''Duet for Cannibals'' ( sv, Duett för kannibaler) is a 1969 Swedish psychological drama film written and directed by American writer

Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her ...

, in her directorial debut. It stars Adriana Asti, Gösta Ekman,

Lars Ekborg Lars Åke Rupert Ekborg (6 June 1926 – 7 October 1969) was a Swedish actor, comedian, and singer. Ekborg was the father of actors Dan and Anders Ekborg. He died of liver cancer in 1969. He may be heard as the recitor in the 1956 recording of ...

and Agneta Ekmanner. ''Duet for Cannibals'' had its world premiere at the

1969 Cannes Film Festival The 22nd Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 23 May 1969. At this festival a new non-competitive section called Directors' Fortnight was added, in response to the cancellation of the 1968 festival. The Grand Prix du Festival International d ...

Cast

* Adriana Asti as Francesca *

as Bauer * Gösta Ekman as Tomas * Agneta Ekmanner as Ingrid

Production

Despite being a Swedish-language film, the screenplay for ''Duet for Cannibals'' was written in English by Sontag, who described herself as not being "competent" in Swedish. It was then translated into Swedish for the Swedish actors.

Reception

Kevin Kelly of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' described the film as "virtually devoid of any real dramatic sensibility ..The film is unbelievable either as black parable or self-consciously disciplined pap."

Richard Roud Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' praised its casting and the "richness of possible interpretations of the film", concluding: "Its originality of texture, its degree of visual invention, is remarkable, and not only for a first film. In short, ''Duet for Cannibals'' is a stunning achievement." On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 80% based on five reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. In 2019, ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

''s Jesse Cataldo gave the film a score of three out of four stars, concluding: "An interesting, if tonally inconsistent, experiment, it serves as an intriguing cinematic extension of its maker's more well-known written work."

References

External links

* 1969 films 1960s Swedish films 1960s psychological drama films 1969 directorial debut films Films directed by Susan Sontag Films shot in Sweden Swedish drama films {{Sweden-film-stub