Back to School – first week

Well being back in school is a change – especially as I am probably the oldest person here but my fellow students are lovely and very helpful.

So we have language class from 8.30 -1.00 they a mad dash to lunch at a local restaurant with our little tickets and we are spread out over 3 local restaurants on a rotational basis. I have to confess that Holy Greens which serve salads are my favourite. Mockadeli is second with chicken permanently on the menu, and Stationen at Central Station is a bit over the top for me.

Swedish Film Course

My afternoon class is Swedish film and Mattias Löwe directs mostly documentaries and teaches film studies at university and works in a variety of countries. But he promised us bleak and he is fulfilling that promise. We watched a Roy Andersson film which was the fourth in a trilogy! And his influence on Wes Andersson is striking. Several times in this rather bleak film I found myself laughing, possibly as relief from the bleakness or at the seeming inability of the characters to change.

Our second film was Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and it was dark and sometimes difficult to discover who was caring or being used. A nurse is given the task of caring for an actress who has stopped speaking or caring, but then later she appears to be studying the nurse as a character study. We never clearly discover if either actually change.

But for our Thursday class we went out to Film Staden, the original Swedish Film Studio in the1940’s to about 1970’s. It was once a rural location but is now in a urban area and there is only one studio left but there are offices and meeting rooms and directors about. But we were given a tour and the history and then got to see some clips from very early Swedish films. And one director perfected multiple exposures on old film so that there were ghost like apparitions in some of the films. Quite incredible for the 1920s.

So endth the last day of my first week. But it has been a very good week. Friday is not for teaching but for cultural events and trips. So Friday was a journey to Växholm and Stockholm.