Syskonbädd 1782 (a.k.a. My Sister My Love)

Charlotte (Bibi Andersson) is an aristocratic young lady, about to married to the somewhat unpleasant Baron Alsmeden (Jarl Kulle).  She doesn’t particularly want to, but she doesn’t know what else to do with herself.  She’s far more interested in her dashing brother Jacob (Per Oscarsson), just returned from a lengthy trip abroad.  Their forbidden romance has big consequences, and as time goes on and Alsmeden’s bitterness grows, Charlotte awaits the “punishment” that has befallen others in her situation.

When I was a young fella, I stumbled across a stack of old “Eros” magazines.  It was old porn but with a “classy” vibe, and one of the features concerned the new saucy Swedish sensation I Am Curious (Yellow).  I don’t know if this is true in his home country, but that film is by far Vilgot Sjöman’s most famous work in these parts, to the point where it was even released under the prestigious Criterion Collection banner.  I’ve never seen it, and had no particular reason to be interested in anything else by Sjöman.  But I’m always curious to see other roles for actors from Bergman’s stable (Andersson, Kulle, and a smaller part for Gunnar Bjornstrand).

Unfortunately, it’s kind of a dud.  I was fighting boredom for much of it, wondering why I was supposed to care — or if I was supposed to care — about these characters.  There’s little in the way of background information on Charlotte and Jacob, no sense of what draws them to each other.  Andersson has undeniable screen presence, but there’s not enough to this performance to draw me in.  Incest is pretty icky to begin with, if you’re going to sell it to me, you’ve gotta work harder than this.  There are some attempts at psychological insight, but with the inevitable Bergman comparisons already in mind, they come off as rather forced and blunt.

The film is beautifully photographed, though, and the period work is convincing.  There are a few interesting touches — the frequent cutaways to livestock and other animals are intriguing, and there are a couple of nice melodramatic bits.  But mostly the film takes lurid subject matter as a starting point and doesn’t go anywhere that enlightening with it.  Rating: Poor (57)

IMDb