Collection 4 THE NORTH

Isfält is so melancholic but beautiful
that it makes you want to cry. He’s
also the composer behind many of the
screen adaptions of Astrid Lindgren’s
children books.
Another more obvious example is
one of the most famous Swedes; Ingmar
Bergman. Many of his films, for
example “Persona”(1966), are shot at
his beloved Fårö, a small island close
to Gotland, famous for this landscape
with wounded rocks, beaches of broken
stones, grey scale surroundings
and the wind mourning in the background.
His characters are also not less
melancholic with often a dramatic
inner life filled with angst, regret,
helplessness and melancholia. I think
he made an important base for following
artists and filmmakers on how
to welcome and not avoid the greyer
shades of life.
You can track down this melancholia
not only in films but also in the art
and in the Swedish fashion. Designers
like Nakkna and Diana Orving are
working with colors and materials that
make you think of the Swedish forests
and the sagas about the elves and
trolls.
I think there is even a certain
melancholy that connects the old
sagas and their nature with the modern
surroundings and the city and
its buildings. I think about the suburbs
with the 60s function houses almost
GDR-like. I think about how Thomas
Alfredsson uses them in “Let the right
one in” (2008) and how he connects
this modernity with the mystic almost
mythology-like story.
In comparison to Germany I think
the melancholia is more present in
Sweden because Germany has been
struggling with many other problems
and has got a unique dramatic history
that Sweden hasn’t had. Sweden
didn’t experience the same kind of
dramatic events the last centuries and
I think it has given people more time
to start growing this other state of
mind. The Melancholia.
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