Film Forum

“It feels like I’m a long way away from pretty much every norm there is.”
– Mai Zetterling

Born to a working-class family in Västerås, Sweden, MAI ZETTERLING (1925-1994) first came to international attention as the “sweet, blonde, and defenseless” (Leif Furhammar) star in post-war Swedish, British, and Hollywood movies. But she made her mark in the 1960s as the director of daring features, groundbreaking for their depiction of dynamic female protagonists at odds with contemporary mores, radical commentary on the sociopolitical attitude of the era, brazen sexuality and transgressive homoeroticism (she believed that “if you are doing a film in which the main characters are obsessed by sex, worried by it, frightened by it, then you have to show it, to deal with it”).

The festival features Zetterling’s LOVING COUPLES (1964), NIGHT GAMES (1966), DOKTOR GLAS (1968), THE GIRLS (1968), THE MOON IS A GREEN CHEESE (1976), WE HAVE MANY NAMES (1976), SCRUBBERS (1982), and AMOROSA (1986), many in new restorations by the Swedish Film Institute.

It also includes highlights from Zetterling's acting career including Alf Sjöberg’s TORMENT (1944)—her debut— and IRIS AND THE LIEUTENANT (1946), Gustaf Edgren’s Swedish blockbuster SUNSHINE FOLLOWS RAIN (1946), Basil Dearden’s Brit Noir masterwork FRIEDA (1947), Bergman’s MUSIC IN THE DARK (1948), Sidney Gilliat’s ONLY TWO CAN PLAY (1962), starring Peter Sellers, and late-in-life roles in Nicolas Roeg’s THE WITCHES (1990), and Ken Loach’s HIDDEN AGENDA (1990), starring Frances McDormand and Brian Cox.

New restorations of LOVING COUPLES, NIGHT GAMES, THE GIRLS, and AMOROSA courtesy Swedish Film Institute and Janus Films.

MAI ZETTERLING has been programmed by Elspeth Carroll, Film Forum’s Associate Repertory Programmer, in partnership with the Swedish Film Institute. Special thanks to Kajsa Hedström.

CO-PRESENTED BY THE SWEDISH FILM INSTITUTE

With generous support from the Ostrovsky Family Fund, the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, the American-Scandinavian Foundation, and the Consulate General of Sweden in New York.

Films in this Series