The Realistic Cinema of Bo Widerberg by Jon Asp and Mattias Nohrborg

Bo Widerberg was first and foremost a writer and a critic of the conservative cinema of his time, before becoming, in the 1960s, one of the spearheads of new realism in Sweden. Winner at Cannes, Kvarteret Korpen (Raven’s End) (1963), Elvira Madigan (1967) and Ådalen 31 (1969) demonstrate his visceral style inspired by Truffaut, Cassavetes and Fellini, while remaining profoundly rooted in Swedish working-class life.

In I Huvudet På Bo (Being Bo Widerberg), Jon Asp and Mattias Nohrborg present much more than a simple biography in the places that provided the playground for his imagination: Malmö, where he was born, the forests of Småland, as well as Paris and Cannes. Many landscapes fed his quest for free and realistic cinema, in direct response to the classicism of Ingmar Bergman.

Through rare archived images, extracts of filming and invaluable personal accounts from his loved ones, as well as from his film-making contemporaries, such as Ruben Östlund, Olivier Assayas and Mia Hansen-Løve, the film reconstructs the tormented trajectory of an artist fueled by passion. Widerberg comes across as a fiery filmmaker who is always open to creative accidents, and is loyal to his actors and to the emotional truth of his stories.

The documentary also reveals a man in constant contradiction, often to the detriment of his personal life. It shows how much Bo Widerberg’s artistic pursuit deeply affected his family and those he worked with. Asp and Nohrborg pay proper homage to this complex and daring, passionate and impulsive filmmaker, whose creative spirit often went against the tide, hand in hand with personal pain.