''Duet for Cannibals'' () is a 1969 Swedish

psychological drama Psychological drama, or psychodrama, is a Genre, subgenre of Drama (film and television), drama and psychological fiction literatures that generally focuses upon the emotional, mental, and psychological development of the protagonists and other c ...

film written and directed by American writer

Susan Sontag Susan Lee Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on "Camp", Notes on 'Ca ...

, in her

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

. It stars

Adriana Asti Adriana Asti (born 30 April 1931) is an Italian stage, film, and voice actress. Biography Adriana Asti appeared very young in Dino Risi's short film Buio in sala, shot in 1948. She made her theatrical debut in 1951 acting in Plautus' Miles Glo ...

Gösta Ekman Hans Gösta Gustaf Ekman (; 28 July 1939 – 1 April 2017) was a Swedish actor, comedian, and director. Career Ekman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to the Swedish actor and director Hasse Ekman and Agneta (née Wrangel). Ekman represent ...

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 o ...

and

Agneta Ekmanner Agneta Ekmanner (born 4 December 1938) is a Swedish actress. She has appeared in more than 50 films and television shows since 1965. Selected filmography * ''Love 65'' (1965) * ''Hugs and Kisses (film), Hugs and Kisses'' (1967) * ''The Corrido ...

. ''Duet for Cannibals'' had its world premiere at the

1969 Cannes Film Festival The 22nd Cannes Film Festival took place from 8 to 23 May 1969. Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti served as jury president for the main competition. The ''Grand Prix du Festival International du Film'', then the fetival's main prize, was awarde ...

Cast

as Francesca *

as Bauer *

as Tomas *

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,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' 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 Stanley Roud (July 6, 1929 – February 13, 1989) was an American writer on film and co-founder, with Amos Vogel, of the New York Film Festival (NYFF).The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' 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

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

, 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 Yor ...

''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 {{1960s-Sweden-film-stub