After having heard so much about the
provocative sexuality of the Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow),
which was seized by U.S. Customs agents under obscenity charges in 1968, I
started watching it with considerable expectations. I sat down ready to be
inundated with offensive scenes and instead what I got was political talk
-- and lots of it!
For well over 35 minutes the film gives us the
story of a young Swedish woman named Lena (Lena Nyman) coming of age in a
politically aware time period. And by the way, she happens to be sexually
active too, so at the 38 minute mark the woman and her new boyfriend (Börje
Ahlstedt) take each other＊s clothes off. Finally, I thought the
film is going to deliver. But since the scene is fairly innocent 每 it
would most likely pass PG-13 today 每 I figured this must be just a
warm-up.
Then the supposedly offensive scene came. At one hour and
17 minutes, after some more political talk and a few moments of personal
discovery by our young heroine, we get a partially frontal nude male shot
and the young woman caressing and kissing his private parts. This scene 每
a bit of an eye opener by the standards of the era 每 is the infamous three
second shot that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
I Am
Curious (Yellow) was the first major film to show completely nude
characters and in some corners that was considered in bad taste. But it
seems to me that part of the reason the film was considered offensive was
because of its leftist politics. Anyway you look at it the controversy
help propel the film into the box office stratosphere. In 1968 it made $20
million and it is still currently the sixth highest grossing foreign
language film of all time.
I Am Curious (Yellow) is indeed a
curious film. The basic thread from start to finish is that it is a movie
about the making of a movie about a young woman coming of age. As directed
by Vilgot Sjoman, it is a self-conscious documentary/fictional film that
throws out a lot of personal and political ideas without clinging to any
one of them.
At once humorously annoying, politically dynamic, and
clever the film is a reasonably enjoyable two hours. Overall though 每 for
you expecting to see the Swedish version of 9
½ Weeks 每 (Yellow) is a lot more cerebral than sexual. This
is all the more ironic since the film, which won its day in court,
ultimately cleared the way for Deep Throat and other such sex films
of the 1970s.
The Criterion Collection DVD has all kinds of extras
每 including documentaries and interviews 每 which give us a thorough
background on the controversy surrounding the film as well as the film＊s
meaning and significance. There is also a second disc featuring the follow
up film titled I Am Curious (Blue), which is 每 by the director＊s
own admission 每 essentially the same film (with the same actors) only with
different scenes.
From filmcritic.com
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