
Directing
Dec 1, 1924
Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden
Vilgot Sjöman
Directing
Biography
David Harald Vilgot Sjöman was a Swedish writer and film director. His films deal with controversial issues of social class, morality, and sexual taboos, combining the emotionally-tortured characters of Ingmar Bergman with the avant garde style of the French New Wave. He is best known as the director of the films 491 (1964), I Am Curious (Yellow) (in Swedish, "Jag är nyfiken - gul") (1967), and I Am Curious (Blue) ("Jag är nyfiken - blå") (1968), which stretched the boundaries of acceptability of what could then be shown on film, deliberately treating their subjects in a provocative and explicit manner.
Feature Films (19)

Filmed during the first ever Guldbaggen (golden scarab) awards, it was edited and developed that night and shown for the first time to the guests at the after party.
Dance Around the Guldbaggen

Lena, aged twenty, wants to know all she can about life and reality. She collects information on everyone and everything, storing her findings in an enormous archive. She experiments with relationships, political activism, and meditation. Meanwhile, the actors, director and crew are shown in a humorous parallel plot about the making of the film and their reactions to the story and each other. Nudity, explicit sex, and controversial politics kept this film from being shown in the US while its seizure by Customs was appealed.
I Am Curious (Yellow)

The same movie with the same characters, cast and crew as I am Curious (Yellow), but with some different scenes and a different political slant. The political focus in Blue is personal relationships, religion, prisons and sex. Blue omits much of the class consciousness and non-violence interviews of the first version. Yellow and Blue are the colors of the Swedish flag.
I Am Curious (Blue)

'Filmstaden', a film studio in Stockholm where directors Victor Sjöström, Mauritz Stiller, Ingmar Bergman among others worked - as well as many prominent actors - was built 1919-1920. This documentary tells its rich history featuring many of the people involved.
Filmstaden

This is a sort of documentary made by Vilgot Sjoman about Vilgot Sjoman as a sort of cinematic autobiography aired on Swedish television originally in 1992.
Self Portrait '92

Follows the story of the beloved and internationally acclaimed Swedish actress Lena Nyman, based on 17 paper bags with diaries that she left behind.
Lena

About an alcohol-damaged young man, his life in and out of prison, his friend the art teacher and his difficulties reintegrating into society.
You're Lying!

The year is 1961 and Ingmar Bergman is making a movie. While planted on the scene as apprentice to Bergman, Vilgot Sjöman (director, I Am Curious–Yellow, 1967), suggests to Swedish Television that they take the opportunity to record with the acclaimed director. In August, Sjöman and the television crew begin to capture what would become a comprehensive five-part documentary on the making of Winter Light, offering views of script development, set construction and lighting, rehearsals and editing, as well as intimate conversations with Bergman and members of his cast and crew. Footage from the film’s Swedish premiere delivers immediate audience reactions and the critics’ reviews the following day.
Ingmar Bergman Makes a Movie

The poet who writes for pub scenes as well as for Dramaten. About weight and dizziness in an artistry that is related to both Evert Taube and Hjalmar Bergman. ew of theater has aroused criticism.
Lars Forssell x 2

"A testimony about her." Her being the actor and vocalist Monica Zetterlund. At 25 in the beginning of her career. Monica sings with a trio at a concert. Returns to her empty home in Stockholm. Relaxes in loneliness. Next morning. An interview with writer Vilgot Sjöman. Then off to recording at a studio with the Phillips Recording Orchestra, featuring Jan Johansson on piano. Later a concert at Nalen in Stockholm.
A Testimony About Her

In the midst of a civil war, a pair of former violinists in a tempestuous marriage oversee a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.
Shame
Television & Series (1)

The year is 1961 and Ingmar Bergman is making a movie. While planted on the scene as apprentice to Bergman, Vilgot Sjöman (director, I Am Curious–Yellow, 1967), suggests to Swedish Television that they take the opportunity to record with the acclaimed director. In August, Sjöman and the television crew begin to capture what would become a comprehensive five-part documentary on the making of Winter Light, offering views of script development, set construction and lighting, rehearsals and editing, as well as intimate conversations with Bergman and members of his cast and crew. Footage from the film’s Swedish premiere delivers immediate audience reactions and the critics’ reviews the following day.

