Customer Reviews

I Am Curious (Yellow) [VHS]

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I love this movie! Lena tries hard to be a politically correct person for the 60's by protesting and following Martin Luther King's non-violence approach, but her political life can't keep pace with her sexual life, no matter how hard she tries. The complexities of sex destroy her political convictions, and the politics of sex rules over all, including the relationship of director to stars, as the lines between filmic narrative and film making process are constantly blurred. It's funny, it's brutal, it's beautifully shot. The U.S. Supreme Court had the film conviscated on its arrival, but I think it was more because of the film's political agenda and its condemnation of the US involvement in Vietnam. If you're looking for titillation and graphic sex, this in not the film for you. If you're looking for an intellegent and engaging political film that uses sex as it's metaphor, then you've hit the jackpot.

In the sixties, the Swedish films were known to be the most sexually graphic, but this is the one that really rocked the world... It was shocking in its uninhibited portrayal of sex and in its fulminating piece of social democracy... It was a significant step forward in getting the adult film shown in the theaters...

The film comes in two editions, blue and yellow... The blue version focuses more on the political issues and the yellow concentrates on the emergence of sexual liberation...

The lead character is a young Swedish girl who attempts to hold fast to her philosophy of nonviolence, free love, and democratic socialism... But the realities of her life force her to adopt new and unrestrained ideologies...

Strangely enough, in Sweden, it was criticized more for its left-wing attitudes than for its audacious display of sex...

A very continental high-mindedness (especially in its ambitious attempt at political significance) drives this movie, but in terms of execution I Am Curious (Yellow) is characterized mostly by techniques much more akin to exploitation film: Dizzying zooms, lightning-fast cuts, awkward writing, a very cheap look.

One can sense a fascinating and empathetic character looming somewhere in lead character (also actress) Lena Nyman; the problem is, she spends a good 2/3 of this film whining on and on about her beliefs in a voice that could comfortably have fit into one of Federico Fellini's hyper-annoying, narcissistic mockeries of femininity (see 8 1/2 and especially Amarcord). In her moments of genuine catharsis Lena is very interesting to watch: When Boerje attacks her physical appearance and she breaks down in anger, it's the closest this film comes to emotional involvement. That is all but lost in a sea of political banter, which director Vilgot Sjoman never bothers to weave into the narrative (there isn't much of one, actually). So we get this -- a jumble of explicit scenes of nudity and simulated sex, political messages, some funny moments ("It's good if you didn't sleep with Madeleine...") and more than enough pretension to go around.

Irma Vep was a much better blend of reality and fiction, narrative and technical innovation. Still, I would be lying if I said there wasn't a single moment of pleasure to be derived from I Am Curious (Yellow).

This film, I am Curious (Yellow) takes place in Stockholm during the Vietnam War . Historically it is rather accurate and unbaised . The major theme surrounding this film is that of boundaries ; those created and those imposed . The father is a framer , meaning that his specialty was building and maintaining frames (for pieces of art) . This theme is so clear when one analizes the dynamics of the relationships she keeps throughout the film notably the father-daughter relationship . He gave her the freedom of choosing her medium , the variables of her life , as if she herself were an artist . Yet he absolutely dictates the boundaries of that freedom , confindes her to his restrictions . The girl is living in a tiny bedroom , almost as a social pariah , yet she is very popular and social , albeit among the men . In this instance , her relationship with men is the constant , while her promiscuity remains her variable . The director of this film also blurs the lines of reality ... after half of the movie was over , it switched to a documentary-like film . My best explination is that the director also wanted to live out the life of his characters and relinquish all control to them via his own camera lens .