Interview: Daniel Ekeroth (Swedish Sensationsfilms)
I'm willing to gamble that many readers of this site aren't merely interested in Scandinavian music and that their curiosity extends much further to other cultural exports, be it design, architecture, crime fiction or, as in this particular case, film. Daniel Ekeroth, besides being a prolific musician as well, is the author of the essential genre guidebook "Swedish Death Metal" and is back now with his second tome "Swedish Sensationsfilms" (Bazillion Points), an exploration of Sweden's sexy, deranged, exploitative, violent and sometimes just plain weird cinematic underbelly that existed and thrived from 1951 to 1993. Even if you have little to no interest in seeing many of the films covered, "Swedish Sensationsfilms" is a highly entertaining read not merely due to the lurid subject matter, but to Daniel's engrossingly casual and bluff writing style which manages to be both incredibly insightful and a whole lot of fun. I found myself devouring it quickly from cover to cover and, with my curiosity was greatly piqued, reached out to Daniel and had him answer a few questions via email.
My website is devoted to Scandinavian music and while I certainly have my own reasons, justify to my readers why they should care about "Swedish Sensationsfilms".
Well, first of all I think the book turned out funny as hell -- so you might just read it for some great laughs! Then, in its own twisted way the book can actually give you a pretty good insight of the development of Swedish society during the last 60 years. Also, if you are into Swedish music -- you should get to know a bit about Swedish films as well to enhance your experience! The tone is pretty similar to my book "Swedish Death Metal" I guess, so if you like that you might like this as well.
Even if your interest is strictly within the realm of music, there are some treats in the book as well...some films you really should know about. How about Easy Action being chased my a murderous family, or Åke Eriksson (Wasa Express, Attack) portraying a mentally deranged killer? What's not to like?
Seeing that a few of the movies you cover in the book have still managed to elude you, I can only imagine the extremes you went through to find copies of the movies you actually did manage to find. What's the furthest you went to procure a movie for the book? Were any of them particularly tricky to track down? Are there any "Holy Grails" still out there that you are looking for, in the book or otherwise?
Since I have been a film collector for a very long time, I kind of had all the connections to gather most of the films pretty easy when I started work on "Swedish Sensationsfilms". Back in my heydays as a collector, we did some crazy things to get hold of stuff though. My friends and I swept the world in search of cassettes though, going on trips to Greece, Holland, Italy, Hong Kong, Germany, Czech Republic, Finland and Denmark to try to convince the video stores to sell their stuff to us. And when I collected Italian films, I even moved to Italy to learn the language and search for films. Mad times!
A title like "Månguden" was super-hard to track down though, since it had only been shown on TV once back in the 80's...and nobody seemed to have made a copy. But out of nowhere there was suddenly a DVD release, so the time of miracles has not passed yet. And all the connections in the world couldn't get me lost films like "Frozen Star", "Silent Chase" or "Fränder". If anyone ever comes across a copy of these films, let me know!
A story that might show you the dedication of hard core film collectors is the one of how "Breaking Point" finally surfaced among the inner circle of film collectors. One guy managed to get a video-copy of the theatrical version from someone involved with the film, after some serious begging and nagging. Another guy used some obscure connections to get hold of the censor cuts from the National Board of Censors -- and later the sources were cut together to complete the film. This, my friends, is how hard people worked to see a film back in the days! It is actions like this that saves the greatest art from destruction and oblivion!
Of the many recurring actors that appear in the movies of "Swedish Sensationsfilms", Heinz Hopf sticks out as a particularly fine example, so much so that there's even a Swedish harsh noise duo named after him. What is it about the characters he plays that makes them so memorable? Is there any particular movie of his with a career-defining performance?
I think a lot has to do with his indifferent and grim, yet soulful and beautiful, face. There is just some kind of magic to him. Then, of course, he did play a row of disturbingly sick, twisted and violent characters in a string of classic films. His defining moment is of course his role as the pimp in "Thriller - A Cruel Picture", one of the creepiest characters of all time. He is also great in "Exponerad", a film very similar to "Thriller" but not at all as well known. All such creepy performances aside - Hopf was actually not at all a B-grade actor of low budget exploitation films, but rather a highly respected theatre actor and a favorite of Ingmar Bergman. I just love when the borders between high art and trash is blurred like that.
An interesting thing to note is that Heinz Hopf suddenly became very well known in Sweden after his participation in the very successful TV series "Varuhuset" ("The Mall") in the mid 80's. Worthy of note is that the character he played, the slippery and manipulative CEO Erik Eriksson, is actually pretty similar to the ones of his earlier sensationsfilms.
Another memorable character from the book is director Mats Helge Olsson, Sweden's so-called "only professional director", and an artist that you seem to have an intense love/hate relationship with. What is it about his work that is so simultaneously compelling and revolting? Do you think that any of his films might have been improved by a more skilled filmmaker or is their incompetence simply part of their charm?
His determination just urged him to make films, no matter what! And with shoestring budgets, he created those mad hopeless action films that are just to die for. These films are lacking in every department, but that's what makes them so special. It's like naïve art if you will, a completely unique field of filmmaking that has to be seen to be believed. There is just one Mats Helge, no other director could ever re-create what he did!
You cite "Let the right one in"/"Låt den rätte komma in" as a positive example of current Swedish cinema, but are there any other contemporary films (Swedish or otherwise) that continue the traditions inspired by Swedish Sensationsfilms? Is such a thing even possible in this modern era or were they purely a product of a very specific time and place now long gone?
Well, basically I would say no. Cinema changed a lot in the late 80's, not only in Sweden but all over the world. Suddenly low budget genre films just stopped being produced, and everything was watered down. The madness disappeared, and everything turned slick and boring. The low-budget films of the 1990's and 2000's are self-aware nonsense or total crap. Even directors like Mats Helge Olsson had a distinctive style amidst all his shortcomings.
When you try to make a big budget action film with minimal resources, you can create magic -- when you try to make a cool retro-film, you will create crap.
Lastly, what are you doing musically these days? What's up with the new Iron Lamb album? And what do you have planned next book-wise?
Quite a lot actually:
Iron Lamb – Everything regarding the album "The original sin" is finished now, so it should be out any day. Then we will do some gigs during the summer, and probably tour in the autumn as well as record some 7" singles. Chaos awaits I guess -- we tend to be too much punk for the punks, and to much metal for the metalheads!
Tyrant – After 1,5 years of silence this rusty old black metal band will actually play live on Saturday May 7, at the release party for the Morbid "Year of the Goat" album. We also have some plans to play on Iceland and in Italy, as well as record some new material.
Usurpress – My new death/crust band will soon release a split-album with the Spanish band Galerna. We also will play some festivals during the summer, and are working on new material.
About new books, I have been a bit lazy lately. I have some plans, but instead of working on them I have been putting my writing energy into doing stuff for Sweden Rock Magazine. I hope to start work on my next book in the autumn, and it will probably be about Swedish music again! But first I will go to NYC to promote "Swedish Sensationsfilms" a bit -- and drink a lot of beers while having a great time!