There’s a dark irony to be found in the fact that I am Curious (Yellow) gained much of its reputation as a community standards-challenging pornographic film, but endures mostly as a period piece for those who are interested in the chronology of the deterioration of the Hayes studio code that had guided cinema in the United States for nearly four decades. In 1967, I am Curious (Yellow) survived a court battle in America to gain moderate distribution stateside, which helped break down the barriers around the on-screen waggling of male and female genitalia, as well as (for the time) graphic depictions of sexuality. The film’s victory helped usher in a bold new era in Hollywood that included the MPAA ratings board that soon allowed for the wide release of good-to-great films that would not otherwise have survived censorship, like Midnight Cowboy and Last Tango in Paris. However, removed from this intriguing historical context, I am Curious (Yellow) is not particularly riveting or shocking filmmaking. In fact, while there is plenty of full frontal nudity going on here, the movie is much more explicitly pedantic than erotic.
Perhaps the most interesting element of the film is its unusual bending of conventions. I am Curious (Yellow) melds fictional elements – including the sexually saucy bits that helped it garner its racy reputation – with documentary footage that sometimes pushes up against the borderline of the now-popular mockumentary genre. Director Vilgot Sjoman’s stated purpose is to film a story that will raise class consciousness in his native Sweden, and has gathered together a young and inexperienced cast and crew that includes Lena, a 22 year-old drama student, and Börje, a 28 year-old clothing (or is it car? Or both?) salesman who may or may not actually be the crowned prince of Sweden. And, in a neat touch of meta-filmmaking, while they are engaged in making this film, we are engaged in the activity of watching them make this film, so that often, just as we get comfortable with the film’s approach, as, for example, when we are presented with 10 minutes of the politically naïve Lena Nyman interviewing a parade of Swedes to elicit their opinions on the existence (or not) of a Swedish class system, Sjoman shakes it up with a cut to he and Nyman playfully cavorting in bed. Or, just as we are getting caught up in an argument between the very naked Lena and her fictional and apparently actual boyfriend Börje, Vilgot cuts to a shot of he and the film crew guiltily eavesdropping on the event, ever-blurring the lines between what is real and what is not. We wonder if the actors are engaging in an affair both on screen and off, or if it is just more of the director’s conceit, keeping us consistently off-kilter and unsure about the reality of the events we are witnessing. This uncertainty is clearly part of Vilgot’s point, as he toys with our perceptions of the difference between fact and fiction in a world increasingly shaped by our mass-media manipulated perceptions of reality.
I am Curious (Yellow) is not a particularly powerful film, as its constant nudge-nudge wink-wink self-awareness and its blatant proletariat proselytizing keep us at an ironical distance. Furthermore, the material that made the film so famous, the plentiful shots of full-frontal nudity and extensive copulation, seem awfully tame by today’s standards. While Sjöman sprinkles his film with some interesting relationships and smatterings of strong emotion – whether humour, anger or confusion – to nearly overcome the film’s pedantic limitations, I suspect that I am Curious (Yellow) will remain largely, well, a curiosity.
Not a particularly powerful film, as its constant nudge-nudge wink-wink self-awareness and its blatant proletariat proselytizing keep us at an ironical distance.- Dan Jardine
