Mai Zetterling

Night Games

Night Games

Outrageous and explosively controversial (the Venice Film Festival refused to screen it publicly, while John Waters has called it his favorite film), Mai Zetterling’s second feature is a blazing psychosexual odyssey with heaving Freudian flourishes. On the eve of his marriage to his fiancée (Lena Brundin), Jan (Keve Hjelm) returns to his childhood home—a sprawling estate stuffed with antiques—where he relives his memories of his beautiful, decadent, mercurial mother (Ingrid Thulin) and finds himself forced to confront his unresolved Oedipal longings. Seamlessly interweaving past and present, carnivalesque camp and potent symbolism, Night Games functions as both a feverishly perverse family portrait and a serious statement on the tormented soul of a modern Europe reckoning with the demons of its past.

Film Info

  • Sweden
  • 1966
  • 105 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.66:1
  • Swedish

Available In

Collector's Set

Three Films by Mai Zetterling

Three Films by Mai Zetterling

Blu-ray Box Set

3 Discs

$55.96

Night Games
Cast
Ingrid Thulin
Irene
Keve Hjelm
Jan
Jörgen Lindström
Young Jan
Lena Brundin
Mariana
Naima Wifstrand
Astrid
Monica Zetterlund
Lotten
Lauritz Falk
Bruno
Rune Lindström
Albin
Christian Bratt
Erland
Lissi Alandh
Melissa
Credits
Director
Mai Zetterling
Screenplay by
Mai Zetterling
Screenplay by
David Hughes
Based on the novel of the same name by
Mai Zetterling
Produced by
Göran Lindgren
Director of photography
Rune Ericson
Music
Jan Johansson
Music
Georg Riedel
Production designer
Jan Boleslaw
Editor
Paul Davies
Costume designer
Birgitta Hahn
Assistant director
Peter Hald
Translation
Marianne Höök

Current

Mai Zetterling: Cinema Artist
Mai Zetterling: Cinema Artist

A pioneering feminist artist drawn to universal themes, the Swedish director mined the complexity and humor of human behavior in films that courted controversy and cultivated a sense of detachment.

By Mariah Larsson