Original subtitles

Where did you get the idea for ''Sangkamrater''?

Let's call it ''Wide Open'' from here on in.

After l did ''Exposed'', which was a tremendous success-

-and sold to loads of countries-

-and l had met loads of distributors abroad...

We sold it for almost no money.

Kawakita bought it for 50,000 outright.

Then l read in Variety-

-that he made 8.2 million dollars off of it in the first two weeks.

So that's what it was like.

My dream was never to make a porn movie-

-or nudie movie, or whatever you want to call it.

l thought l'd make one more movie and make money.

l wanted to make an irreverent movie.

One that poked fun at gangster movies and porn movies.

One that was fluid, had some girls in it-

-and some opportunities to show their breasts. Like that.

Christina got a great job in Japan after ''Exposed''.

So l did the math that when Christina returned-

-she'd get 1 5,000 SEK per day.

So l could afford Christina for two days.

So l had to rewrite the script to get Christina in there-

-and to get the most out of those two days.

l assume he'd made a pretty penny when l was in the previous film.

l don't think l ever really connected with Gustav at all.

l'd made money in the previous film-

-so it made sense to have me in the cast for this one.

l wasn't one of the leads there, but...

lt made sense for foreign sales to have my name there.

l think that's what it was.

l know that Christina has said in some interview-

-that she never understood that Gustav Wiklund guy.

We were never close. She was disposable in front of the camera-

-and l felt that she didn't do anything.

So l just photographed her.

-Did you mind the smaller role? -That didn't matter, really.

l didn't care about that kind of thing.

Even though, of course you want a good lead role.

l'm sure that's what l wanted.

l kind of wanted to go against those porn movies-

-though l still understood what they needed to contain.

l wanted to make a movie that was more humdrum, not too speculative.

So l decided to have a lead that didn't look like some porn star.

lnstead some little girl that works and who is a good actor.

And this Gunilla Olsson performed with a group-

-that toured prisons and youth centers.

l thought she was quite a good actress-

-and she was quite a different kind of porn girl, a Gelsomina.

GUSTAV MEANS THE CHARACTER FROM FELLlNl'S LASTRADA

She takes a lot of crap in the business-

-yet is a happy girl when things work out, and lost in everything else.

lt's a little odd, it's some kind of thriller-

-but the three female leads are naked throughout most of the film.

Yes. What does that say about his view of women?

Yes, indeed.

-You play Leif Ahrle's girlfriend. -Yes.

There's a scene in there which looks quite odd today.

You mean when he kicks my behind-

-while l'm vacuuming. Yes, it's... l don't know, l don't get it.

-l guess Gustav Wiklund wrote it. -Yes. You'll have to ask Gustav.

About his view of women.

Basically, l've portrayed Leif Ahrle-

-and this guy who hires her to strip...

All men are awful.

There isn't a real man in the entire movie.

At least no one l would identify with.

The male lead was Kent-Arne Dahlgren-

-who seemed to have prison tattoos on his arms and hands. Who was he?

l don't know. l think he was...

l think he was just a regular guy. l'm not sure he was even an actor.

l doubt it.

Kent-Arne was in a couple of movies from Nordisk Tonefilm.

And some movie with Stellan Olsson.

He'd played three or four leads-

-and l thought he looked rough enough.

And he wanted to act the hell out of the role.

You had to tell him, ''Place doubt on your back tooth and show nothing''.

''Just read your damned lines.''

You had to keep taking him down.

He's incredibly aggressive throughout the movie.

Yes, l wanted a mess of a guy.

Afailure who just went around using these women at will.

Without any real moral center. Basically an asshole.

Then there's Jan-Olof Rydqvist as Mr. X. Why did you pick him?

Because l think that he's that kind of guy.

l wanted to show him as a dangerous bastard.

He was very proud to have been given such a large role.

He rarely had roles that were that big.

-Was Mr. X based in reality? -No.

No, it was an illusion that a guy could run around like that with a whip.

-He seems quite perverted. -Yes. This appealed to Rydqvist.

The role itself. He thought that was nice.

And he played it in a laconic and quite frightening way.

l think he's just like that. Or he was.

l don't think you had to deal with him, but Jan-Olof Rydqvist played Mr. X-

-someone who was quite an active figure at the time.

Yes, he was an almost mythical figure.

He was the biggest gangster in the Stockholm underworld at the time.

Clubs like Alexandra attracted everyone from the King-

-to people from the rich part of town and serious criminals.

Just like the celebrity world looks like today.

The celebrities attract the serious criminals-

-and it's not the celebrities who have the money, but the criminals.

They'll rent a table and treat celebrities to drinks and food.

And most celebrities won't turn it down-

-because very few of those you see in the papers make much money.

You can see that when they publish taxation lists.

You get very surprised to see famous names making 20,000 SEK in a year.

You have to wonder why that is.

-Did you meet the real Mr. X? -Yes, l did.

Like all celebrities of the age, l'd go to Alexandra.

He'd always be holding court at Alexandra.

He'd practically bought half the place whenever he was there.

And you'd often stay after closing, which was 3 AM at the time.

You'd linger after having partied with people.

One night, we went on to another place-

-and l figured out after a while that l was in Mr. X's home.

He had an incredible building on Ostermalm.

l think it was in Larkstan, does that sound right?

That's where he lived and he had a pool on the ground floor.

Even though it was an apartment building, it was like a villa.

lt was incredible.

But early that morning, l understood it was Mr. X's house.

Which worried me a bit. l found it unpleasant.

l really hadn't known.

Then again, he was very nice and incredibly accommodating.

Then again, why wouldn't he be at a time like that?

Solveig had made one movie with Torgny.

l knew her vaguely, called her and she was up for it.

How close were you?

Not at all. She really kept very much to herself.

And in the business she was considered as incredibly talented.

We were continuously in an incredibly bad economic situation.

And l had a cinematographer who was often quite drunk.

But l had a good second unit, so we stitched it together.

When l watch it today, the camera work is really nice-

-and very measured in every way.

When l was done shooting, l called Wic Kjellin at Europa Film.

She was a well-regarded film editor.

She said, ''No way! l don't edit movies like that.''

l said, ''At least come see it. l would like to work with someone good.''

''Alright, l'll come see it.''

We ran through the raw footage at almost double speed.

l had arranged it somewhat in order.

''Alright, l'll do it. You obviously know how to make movies.''

''l've edited Halldoff, and that was a mess. This makes sense.''

So she edited the film in one week.

l'd put it in order and showed her where to speed up the pace.

And in a week, she was done with the edit-

-and there were a few things that we changed.

l was proud to have Wic Kjellin approve of my film making skills.

The print that's on the DVD is dubbed into English.

-But it was... -lt was recorded in Swedish.

l made this dub in London.

l dubbed it into English and French, but not German this time.

lt's a little odd that there is no Swedish copy that we know of.

Yeah, but you know those kinds of guys.

''Sangkamrater'' was the last film of that genre for you.

A career that lasted about 6 years.

Why didn't you do more work of this kind?

l think it's the classic reason. l met Bo Sehlberg-

-and he didn't approve of my nude career.

l also think he was afraid that l would go abroad.

l had a lot of offers from Germany and other places, so...

l'm sure l could have kept my career going-

-even keeping my clothes on, although l don't know that.

But he didn't like it. He wanted to keep me to himself.

But you kept doing nude photography until 1 980.

Yes, because he was a glamour photographer for a while.

And he was very good at it.

So after 1 975, Bo was the only one who photographed you?

Yes, that's true.

-But he wasn't interested in film? -No, that was not his thing at all.

How did you feel about this? Did you have any other ambitions?

Well, in a way Bo's wishes and mine kind of dovetailed.

l really wanted to do something that was more serious.

So l took a few drama classes...

Quite a few, actually, from the actress Ollegard Wellton.

She was a tremendous teacher.

Tommy and Annika's mother in the Pippi movies.

Yes. l made it through almost all the way to the final audition.

But it was such a big deal and l was so nervous it didn't work out.

And drama school was highly politicized at the time.

lt was practically a political school-

-rather than a dramatic education.

What did you study after that?

l started studying journalism at Poppius.

l felt it was something l could... l was a fairly good writer.

Then l started working for various Ahlen & Akerlund magazines.

l wrote a few sex advice columns in magazines like FiB Aktuellt-

-Lektyr and Stopp, a men's magazine at the time.

And then l was fired from the sex column for being too prudish.

They thought that my answers were too prudish.

So l didn't fit in as a sexologist, or something like that.

l think that was a great decision on their parts, actually.

Then you did these strange sauna reports.

Right. l think l did seven or eight sauna reports.

Which was me in a sauna with some celebrities, who were supposed to...

l was naked, and the celebrities were supposed to be too.

Usually, they ended up wearing a bath towel.

But Frank Andersson and someone else tossed the towel.

-lt was quite innocent. -lt was never embarrassing?

Not really. l guess there was one time when someone-

-hadn't grasped that it was an interview and ''went with it''.

-Bo was furious. -And he was the photographer.

Right, he was the photographer.

One of the people l had in the sauna was Bert Karlsson.

With a towel, and me without.

Now that he's launching his book and calling many celebrities hypocrites...

l remember...

Bert Karlsson is quite a character-

-and l wrote exactly what l thought when l met him.

At the time, he was promoting Herreys.

And evidently, Bert wasn't happy with my article.

He got to read it first. This was for the magazine Stopp.

They let him read it to approve the article.

He was allowed to do this-

-because he sold cassettes of his dance bands via the magazine.

So they had some economic entanglements.

Bert didn't like what l had written and censored large parts of the article.

Which l think is hypocrisy.

Well, not hypocrisy, but censorship. l don't like censorship, so...

You shouldn't throw stones, so to speak.

But that was the education and the work-

-that lead you to the place where you are today.

Yes, that's true.

That l run a magazine about airplanes and write about flight.

She seems to be doing a great job running Flygrevyn.

lt was a lot of fun to meet Christina so many years later.

GUSTAVAND CHRlSTlNA MEETAGAlN-

-AT KLUBB SUPER 8'S RE-RELEASE OF ''EXPOSED''-

-30 YEARS AFTER ''WlDE OPEN''

A FlLM BYANDREAS FRlSK AND RlCKARD GRAMFORS

Translation: John E Thelin PrimeText lnternational AB, 2010