A Companion to Nordic Cinema

The Companion to Nordic Cinema encompasses original contributions by twenty–six Nordic and international film scholars, writing from the Nordic region as well as the United States, Canada, Scotland, and Hong Kong. The volume offers a transnational approach to one of the world s earliest and oldest film–producing regions. Focusing on issues that cut across the region film policy, film education, cinephilia, innovation, global connections, and practitioner s agency authors bring the creativity and contributions of the Nordic cinema s practitioners, films, and film cultures into sharp relief. The Companion provides a variety of paths through the complex history of Nordic cinematic traditions, tracing compelling links between well–known names and titles and the forms of personal and institutional creativity that facilitated their very emergence and success. Together, the chapters provide the distinctive historical, cultural, and political contexts that account for Nordic cinema s striking successes since the dawn of the medium. At the same time, they clearly show that the Nordic region s filmmaking milieus are deeply transnational and fully engaged with global cinematic flows. 
Offers a comprehensive, transnational and regional account of Nordic cinema from its origins to the present day Features original contributions from more than two dozen international film scholars based in the Nordic countries, the United States, Canada, Scotland, and Hong Kong Covers a wide range of topics on the distinctive evolution of Nordic cinema including the silent Golden Age, Nordic film policy models and their influence, audiences and cinephilia, Nordic film training, and indigenous Sámi cinema. Considers Nordic cinema s engagement with global audiences through coverage of such topics as Dogme 95, the avant–garde filmmaking movement begun by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, and the global marketing and distribution of Nordic horror and Nordic noir Offers fresh investigations of the work of global auteurs such as Carl Th. Dreyer, Ingmar Bergman, Lars von Trier, Aki Kaurismäki, and Roy Andersson. Includes essays on Danish and Swedish television dramas, Finland s eco–documentary film production, the emerging tradition of Icelandic cinema, the changing dynamics of Scandinavian porn, and many more

Mette Hjort is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Affiliate Professor of Visual Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, China, and Affiliate Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her publications include The Strategy of Letters, Small Nation, Global Cinema, Lone Scherfig s Italian for Beginners , and a series of interview books: The Danish Directors (with Ib Bondebjerg, 2001), The Danish Directors 2 (with Eva Jørholt and Eva Novrup Redvall, 2010), and The Danish Directors 3 (with Ib Bondebjerg and Eva Novrup Redvall, 2014).

Ursula Lindqvist is Assistant Professor of Scandinavian Studies and Film and Media Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, USA. She is the author of Roy Andersson s Songs from the Second Floor: Contemplating the Art of Existence, and co–editor, with Jenny Björklund, of New Dimensions of Diversity in Nordic Culture and Society. Her articles have appeared in PMLA, Modernism/Modernity, Space and Culture: International Journal of Social Spaces, African and Black Diaspora, and a special issue of Scandinavian–Canadian Studies devoted to Nordic cinema. 

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I States of Cinema: Nordic Film Policy

Introduction
Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist

1. Regional and Global Dimensions of Danish Film Culture and Film Policy
Ib Bondebjerg

2. Developing a Bhutanese Film Sector in the Intersection between Gross National Happiness and Danish Guidance
Nis Grøn

3. Cinema in the Welfare State: Notes on Public Support, Regional Film Funds, and Swedish Film Policy
Olof Hedling

4. Education, Enlightenment, and General Propaganda : Dansk Kulturfilm and Carl Th. Dreyer s Short Films
Claire Thomson

Part II Making Filmmakers: Models and Values

Introduction
Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist

5. How to Train a Director Film Schools in the Nordic Countries
Astrid Söderberg Widding

6. Non–Fiction Film Culture in Sweden circa 1920 1960: Pragmatic Governance and Consensual Solidarity in a Welfare State
Mats Jönsson

7. Crossing Borders: Going Transnational with Danish Film Training, Capacity Building, and Talent Development
Mette Hjort

Part III Reeling Em In: Spectatorship and Cinephilia

Introduction
Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist

8. The Rise and Fall of Norwegian Municipal Cinemas
Ove Solum

9. The Capital of Scandinavia? Imaginary Cityscapes and the Art of Creating an Appetite for Nordic Cinematic Spaces
Maaret Koskinen

10. Jörn Donner and the Emergence of a New Film Culture in Post–War Scandinavia
Kimmo Laine

11. The Formation of a Cinema Audience in Sweden, 1915–1929
Tommy Gustafsson

Part IV Reinventing the Reel: Transitions and Triumphs

Introduction
Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist

12. Searching for Art s Promised Land: Nordic Silent Cinema and the Swedish Example
Casper Tybjerg

13. Aki Kaurismäki –– From Punk to Social Democracy
Andrew Nestingen

14. Swedish Cinema of the 1940s, a New Wave
Fredrik Gustafsson

15. Between Art and Genre: Nordic Horror Cinema
Gunnar Iversen

16. A Tradition of Torturing Women
Linda Haverty Rugg

Part V Connecting Points: Global Intersections

Introduction
Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist

17. Memories of Cultural Dismemberment: Nils Gaup, Mons Somby, and the Re–Membering of Sámi History
Wendy Gay Pearson

18. The Scandinavian Colonies of Silent–Era Hollywood
Arne Lunde

19. Films into Uniform: Dogma 95 and the Last New Wave
Scott MacKenzie

20. Nordic Remakes in Hollywood: Reconfiguring Originals and Copies
Anna Westerståhl Stenport

21. The Global Distribution of Swedish Silent Film
Laura Horak

Part VI The Eye of Industry: Practitioner s Agency

Introduction
Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist

22. The Writing of Television Drama: Issues of Creative Collaboration and Authorship in Danish Writers Rooms
Eva Novrup Redvall

23. Universal Aspirations and Ecocosmopolitan Rhetoric: The Finnish Ecodocumentary
Pietari Kääpä

24. The Emergence of a Tradition in Icelandic Cinema from Children of Nature to Volcano
Björn Nordfjörd

25. The Art of Not Telling Stories in Nordic Fiction Films
Ursula Lindqvist

26. The Death of Porn? An Autopsy of Scandinavian Sin in the Twenty–first Century
Mariah Larsson

Appendix

Index

Mette Hjort is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Copenhagen, Affiliate Professor of Visual Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, China, and Affiliate Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her publications include The Strategy of Letters, Small Nation, Global Cinema, Lone Scherfig s Italian for Beginners , and a series of interview books: The Danish Directors (with Ib Bondebjerg, 2001), The Danish Directors 2 (with Eva Jørholt and Eva Novrup Redvall, 2010), and The Danish Directors 3 (with Ib Bondebjerg and Eva Novrup Redvall, 2014).

Ursula Lindqvist is Assistant Professor of Scandinavian Studies and Film and Media Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, USA. She is the author of Roy Andersson s Songs from the Second Floor: Contemplating the Art of Existence, and co–editor, with Jenny Björklund, of New Dimensions of Diversity in Nordic Culture and Society. Her articles have appeared in PMLA, Modernism/Modernity, Space and Culture: International Journal of Social Spaces, African and Black Diaspora, and a special issue of Scandinavian–Canadian Studies devoted to Nordic cinema.