Stockholm International Film Festival. Our first film: Fyra år till (Four More Years)

Trailer for the Stockholm International Film Festival 2010:

'Fyra år till' ('Four More Years') by Tova Magnusson:

We have now seen this film and it was a rather harmless homoerotic story about a succesful liberal Swedish politician, who is on the verge of becoming the next prime minister of Sweden. Unfortunately it almost ends with him being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Being brought up in a religious, baptist home, he is rather conservative when it comes to some issues concerning sex and not least concerning his own sexual preferences.

He meets a social democratic politician and falls in love with him, this causing him moral problems and not least problems connected to his political career. Firstly, having an affair with a man and secondly, this man being a political opponent.

To get out of the closet or not get out of the closet, that is the question.

In general one can say that it's a film with a theme being somewhat obsolete with a harmless mise-en-scène and impossible to export to other countries as the story to a great extent is based in a very 'Swedish' context, if I may put it that way.

One can note that the leading actor - Björn Kjellman - has a hair cut reminding us of former prime minister Olof Palme and a style in his acting somewhat reminding of the Swedish foreign minister (and former prime minister) Carl Bildt.

Arrival at Stockholm from Skavsta

We came to Stockholm with bus from Skavsta airport at 2:25 pm and we went directly to the Stockholm Film Festival's office, in order to get our free passports.

There we met Sebastian Lindvall, a former fellow-student at the Department of Cinema Studies at Stockholm University. He has been working with the film festival not only this year but the previous two years also, if I remember correctly.

When we arrived Aurore's passport hadn't arrived from the 'printing' yet but it should arrive the day after, according to Sebastian.
As we had calculated looking at a film the very same evening I asked Sebastian if this could constitute a problem but it wouldn't he assured us. "You refer to me..." and SESAM!

We didn't stay long as Sebastian had a lot of work to do and we had to hurry to our friend Mahla's apartment where we were going to stay during our visit, as she had to leave for her studies a certain time.
Our friend is a former nurse with whom I worked at a couple of hospitals when working as an assistant nurse in Stockholm some years ago.
Now she has started medicinal/health studies in order to become a doctor.
When moving from Sweden to France we sold a great deal of our furniture and other possessions in the apartment and some of it were sold to Mahla, wherefore I found an office chair, a lamp, a clock, a bureau and many other items earlier belonging to me or us now being a part of her apartment! We felt at home.

Next stop was the film 'Fyra år till' ('Four More Years').
Read more about it in the next blog.
Meanwhile you can take a look at the first small short film Sebastian Lindvall directed when studying at 'Kulturamas film linje' 2006. It's called 'Ling':

(Photo logotype Stockholm Film Festival taken from: http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_laucebxuca1qzvxlto1_250.jpg)
(Photo Bronze Horse taken from: http://www.stockholmfilmfestival.se/fileadmin/images/festival08/mingel/prisutdelning/lasse_0.jpg)

Our Paris hotel

La Châtre-Châteauroux-Paris-Beauvais-Skavsta-Stockholm

This afternoon we'll take the bus from La Châtre - our hometown - to Châteauroux where we take the train to Paris at 6.30 pm.



We will arrive in Paris two hours later and then stay overnight at a hotel in order to leave for Stockholm Saturday from Beauvais airport.

The flight leaves at 9.55 am and arrives Skavsta at 12.05 am. After that we will probably be in Stockholm by 2-2:30 pm.

On our first day in Stockholm we will get our 'passports' for the Stockholm Film Festival, giving us free entrances to the films during the festival.
This a small recompense for the work we've done, writing - for the catalogue and newspaper - about some of the films screened during the festival.

We will live with one of our friends in her apartment and at 6 pm Saturday our first screening will take place.

Rupture & Tant qu'on a la santé. Pierre Etaix

Two more films by Pierre Etaix, the first a short feature and the second a film made in honour of George Méliès.
The latter contains a theatrical mise-en-scène with four acts and constitutes and exposé over the French life and the way people enjoy themselves and others, to put it short.

I advice you to buy this box containing not only films but interviews with Etaix and his friend and collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière, a book with drawings and paintings by Etaix and so forth.

He was and is a very versatile person.