Known For
Acting
Born
May 24, 1925
Died
Mar 17, 1994
Place of Birth
Västerås, Västmanlands län, Sweden
Credits
79 titles
Mai Zetterling
Biography
Mai Elisabeth Zetterling ( May 24, 1925 – March 17, 1994) was a Swedish actress and film director. She began directing in the early 1960s, starting with political documentaries and a short film called The War Game (1962), which was nominated for a BAFTA award, and won a Silver Lion at Venice. Her first feature film Älskande par (1964, "Loving Couples"), based on the novels of Agnes von Krusenstjerna, was banned at the Cannes Film Festival for its sexual explicitness and nudity. Kenneth Tynan of The Observer later called it "one of the most ambitious debuts since Citizen Kane." It was not the only film she made that would stir up controversy for its frank sexuality (early pioneer on voyeurism). When critics reviewing her debut feature said that "Mai Zetterling directs like a man," she began to explore feminist themes more explicitly in her work. The Girls, which had an all-star Swedish cast including Bibi Andersson and Harriet Andersson, discussed women's liberation (or lack thereof) in a society controlled by men, as the protagonists compare their lives to characters in the play Lysistrata, and find that things have not progressed very much for women since ancient times.
Known For
Filmography
Prejudice and Pride: Swedish Film Queer
Self (archive footage)
Regissören: En film om Mai Zetterling
Self (archival footage)
Meeting with Mai
Minns ni?
(archive footage)
Morfars resa
Elin Fromm
Love at First Sight
Director
Sellers' Best
Self
Sunday Pursuit
Director
Hidden Agenda
Moa
The Witches
Helga Eveshim
The Making of 'Hidden Agenda'
Self
Chillers
Director
Maybe I Really Am a Sorceress
Self
Calling the Shots
Self
Concrete Grandma
Director
Amorosa
Director
The Hitchhiker
Director
Scrubbers
Writer
Love
Writer
Of Seals and Men
Director
Stulet nyår
Gerda
Svenska noveller
Gerda
Mai Zetterling's Stockholm
My Heart Is Red
Nietzsche
The Moon Is a Green Cheese
Director
We Have Many Names
Lena
Visions of Eight
Narrator
Vincent the Dutchman
Director
Film '72
Self
The Girls
Director
Doctor Glas
Director
One Pair of Eyes
Night Games
Writer
Lianbron
Loving Couples
Director
The Man Who Finally Died
Lisa von Deutsch
The War Game
Screenplay
The Bay of St. Michel
The Main Attraction
Gina
Only Two Can Play
Liz
Lords of Little Egypt: Mai Zetterling Among the Gypsies
Offbeat
Ruth Lombard
Faces in the Dark
Christiane Hammond
Danger Man
Nadia
Piccadilly Third Stop
Christine Preedy
The Third Man
Jet Storm
Carol Tilley
Interpol Calling
Carol
The Traitor
Frau Caypor
Playing on the Rainbow