Night Games [Nattlek] *** (1966, Ingrid Thulin, Keve Hjelm, Lena Brundin, Naima Wifstrand) – Classic Movie Review 11,795

Mai Zetterling (24 May 1925 – 17 March 1994).

Shirley Temple resigned from the San Francisco International Film Festival after attacking Mai Zetterling’s frank and controversial 1966 Swedish film drama Night Games as ‘pornography for profit’.

Director Mai Zetterling’s frank and controversial 1966 Swedish film drama Night Games [Nattlek] stars Ingrid Thulin, Keve Hjelm, Lena Brundin, and Naima Wifstrand.

Zetterling’s adaptation of her own novel offers an insight into the psyche of a sexually inhibited, disturbed man.

Night Games [Nattlek] is a wordy, heavy-handed film, unusual for its extremely frank treatment of sexual problems. With their intense, brooding performances, Hjelm is notable as as the adult Jan and so is Ingmar Bergman favourite Thulin as the mother Irene.

Jan returns with his fiancée to his childhood home, where he flashes back to his troubled childhood 20 years earlier, while his relationship with his fiancée grows ever more strained.

The film premiered at the 27th Venice International Film Festival where it was shown to the jury in private as it was considered that controversial. Shirley Temple resigned from the San Francisco International Film Festival after attacking the film as ‘pornography for profit’ and opposing it being shown at the festival.

From 1958 to 1976, Zetterling was married to British author David Hughes, who collaborated with her on her first films as director, including this one. Her first feature film Loving Couples [Älskande par] (1964) was banned at the Cannes Film Festival for its sexual explicitness and nudity

The cast are Ingrid Thulin as the mother Irene, Keve Hjelm as as the adult Jan, Jörgen Lindström as Jan age 12, Lena Brundin as Mariana, Naima Wifstrand as Astrid, Monica Zetterlund as Lotten, Lauritz Falk as Bruno, Rune Lindström as Albin, Christian Bratt as Erland, and Lissi Alandh as Melissa.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,795

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