Je suis curieuse (jaune) (Jag är nyfiken – en film i gult) by Vilgot Sjöman

The Swedish New Wave

For the 2025 edition, FIKA(S) and the Cinémathèque Québécoise are highlighting Swedish cinema from the 1960s with a selection of films by Bo Widerberg, Jan Troell, and Vilgot Sjöman. While Ingmar Bergman has reigned supreme over the Swedish cinematic landscape since the end of World War II, this new generation of filmmakers, inspired by the French New Wave and American independent cinema, is challenging the conventions of representation and turning towards a decidedly social cinema.

Je suis curieuse (jaune) (Jag är nyfiken – en film i gult) by Vilgot Sjöman Sweden, 1967, 121 min num., Subtitled in French

Lena, a 22-year-old politically engaged woman, walks the streets of Stockholm with her microphone, gathering the opinions of her contemporaries on various social issues. After a heartbreak, she retreats to the countryside, where she attempts to live a life of asceticism... under the watchful eye of the camera. One would be wrong to reduce this work to the scandal it caused upon its release due to the erotic nature of some scenes: blending documentary sequences and a sentimental chronicle, this uncategorizable film – in which Vilgot Sjöman, the director, appears as himself – portrays an idealistic youth and captures the spirit of the times.