Cinema
Marmalade Revolution
Marmeladupproret
Erland Josephson · 1980
Synopsis
Professor Karl Henrik Eller comes home to a suburban house with a bag of groceries in his hand. He greets his wife Maj and the two empty the bag, exchanging words without listening to each other. She takes out a jar and asks: apricot marmalade? Yes, he says. She replies that as far back as she can remember, orange marmalade has been eaten in this house. With that he leaves home, buys clothes and toiletries and takes a hotel room, where a journalist, Anna-Berit, soon comes to find him.
Context
Written, directed and performed by the same man, the film was produced by him with Sven Nykvist, who shot it, through the company they had founded together, which had already produced in 1978 a film directed by three people. The journalist's magazine wants to make the professor the symbol of the new bachelor, and he becomes a celebrity. Bibi Andersson plays the journalist, Marie Göranzon the wife. Critics almost unanimously noted the abundance of dialogue: one praised the virtuosity of the lines, another regretted that they follow one another too quickly to be savoured.
Who it is for
Ninety-three minutes, in Swedish. A dialogue-driven film, in which there is a lot of talk and little happens.
Prizes and reception
Presented in competition at the Berlin festival in 1980; the only feature film its author directed alone.