I AM CURIOUS (BLUE)

Τitle: I Am Curious (Blue)
Subtitle: A Film by Vilgot Sjöman (1924-2006)
Translators: Martin Minow and Jenny Bohman from the Swedish
Language: English
First Printing
Place of Publication: New York
Publisher: Grove Press, Inc.
Year of Publication: 1970
Format: 115x182mm
Pages: 219
Illustrations: 276 black and white pictures by Sandrews Film and Theater Company
Jacket Design: Kuhlman Associates
Binding: Hardcover in colour dust jacket
Weight: 276gr.
Entry No: 2009034
Date of Entry: 26th May 2009

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Vilgot Sjöman's film I Am Curious (Yellow) has become a household word in America as a result of a storm of controversy ranging from the U.S. Customs which first ruled against it to the many serious reviewers who hailed it as a landmark in world cinema.

I Am Curious (Yellow) deals primarily with class structure, life in Sweden, non-violence, and value systems. I Am Curious (Blue), shot at the same time as Yellow, is concerned with religion, sex, the role of women in society, and the prison system. Lena Nyman (b. May 23,1944, Stockholm) and Nils Börje Ahlstedt (b. February 21, 1939, Stockholm), the young couple in Yellow, are the principal players in Blue.

“I Am Curious is a film within a film,” writes Clyde B. Smith in Film Quarterly. “On the surface this might appear to be an artificial time-worn device. But it works. Sjöman uses it for one kind of purpose in Yellow and for quite another in Blue. In the Yellow film the dual roles of the actors are kept quite separate from each other, but in the Blue film they begin to merge until actor and role become almost indistinguishable...

“I Am Curious (Blue) is much more concerned with the relation between people (cause) and the implications of these relations for the social structure of the nation (effect)...

“Anyone with half a mind knows we are living in a time when the status quo is being severely questioned by people of a wide range of persuasions --conservatives, liberals, activists, and the like. Although Sjöman's referents are particular to Sweden, they are nonetheless universal...”