I Am Curious (Yellow) (Jag är nyfiken – en film i gul) is a 1967 film directed by Vilgot Sjöman.
The protagonist is Lena Nyman, who is played by—Lena Nyman. "Lena Nyman" is a young actress and self-styled political radical, who, as the film opens, is lovers with her director, Sjöman. They are making a film called "Lena on the Road". It's part documentary, with Lena interviewing persons ranging from random pedestrians to Minister of Transportation Olof Palmenote about the class system, and part a movie about Lena's personal life.
Lena lives with her father, once a leftist himself, who now runs a frame shop. Lena blames him for not living up to the ideals of his youth, and specifically for joining the anti-Franco forces of the Spanish Republic only to bail and go home a few weeks later. In fact, she keeps a running total of how many days it's been since her father left Spain (up to over 11,000 days, or 30+ years).
Lena meets a young man named Borje at her father's frame shop. They begin a torrid affair, which becomes part of Vilgot's movie, even as Vilgot dislikes seeing Lena in the arms of another man. Lena for her part is none too happy when she finds out that Borje has another girlfriend.
This film is mostly remembered not for the left-wing political content but for the explicit sexual content, including copious full-frontal nudity from both leads and an infamous scene where Lena kisses Borje's flaccid penis. I Am Curious (Yellow) was banned in Massachusetts and started a lawsuit that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court before the Court decided that the film could be shown. It was made with a companion film, I Am Curious (Blue), which offered another take on the same story with more lesbian content and themes. The two were originally supposed to be a single 3½-hour movie before they were edited into two separate features.
Tropes:
- Animal Reaction Shot: Lena and Borje have sex in a tree, of all places (it's a big tree, supposedly "the biggest tree in Europe"). As they're humping, a cow turns to look, in a shot that is further lampshaded by a big "?" superimposed on the screen over the cow's face.
- Appearance Angst: Lena tells Borje that while she's had a fair amount of lovers, she didn't get off with most of them. When he asks why, Lena, who is very attractive but a little chubby, says she's self-conscious about her appearance. She doesn't see why a man would want her with "my drooping breasts, my big stomach, all my fat."
- As Himself: Sjöman, Nyman, and Borje Ahlstedt are all playing characters with the same names that are based on themselves.
- Blade-of-Grass Cut: Tight closeups of flowers with raindrops on them, and a babbling stream, as Lena enjoys a retreat in the country.
- Book Ends: The film opens with Vilgot and Lena canoodling in the film studio's offices. The film ends with Lena coming to the studio to return the key to Vilgot's apartment, only to find him flirting with another actress.
- Comforting Comforter: Borje demonstrates obvious affection for Lena when he puts their only blanket over her after they have sex on the floor of her room.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Shot in black and white for that European art-film look.
- Exploding Calendar: Lena's chalk slate with its running count of how many days it's been since her father abandoned Republican Spain, eventually serves as a device to mark time passing in the story.
- Fan Disservice: One's mileage may vary on just how sexy the explicit nudity with Lena and Borje is. The scene at the end, where they are both naked and getting bathed and scrubbed down by nurses because they both have scabies, definitely isn't sexy.
- Genre Mashup: A curious mix of Documentary, Mockumentary, left-wing agitprop, and sex film.
- Headbutt of Love: Borje and Lena do this while Vilgot, Lena's former lover who is still directing the movie and is behind the camera at that moment, fumes with jealousy.
- Hypocrite: Lena admires Martin Luther King Jr., and talks about his principles of nonviolence. But when Borje shows up at her country retreat, Lena, who has found out that he's two-timing her, takes out a shotgun and fires it at him (she misses). She acknowledges this towards the end, sobbing while saying she's failed the principles of non-violence and won't advocate it anymore.
- Imagine Spot: Lena and Borje visit Stockholm Palace, the home of the Swedish royal family. They have sex on a palace wall, which may or may not have happened. The next scene, where Lena goes into the palace and interviews King Gustaf VI, who is packing up because Sweden has become a republic and he isn't king anymore, definitely didn't happen.
- Inner Monologue: Comes from Vilgot a couple of times, like in the beginning of the film when Vilgot muses about how Lena really doesn't know anything about politics, or towards the end when Vilgot, filming a scene of Lena and Borje embracing, thinks bitterly about how she's just using him to boost her career.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Borje tracks Lena down to the country cabin she's rented. Lena, who knows by now that he has a second girlfriend, takes a shotgun and shoots it at him, but misses. He stomps up to her, rips the shotgun out of her hands, and throws it away. Then they have passionate sex on the grass.
- The Ken Burns Effect: Seen a couple of times, like when Vilgot thinks that Lena needs to actually learn something about politics, and the camera zooms in on a photo of old Swedish socialists.
- Kuleshov Effect: Lena, because she's weird, has a picture of Francisco Franco hanging in her room. As she and Borje have sex on the floor, the camera zooms in to the picture of Franco, who rather seems like he's watching with disapproval.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Quite a bit from Borje, including the most famous/infamous shot in the film, when, as Borje and Lena relax on the ground in a position that suggests they might have just had mutual oral sex, she kisses his penis.
- Mighty Whitey: Satirized when Lena, a fair-skinned blonde in super-white Scandinavia, puts up an agitprop poster saying "Message to non-whites: Be prepared! The whites are tottering!"
- Mockumentary: The film-within-a-film is a weird mix of mockumentary and genuine documentary. Olof Palme certainly thought he was being interviewed for a real documentary, and the man-in-the-street interviews where Lena asks people their opinions about the class system in Sweden appear to be genuine. But all the parts about Lena Nyman the young activist and her tempestuous sex life are scripted drama.
- Nude Nature Dance: Sort of. She isn't actually dancing, but the vibe is basically the same as a topless Lena wanders around the dilapidated house she rented in the country, looking at flowers, doing yoga, and stepping into a stream.
- Perfect Pacifist People: The entire nation of Sweden is trying to be this. The Swedish parliament passes a bill for a "Nonviolent Defense Force" instead of an army. The government declares that if Sweden were ever occupied (they managed to stay neutral during World War II, by the way), the people would resist by all methods short of violence. The members of the non-violent defense force are shown practicing a drill in which they lay down on train tracks to stop an ammunition train, singing "We Shall Overcome" as they take position. It comes off as silly, especially when one of the "soldiers" points out that the enemy won't bother to stop when they see people lying on the tracks.
- Proscenium Reveal: Some scenes that appear to be outside of the Show Within a Show are actually revealed to be part of the movie. In one scene a topless Lena is trying out yoga poses outside, when suddenly says she can't do it. The camera then reveals Vilgot and the entire film crew filming her, as all of them, right down the sound engineer, demonstrate yoga poses that she could do.
- Roadside Wave: As Lena bicycles down a muddy road, a car zips by and runs over a puddle, soaking her.Lena: You Stockholm bastard!
- Show Within a Show: Within this movie, Vilgot is filming Lena in a film called "Lena on the Road". Since the film-within-a-film is supposedly a documentary in the first place, it's not always clear what is supposed to be in the "documentary" and what is supposed to be in the movie's reality. Near the end, after Lena and Borje get scrubbed down for scabies, Lena coldly bids him goodbye and walks away. Then the film rewinds, and it's revealed to be Vilgot in the editing room editing his movie. After Lena returns Vilgot's keys, the very last scene shows her embracing Borje in the elevator, the two of them still together.
- Stock Footage: A 1966 clip of none other than Martin Luther King being interviewed, on a visit to Sweden, is cut together with shots of Sjöman as the interviewer. King talks about non-violent protest.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: A humorous example. Lena and Börje are about to make love in her archive room. There's no bed, so they drag in a mattress and some sheets and pillows from another room, and make all sorts of elaborate preparations. At the moment they actually begin intercourse, a test pattern flips up on the screen. Cut to a pleasant looking announcer fixing her hair, not realizing she's already on camera. She says "We regret that we have had some technical difficulties owing to erection fault" (or "faulty coupling", depending on the translation).
