179-181 I Am Curious...

[Martha]

I Am Curious...

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Seized by customs upon entry to the United States, subject of a heated court battle, banned in cities across the United States, Vilgot Sjöman's I Am Curious, Yellow is one of the most controversial films of all time. Shattering taboos as it freely traverses the lines between fact and fiction, I Am Curious, Yellow is presented here for the first time with its companion piece I Am Curious, Blue, a parallel film featuring the same characters and in which the lines between documentary and fiction are further blurred.

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I Am Curious, Yellow

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This landmark document of Swedish society during the sexual revolution has been declared both obscene and revolutionary. It tells the story of Lena (Lena Nyman), a searching and rebellious young woman, and her personal quest to understand the social and political conditions in 1960s Sweden, as well as her bold exploration of her own sexual identity. I Am Curious—Yellow is a subversive mix of dramatic and documentary techniques, attacking capitalist injustices and frankly addressing the politics of sexuality. Criterion is proud to present Vilgot Sjöman's infamous I Am Curious—Yellow.

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I Am Curious, Blue

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A parallel film to Vilgot Sjöman's controversial I Am Curious. Yellow, I Am Curious, Blue also follows young Lena on her journey of self-discovery. In Blue, Lena confronts issues of religion, sexuality, and the prison system, while at the same time exploring her own personal relationships. Like Yellow, Blue freely traverses the lines between fact and fiction, employing a mix of dramatic and documentary techniques. Criterion is proud to present Vilgot Sjöman's infamous I Am Curious, Blue.

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Special Features

- New high-definition digital transfers of both films
- Excerpts from director Vilgot Sjöman's Self Portrait 92 , a documentary made for Swedish television
- New video introduction by the director
- Director's diary: a selected scene audio commentary by Sjöman
- Video interview with legendary publisher Barney Rosset and attorney Edward De Grazia about the controversy surrounding I Am Curious, Yellow
- The Battle for I Am Curious, Yellow: A video piece on the film's censorship and trial
- Excerpts from the transcripts of the trial for I Am Curious, Yellow
- Deleted scene with an introduction by Sjöman
- Theatrical trailers
- Essay by critic Gary Giddins and a reprinted 1968 interview with the director
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

[Stig Helmer]

I am "curious" (sorry, couldn't help it....) about these titles...I know this title isn't among Criterions bestselling, and i can't find very many reviews on these films. Can someone share a few thoughts about these "thought-provoking" films?

I live in Scandinavia - and i have - strangely enough - never heard of the director og the films before.

[colinr0380]

This is quite a nice review of the I Am Curious set by Adam Jahnke on The Digital Bits under the title "Curious" and Curiouser.

Vilgot Sjoman also directed the excellent five part Ingmar Bergman Makes A Movie documentary for Swedish television packaged with Criterion's release of The Film Trilogy (Spine Number 212!)

[solaris72]

http://www.superdickery.com/other/3.html
The only Criterion release to be referenced on the covers of Superman?
(some hysterical stuff elsewhere on that page, by the way...Superman seems to kill Lois Lane a lot...my favorite is the one where she's in outer space, spacewalking outside her capsule, and he severs her air pipe...the story title is "NO WITNESSES IN OUTER SPACE" which needs to be a movie and/or a t shirt)

[thewind]

So, I just rented this (Yellow) from Netflix to see if I wanted to buy it, and absolutely loved it. The extras are top-notch, the film is a dizzyingly fascinating piece of art -- dizzying in that it so liberally combines reality with fiction with social significance with silliness with not-that-graphic-anymore sexual behavior.

I thought this was amazing, and I'm a bit annoyed that no one has talked about it here. Someone talk about it with me -- rather than Netflix "Blue", I'm just going to go out and buy the box set tomorrow.

[Elephant]

It's interesting to hear from someone who liked this film; I've spoken with a few friends who have seen this and they shared my opinion: I got this set at at a stoop sale for $10, and felt ripped off after suffering through "Yellow" and forcing myself to watch 15 minutes of "Blue." This film was such a chore to watch; in fact after watching it I checked this thread to see what others were saying--of course there's been no discussion. It just seemed like a film which hasn't aged well at all--ugly people running around naked between tedious interview segments. The metafictional aspects ("This is a film, I am the director of the film and in the film, this is an actress playing herself in the film") haven't aged well (they haven't aged well in fiction, either), but tends to explain the Grove Press connection. I actually thought the 8-minute documentary was pretty fascinating, seeing why people found the film interesting in the sixties (though its reputation as taboo didn't hurt). This is one of the few Criterion releases I've outright vehemently disliked.

[thewind]

Well, that seems to be the common response. I have no idea why people find this film dated, to be honest, and the comment about them being "ugly" was just plain pathetic.

I see this as being an interesting precursor to Dogme among other things, and I'm interested in the making of this -- if Sjoman's introduction is correct, it was improvised, but some parts clearly were not. How it was put together, how documentary aspects were chosen to be woven into the narrative. Granted, I haven't seen "Blue" yet, but "Yellow" was strong enough for me to want to get the entire set.

It's a mess of a movie, yes, but it's a glorious mess in my opinion. I was quite enthralled by most of the film.

[Elephant]

Well, that seems to be the common response. I have no idea why people find this film dated, to be honest, and the comment about them being "ugly" was just plain pathetic.

Well, maybe that was a bit harsh, though I remember that being my reaction while forcing myself to finish "Yellow." The whole thing felt so self-indulgent and redundant. I was deathly bored. Of course, being called "pathetic" by a stranger for offering an opinion based on my natural response to a film is one of the reasons I haven't posted even twenty times since this board's been up. Though, to be honest, were it Bardot running around nude I don't think it could have helped any.

[thewind]

No personal offense intended -- I just find it peculiar that on a board dedicated to Criterion discs, that you chose to mention how ugly the actors were naked. That's usually the kind of thing I'd expect on DVDTalk, not here.

To each their own, I suppose!

[Elephant]

No personal offense intended -- I just find it peculiar that on a board dedicated to Criterion discs, that you chose to mention how ugly the actors were naked. That's usually the kind of thing I'd expect on DVDTalk, not here.

Except my grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax, and basic understanding of sentence construction were all intact. Guess I've at least got that over those DVDTalk guys.

[solent]

Did Criterion issue I AM CURIOUS as the first in a series of Swedish "New Wave" classics or just due to the controversy surrounding the original film? I was hoping the former was the case but time is proving the latter to be true. From what I've read of Sjoman's other (early) films they seem to be just as valid as works of art & more conventional while maintaining controversy (something he enjoyed indulging in). I still have faith in Criterion that in time they will scrape the Euro 60s barrel and expose films rarely seen since the 60s. Films which deserve a better fate.

I like I AM CURIOUS for what it is: part fiction & part documentary. I think Godard was more successful at blending the two but Sjoman is a thinking Swede who does films his way. I like watching the set at least once a year and I consider it to be an excellent overall package by Criterion.

[thewind]

I would hope it's the former as well, but I'm content with the latter (and judging by what the extras are, I think that was the intent).

Yes, it does have hippies of a sort, but I was surprised to find how critical and playful the film was about the politics. I was expecting a lot less of a self-effacing approach, and was pleased with the film. I wonder (suspect?) if the original combined cut was duller and drier.

[zedz]

Well, I was really impressed with these films, but more in the way they interlocked rather than individually. Individually, these films are indeed messy and (deliberately, I think) frustrating - though full of intriguing ideas. When you see them together, however, Blue fills in the other half of Yellow's narrative - a half you don't even necessarily realise is missing. Watching Blue (which I think is probably the better film on its own terms as well) right after Yellow was extremely satisfying: the jumps and leaps of the earlier film are filled in, the characters deepen, and the crazy experimentation of the entire project becomes much more focussed.

The Godard connection is obvious, but I think Sjoman actually went much further in these films than Godard had done to this point, and there may be some influence flowing back the other way in the DVG and later films.

I'd be interested in hearing how you find Blue, thewind. Has anybody here actually seen both films?

[thewind]

I'm dying to see Blue, and I should be getting it in the mail in a few days. So I'll check it out by this weekend, I hope!

[colinr0380]

Did Criterion issue I AM CURIOUS as the first in a series of Swedish "New Wave" classics or just due to the controversy surrounding the original film?

Couldn't it be for both reasons? Also it seems like Blue was very obscure compared to the notoriety of Yellow until this set was released.

[Matango]

I Just watched Blue again tonight after two year's break, and really enjoyed it. Something that struck me more this time was the cinematography, especially striking around the lesbian's summer house at night. It reminded me of some of Sven Nyqvist's work, so I checked out the cinematographer and, much to my smug satisfaction, it was a guy called Peter Wester, who was Assistant cameraman to Nyqvist on such Bergman films as Winter Light, Through a Glass Darkly and The Silence. He did Yellow, too, but Blue was his last film, according to IMDB.

[Dadapass]

I enjoyed this
-deleted-
Has anyone seen any of his other films and are they anything like these two?

[dad1153]

I've had these Criterion movies for years (got the Box Set cheap when a video store went out of business) but only in recent months, with my first exposure to Bergman's work (yes, I'm slow! ), did I feel the need to sample more Swedish films.

I Am Curious - Yellow (1967): Writer/director/co-star Vilgot Sjöman deserves credit for mixing three genres (documentary, fiction and film-within-a-film) that results in a time capsule of 60’s Swedish society that’s both politically charged and sexually daring for it’s time. Lena Nyman is one tough chick that's asked to do/say things most actresses wouldn't dare touch. Neither the leftist politics it advocates or the anti-Hollywood treatment toward sex and nudity that gained notoriety have survived the passage of time though. If you've seen a flaccid penis being stroked you've seen them all, right? The bonus features about the movie’s controversial legal history are more interesting and fun to watch than anything in the movie itself, which is as true now as when "I Am Curious" was theatrically released in '67.

I Am Curious - Blue (1968): The Nyman Institute is back in business in this sequel to 'Yellow' (both were shot simultaneously but released a year apart). More so than before the line between fiction and truth in 'Blue' is obliterated as Lena seeks the opinions of her Sweedish countrymen on even more hot-button issues of the day. An interview with a Pentecostal church-going young man inside a car is particularly amusing. While 'struggling' to complete the movie she's starring in (the one we're watching) Lena deals with personal issues with former lovers that include her director (Sjöman himself, not half-bad) not giving her proper attention. There's still plenty of nudity and sexuality on display in 'Blue' but it clearly takes a backseat to an actual plot thread (Lena's search for the mother that abandoned her as a child) and the social commentary, which is more leftist-leaning and sure-footed than in 'Yellow.' When the movie's crew pops on camera singing a protest song on the side of a road with a car carrying Lena just passing by it feels both totally natural and unexpected. A scene when Lena peeks into a camera and sees a flashback of her parents making love (complete with Sjöman popping into frame to ask her what she sees) and the finale stand out, giving the two-film saga an appropriate send-off. "Blue" actually improves on the foundations laid off by "Yellow."

The “I Am Curious” saga is, oddly enough, a curiosity even by Criterion's standards. It inhabits that middle-ground of 'who cares?' and 'why bother?' titles you're half-tempted to get between the big releases but never end up getting (unless you borrow them from a friend or take them out free from the library). I really hope Criterion releases more of Vilgot Sjöman's body of work in its budget Eclipse line so we can get a chance to see the likes of "491" and "Malacca" in these shores. They're dated but fascinating time capsules from their era that are sufficiently removed from Bergman's work (Vilgot was hung-up on sex, violence and political commentary) to tell us more about the human condition as perceived by Sweedish filmmakers.