Graal's Best Child
• Sons of Ingmar
• Sir Arne's Treasure

...plus 214 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Tops & Bottoms
• Lovely Andrea
• A World Rattled of Habit
• Film(dzama)
• Look! We Have Come Through!
• R-34
• Différences et répétitions I
• A Legend for Fountains
• Corridor
• Strangulation

...plus 59 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Yet another Masochist March challenge, to watch films with an average rating of 3.0 or lower throughout March, this time commemorating the third year in a row of Swedish shit.

Update: Finished challenge on March 28th.

• Sjösalavår
• Love 1-1000
• Den vilda jakten på likbilen
• 47:an Löken
• 47:an Löken blåser på!
• The White Carnation
• Such Is Life
• Tess - Not Only a Killer
• Strawberries with Real Milk
• Festival

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I almost never participate in Letterboxd list showdowns these days, but "Best under-seen women-directed films" was a theme I couldn't ignore, so here you go. My cutoff point was 5K views, sorted from highest to lowest average rating.

• The Company of Strangers
• The Amazonian Angel
• The Cave of the Yellow Dog
• The Day I Became a Woman
• Sambizanga
• Song of the Exile
• Double Labyrinthe
• Sugar Cane Alley
• Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore
• Faithless

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Listed in chronological order of when I watched them.

• Bullet Ballet
• A Song of Silence
• One Day Before the Rainy Season
• Mama
• Hamlet
• Brother Against Brother
• The Tin Woodman of Oz
• No One Will Hurt You
• Ice Egg
• Exit

...plus 588 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Do You ? / Minns du? (1935) is a Swedish clip compilation that looks back on the golden age of silent films.

Not on Letterboxd:
Han som klara' boven (1908)
Two-step (1910)
Agaton och Fina (1912)
Äktenskapsbyrån (1913)
Det var i maj (1915)
Bomben (1920)
Hennes lilla majestät (1925)

• Do You ?
• The Tales of Ensign Stål
• The Queen of Emmeritz and King Gustaf II Adolf
• Värmlänningarne
• Järnbäraren
• The Last Performance
• A Secret Marriage
• The Mannequin
• Ingeborg Holm
• A Man There Was

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

One film per director, from oldest to newest.

I also made this accompanying video with clips from each film.

• Last Year at Marienbad
• The Terribly Sad Princess
• The Color of Pomegranates
• One Day Before the Rainy Season
• The Man Who Sleeps
• City of Lost Souls
• A Brighter Summer Day
• Green Snake
• Eternity and a Day
• Ritual

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The giveaway is closed, so here are the three winners:
iga
girlorphee_
tobi

Congrats to them, also thanks to everyone who participated and showed off their favorite films of the year. Hope you're all having a great holiday season.

_______________________________________________________

Same as last year, I'm giving out THREE pro hip upgrades!

Here are the rules (please follow every step):
1. Like this list

2. Comment one of your favorite films that you saw this year (which will then be added to the list)

3. The three winners will be picked at random and get the upgrades on December 25th (assuming something doesn't happen like their s suddenly going missing, in which case I'll just pick another random )

4. Obviously this won't apply to that are already pro or patron

Anyway, feel free to participate, and happy holidays :)

• One Day Before the Rainy Season
• Stop Making Sense
• Beau Travail
• Chimes at Midnight
• Rosa de Areia
• Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer
• Haru
• Déjà Vu
• Café Noir
• Peep "TV" Show

...plus 91 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Excluding docs, shorts, mini-series and TV movies.

1. Persona
2. Wild Strawberries
3. Autumn Sonata
4. Fanny and Alexander
5. Scenes from a Marriage
6. Cries and Whispers
7. The Virgin Spring
8. Through a Glass Darkly
9. The Seventh Seal
10. Winter Light

...plus 28 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Read notes for the exact images.

• Bullet Ballet

  Image: www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/kGjeAC1oQT8nNcjAn4l9tSjZzxa.jpg

• The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

  Image: pic1.zhimg.com/v2-acf7a3b16ff2f0619d1a811ef6bdc8bb_r.jpg

• The Love Eterne

  The one seen here.

"Of all Swedish feature films produced since the breakthrough of the sound film, roughly 50 are considered lost, as we have not been able to locate any original or preservation material, nor screening copies in the original format for the films. The Swedish Film Institute would be grateful if material for the following films should be found."

Source: www.filminstitutet.se/sv/fa-kunskap-om-film/filmarkivet/filmarkivet/forlorade-ljudfilmer/

Not on Letterboxd:
Fighten (1962)
VM-fighten Patterson - Liston (1962)

• När rosorna slå ut
• The fleet's little fiancee
• The Doctor's Secret
• The voice of the heart
• The Dangerous Game
• We must have love
• Manslaughter
• A woman's tomorrow
• The General
• Television: Swedish Version

...plus 38 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Now About All These Women in the Swedish Film Industry: On Women’s Representation and Work in the Swedish Film Industry is a book by Louise Wallenberg, Frantzeska Papadopoulou, Maaret Koskinen, and Tytti Soila. The following list is comprised from the book's filmography index.

Not on Letterboxd:
Blott en dröm (1911)
Stockholmsdamernas älskling (1911)
Stockholmsfrestelser (1911)
Muntra musikanter (1932)
En Stockholmssilhuett (1943)
13 Demon Street (1959)
Mod att leva (1983)
Kärlek & anarki (2020)
The Woman Who Cleaned the World (forthcoming)

Synopsis:
In the aftermath of the MeToo movement, during an ongoing pandemic, and in the midst of repeated demands for a 50/50 split between men and women in above-the-line positions, this book analyzes and interrogates the politics of gender focusing on the Swedish film industry, often considered to be the most "gender equal" film industry worldwide. While this gender equality (with a considerable proportion of women behind the camera) is much due to policies carried out of the state funded Swedish Film Institute, women filmmakers in Sweden still struggle with the same problems as do women in other national film industries. These problems entail having smaller production and distribution budgets than men and working in an environment involving recurring scandals of gender discrimination and sexual harassment.

This book looks behind the statistics and explores the often complex cultural, legal, and political conditions under which women have entered a male-dominated industry and discusses women’s strategies and efforts to promote change while providing evidence on how women’s presence has challenged the industry by provoking critical reactions and introducing new ways to portray women on screen. Using a wide range of different sources (e.g. archival material, laws, contracts, films, biographical materials, and interviews), the book tells the history of the rise of gender equality efforts undertaken by the Swedish Film Institute and investigates women’s possibilities to manage the rights to their work. It offers compelling portraits of pioneering women who have worked in or in relation to the industry and looks at the experiences of women currently working in the film industry.

• The Sisters
• Miss Julie
• The Father
• Den moderna suffragetten
• The Mannequin
• Ingeborg Holm
• Thomas Graal's Best Film
• The Girl from the Marsh Croft
• Thomas Graal's Best Child
• Sir Arne's Treasure

...plus 103 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.