Three Films by Mai Zetterling
BUY AT:
See more details, packaging, or compare
Synopsis
A fearlessly transgressive, long-overlooked pioneer of feminist cinema, Swedish actor turned director Mai Zetterling ruffled the feathers of the patriarchal establishment with a string of bracingly modern, sexually frank, and politically incendiary films focused on female agency and the turbulent state of twentieth-century Europe. Her peerless ability to render subjective psychological states with startling immediacy is on display in Loving Couples, Night Games, and The Girls—three provocative, taboo-shattering works from the 1960s featuring some of Swedish cinema’s most iconic stars. With their audacious narrative structures that fuse reality and fantasy, their elaborate use of metaphor and symbolism, and their willingness to delve into the most fraught realms of human experience, these movies are models of adventurous, passionately engaged filmmaking.
Picture 8/10
The Criterion Collection presents three films by Mai Zetterling—Loving Couples, Night Games, and The Girls—in a set aptly titled Three Films by Mai Zetterling. All three are sourced from new 2K restorations scanned from the original 35mm negatives and presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 on individual dual-layer discs.
Though nicely assembled, there’s not a lot to say about the presentations beyond the fact that they’re all on the same level of quality, and that level is very good, about what I would expect from recent Svensk restorations. Each presentation is impressively sharp, with impeccable detail and a lovely grayscale that offers a wide tonal range. Black levels are fairly deep, and the contrast reveals an admirable amount of shadow detail. Highlights also retain a good amount of detail, even in the sequences that look (I assume purposely) blown out in The Girls.
The restorations themselves appear to have been thorough, leaving behind little to no visible damage. The encodes are solid across the board, rendering grain well, though perhaps a tad soft in places. Thankfully, there's no noticeable noise or blocking. Even scenes featuring mist or fog are cleanly rendered, preserving a photographic quality that I like to see.
In the end, all three films look great, likely the best they ever have, but they’re ultimately on par with what I’ve come to expect from modern Swedish film restorations.
Three Films by Mai Zetterling - Screen Captures
Audio 6/10
All three films feature lossless Swedish PCM single-channel monaural soundtracks. While the range isn’t particularly wide, the tracks are clean and free of distortion. Dialogue comes through clearly, and the music manages to push the levels a bit without ever sounding harsh. In the end, all three sound perfectly fine.
Extras 7/10
Criterion have assembled a decent selection of supplements for this edition, spread across the three dual-layer discs. The first disc (featuring Loving Couples) starts things off with Meeting Mai, a 1996 short film assembled from footage shot during a 1984 interview with Zetterling. In it, she discusses her early acting career and eventual move to Hollywood, though despite some success, she felt a strong pull toward directing. She later relocated to London to make films for the BBC before returning to Sweden to direct Loving Couples.
It’s brief, only about 10 minutes, but provides a solid introduction and background summary. That’s expanded further by a 21-minute interview with author Alicia Malone, who gives a quick overview of Zetterling’s background before digging into the three films in the set. She discusses their groundbreaking qualities (and the controversies, especially surrounding Night Games), and also touches on Zetterling’s contribution to the Olympic anthology film Visions of Eight.
Those two features offer a fine summary and introduction, especially for those unfamiliar with Zetterling, but a more in-depth look comes with the 46-minute documentary Maybe I Am a Sorceress, found on the Night Games disc. Directed by Katja Raganelli—known for several profiles on women filmmakers, many of which Criterion has included elsewhere—it delivers an insightful and intimate portrait. Raganelli drops in on Zetterling while she’s directing an episode of Chillers (“The Stuff of Madness,” starring Ian Holm), and incorporates interviews where Zetterling reflects on her work and the differing critical receptions to them, which usually depended on whether the critic was male or female. The documentary also features interviews with actors who worked with her, including Bibi Andersson and Harriet Andersson (no relation), the latter offering some—let’s say—brutally honest remarks about her experience. As with Raganelli’s other programs, it captures a nuanced and thoughtful look at its subject.
Also included on the Night Games disc is a 13-minute collection of Swedish television reports covering the film’s production and release, featuring interviews and footage from the set, as well as segments addressing the controversy it stirred upon release.
The third disc (for The Girls) features the set’s most substantial supplement: Lines from the Heart, a 75-minute documentary from 1996. It brings together Zetterling’s longtime collaborators (and stars of The Girls) Harriet Andersson, Bibi Andersson, and Gunnel Lindblom at what appears to be Zetterling’s villa a few years after her death. Though the filmmaker’s legacy is the reason for their reunion (Zetterling had been planning a project involving the three), the film ultimately becomes a reflective piece on the actresses’ lives and careers. They discuss everything from their experiences in the industry and thoughts on acting to the value of therapy. It has a warm, nostalgic tone, though it leans more toward a meditation on the actresses themselves than on Zetterling. I suspect Criterion had the rights to it, and this was simply the most logical release to house it. As it is, for those fond of the three, it's definitely worth watching.
The set wraps up with a 32-page booklet featuring essays on all three films by Mariah Larsson.
It’s not the comprehensive overview one might hope for when covering a filmmaker like Zetterling, but the material is strong and ultimately more satisfying than what Criterion has provided in some similar releases.
Closing
While it may not be exhaustive, Criterion’s edition of Three Films by Mai Zetterling offers a strong introduction to a bold and underappreciated filmmaker, with solid restorations and a thoughtful selection of contextual material.
BUY AT:
