Sweden’s early film industry was dominated by Swedish Biograph (Svenska Biografteatern), home to star directors like Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller. It is nostalgically remembered as the generative site of a nascent national artform, encapsulating a quintessentially Nordic aesthetic—the epicenter of Sweden’s cinematic Golden Age. In The Life and Afterlife of Swedish Biograph, veteran film scholar Jan Olsson takes a hard look at this established, romanticized narrative and offers a far more complete, complex, and nuanced story. Nearly all of the studio’s original negatives were destroyed in an explosion in 1941, but Olsson’s comprehensive archival research shows how the company operated in a commercial, international arena, and how it was influenced not just by Nordic aesthetics or individual genius but also by foreign audiences’ expectations, technological demands, Hollywood innovations, and the gritty back-and-forth between economic pressures, government interference, and artistic desires. Olsson’s focus is wide, encompassing the studio’s production practices, business affairs, and cinematographic conventions, as well as the latter-day archival efforts that both preserved and obscured parts of Swedish Biograph’s story, helping construct the company’s rosy legacy. The result is a necessary rewrite to Swedish film historiography and a far fuller picture of a canonical film studio.

*The basis for the wonderfully funny and moving TV series developed by Amy Poehler and Scout Productions* A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life. In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming. Margareta suggests which possessions you can easily get rid of (unworn clothes, unwanted presents, more plates than you’d ever use) and which you might want to keep (photographs, love letters, a few of your children’s art projects). Digging into her late husband’s tool shed, and her own secret drawer of vices, Margareta introduces an element of fun to a potentially daunting task. Along the way readers get a glimpse into her life in Sweden, and also become more comfortable with the idea of letting go.

A compilation of carefully selected articles written by international film scholars, this record provides an in-depth look into the history of Swedish film. This scholarly account covers various phenomena, including the early screenings at the turn of the century, Swedish censorship, the golden age of silent films, 1930s' comedies and melodramas, documentaries, pornography, and experimental films. In addition, this volume examines the work of important contributors, such as Ingmar Bergman, Stefan Jarl, and Peter Weiss, and discusses film policies of the new millennium.

Olof Palme, Sweden's prime minister 1969-76, 1982-86, was Scandinavia's leading statesman during the Cold War. His chilling assassination in 1986 in a dark street in Stockholm is still unsolved. In his lifetime, he was much loved in Scandinavia and beyond, especially among progressives, for his anti-colonialist stance against the British and the French, his strong stand against Apartheid, his vocal opposition to American bombings and other human rights violations during the Vietnam war and finally for his opposition to both Margaret Thatcher's and Ronald Reagan's policies of neoliberalism at home and aggressive nuclear confrontation abroad. For many, he stood alone and bravely against injustices and aggressions committed by the powerful in our time. To British and American policymakers, however, diplomatic archives show, he was frequently seen as an annoying meddler from a small, self-regarding country that had stayed neutral in world 2 and was easily manipulated by leftist African dictators and Soviet leaders into betraying his own country's basically pro-Western orientation. This is the first book in English about a man who, while still missed in Sweden, for his liberal domestic reforms as much as his high moral stance in international affairs, has disappeared down the memory hole in the West's consciousness. Was he really killed by a lone, crazed Swedish petty criminal, as the Swedish police still maintain? Or was death on a snowy night strolling home from the cinema a brutal political assassination by powerful international interests? Were the Soviets really lying when they claimed that the trail of the assassins led to points West? This must-read non-fiction book for people interested in Sweden works on several levels: as a true journalistic inquiry into a still unsolved murder, as a biography of a charismatic but controversial statesman, and as a detailed political and cultural history of Sweden in the second half of the twentieth century.