Boasting landmark classics like Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and screen legends such as Greta Garbo, Sweden is home today to a rich and exciting contemporary national cinema that comprises the works of a diverse group of cinematographers, including Tomas Alfredson, Roy Andersson, and Nils Arden Oplev, director of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

In Directory of World Cinema: Sweden, Marcelline Block has assembled a team of leading international experts to situate Sweden’s film industry in a global context. Among the topics discussed in this volume are the characteristic genres of Swedish cinema—among them silent films, erotica, animation, and crime noir—and the great impact Swedish films have had on filmmakers internationally, especially in America and France for whose audiences Swedish films have often been adapted. Additional essays examine the significance of Swedish directors and actors—among them Ingrid Bergman—who have made a lasting contribution to global cinema. Completing this volume are reviews of classic and contemporary Swedish films and recommendations for further reading.

The Danes are the happiest people in the world, and pay the highest taxes.

'Neutral' Sweden is one of the biggest arms manufacturers in the world.

Finns have the largest per capita gun ownership after the US and Yemen.

54 per cent of Icelanders believe in elves.

Norway is the richest country on earth.

Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians, on and off, for over ten years, perplexed by their many strange paradoxes and character traits and equally bemused by the unquestioning enthusiasm for all things Nordic and hygge that has engulfed the rest of the world.

He leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success and, most intriguing of all, what they think of each other. Along the way a more nuanced, often darker picture emerges of a region plagued by taboos, characterised by suffocating parochialism and populated by extremists of various shades.

What links Sarah Lund and Lars von Trier? Or Carlsberg and Kierkegaard? Or even Shakespeare and Metallica? The answer lies in Denmark, the country that has gripped the British imagination more than any other in recent memory. But though we watch their TV series, wear their jumpers, and play with their toys, how much do we really know about the Danes themselves? From Lego to lava lamps - via Borgen, The Killing, and the Muhammed cartoons - Patrick Kingsley takes us on a journey into the mysterious heart of Denmark.

Over the last decade, the Nordic nations have quietly and unassumingly come to hold us in their thrall; but what is it, exactly, that we covet about their culture? Nordicana celebrates the objects, aesthetics and traditions that have inspired our obsession, with a quick introduction to 100 icons of Scandi style and Nordic cool, accompanied by beautiful illustrations. Whether it is the inimitable Faroe Isles jumper, made famous by TV detective Sarah Lund; the unusual-tasting delicacy salted liquorice; the ubiquitous Swedish Dala horse; the concept of 'hygge' (a feeling evoked by being in candlelit warmth with friends during winter); Midsomer seasonal celebrations; practical but breathtakingly stylish interiors; or an enduring love of noir literature and dramas, you'll find the key to attaining the Nordic way of life in these pages.

This is the bible of breakthroughs and inspiration in the design of the 20th century. Poised at the start of the 21st century, we can see clearly that the previous century was marked by momentous changes in the field of design. Aesthetics entered into everyday life with often staggering results. Our homes and workplaces turned into veritable galleries of style and innovation. From furniture to graphics, it's all here - the work of artists who have shaped and recreated the modern world with a dizzying variety of materials. From the organic to the geometric, from Art Deco, through to Pop and High-Tech, this book contains all the great names - Bernhard Bertoia, De Stijl, Dieter Rams, Philippe Starck, Charles and Ray Eames, to name only a very few. This essential book is a comprehensive journey through the shapes and colors, forms and functions of design history in the 20th century. This title offers an A-Z of designers and design schools, which builds into a complete picture of contemporary living. Lavishly illustrated, this is design in the fullest sense.

Scandtastic! Scandinavians are exceptionally gifted in design. They are world-famous for their inimitable, democratic designs which bridge the gap between crafts and industrial production. The marriage of beautiful, organic forms with everyday functionality is one of the primary strengths of Scandinavian design and one of the reasons why Scandinavian creations are so cherished and sought after. This all-you-need guide includes a detailed look at Scandinavian furniture, glass, ceramics, textiles, jewelry, metalware and industrial design from 1900 to the present day, with in-depth entries on over 200 designers and design-led companies, plus essays on the similarities and differences in approach between Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark. Also included is a list of important design-related places to visit for readers planning to travel to Scandinavia. It includes: designers- Verner Panton, Arne Jacobsen, Alvar Aalto, Timo Sarpaneva, Hans Wegner, Tapio Wirkkala, Sigvard Bernadotte, Stig Lindberg, Ingeborg Lundin, Finn Juhl...It also includes: companies - Fritz Hansen, Artek, Le Klint, Gustavsberg, Iittala, Fiskars, Volvo, Saab, Orrefors, Royal Copenhagen, Holmegaard, Arabia, Marimekko, George Jensen. ..

Scandinavian Modern was the most influential and enduring design movement of the 20th century, dominating the international scene in the 1950s and continuing to shape the way we live today. Architects and designers from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, were responsible for a range of contemporary homes, furniture, textiles, ceramics, glassware, and other products that defined an entire approach to modern post-war living. What characterizes Scandinavian Modern is its approachability; the use of natural materials and organic forms combined with clean lines and attention to basic practicality and comfort. Scandinavian Home demonstrates this elegant, yet informal design at its best and most accessible.

The human being was at the center of Danish Modernism. Traditional craftsmanship and a high degree of quality influenced both design and architecture. Besides numerous groundbreaking public buildings, the fifties and sixties saw the design of many nearly ideal single-family homes based on an aesthetic that focused on being true to the materials, honesty in construction, and the reduction of form. Built of wood and brick and with practical, informal floor plans and large glass surfaces that opened up the interior of the house to nature, the best of these homes still fulfill their tasks to this day. This is a compendium of selected buildings in detail, including icons such as Utzon House by Jørn Utzon, Arne Jacobsen s Siesby House, or the Bøgh Andersen House by Jørgen Bo and Vilhelm Wohlert. It includes new, four-color photographs that document the buildings as well as discussions on the history of each one s design and construction. Biographies of the architects round out the volume.

The Danish design scholar Birgit Lyngbye Pedersen discovered the work of Finn Juhl (1912-1989) when she was looking for a suitable sofa for her 1950s home. Juhl's furniture is undergoing a renaissance at present, and when his house in Charlottenlund--which he designed and decorated in 1941-42--came up for sale, Pedersen purchased the building and all of its furnishings, presenting it immediately afterward to the adjacent Ordrupgaard Museum. This monograph takes a look at Finn Juhl--who, alongside Hans J. Wegner and Arne Jacobsen, is one of the most important Danish modernists--in an agreeable, unpretentious fashion. Per H. Hansen, a renowned expert in Scandinavian furniture design, provides a humorous, extremely informative description of Juhl's unconventional character and his classic furniture--the Chieftain Chair, the Pelican Chair, the Poet Sofa. Drawings, photographs, images of the newly curated house (2008) and an amusing final chapter about his patrons round off this unusual and atmospherically illustrated tribute to the brilliant Danish designer and his own home, an icon of good taste.

The name Hans J. Wegner (1914 2007) is inseparable from his unrivalled chairs, which helped Danish design to achieve its international breakthrough. Every design fan has his or her favorite from among Wegner s approximately five hundred creations. Today, there is a hardly a glossy interior design magazine that does not include an illustration of the elegant China Chair (1943) or the Y Chair (1950), and even John F. Kennedy sat on his Round Chair, which is now simply called The Chair (1949). Trained as a furniture maker, Wegner usually made his prototypes himself by hand, using traditional joinery techniques such as tongue-and-groove or finger joints. In the process he pushed the limitations of wood, giving his designs an unmatched elegance. His sense of humor did not fall by the wayside, either, as evidenced by his splendid Peacock Chair (1947) or the masculine Ox Chair (1960), that latter of which is available with or without horns.

So much passes us by, unnoticed. We multi-task, switch between screens, work faster. When was the last time you paused to consider a beautifully made object or stunning natural landscape? Yet this is when our spirits lift, our soul is restored. Designer Alan Moore invites us to rethink not only what we produce whether it s a website, a handmade chair, or a business but how and why. With examples including Pixar, Apple, Yeo Valley and Blitz Motorcycles, we are encouraged to ask: Is it useful and considered. Is it a thing of beauty? Do Design will inspire you to: Improve your creative process Raise the quality and craft of your work Consider the experience as much as the product Adopt simplicity, utility and honesty as guiding principles We are creative beings. We love to make things. This book will inspire you to create better things for better reasons. Things that people will love for a long time to come. Some say beauty is a luxury. But what if it is key to creating a better world for us all?

Swedish designers are noted for producing distinctive and elegant forms; their furniture and household goods have an especially loyal following around the world. Design in Sweden has more than just an aesthetic component, however. Since at least the late nineteenth century, Swedish politicians and social planners have viewed design as a means for advocating and enacting social change and pushing for a more egalitarian social organization. In this book, Keith M. Murphy examines the special relationship between politics and design in Sweden, revealing in particular the cultural meanings this relationship holds for Swedish society.

Over the course of fourteen months of research in Stockholm and at other sites, Murphy conducted in-depth interviews with various players involved in the Swedish design industry—designers, design instructors, government officials, artists, and curators—and observed several different design collectives in action. He found that for Swedes design is never socially or politically neutral. Even for common objects like furniture and other household goods, design can be labeled "responsible," "democratic," or "ethical"— descriptors that all neatly resonate with the traditional moral tones of Swedish social democracy. Murphy also considers the example of Ikea and its power to politicize perceptions of the everyday world. More broadly, his book serves as a model for an anthropological approach to the study of design practice, one that accounts for the various ways in which order is purposefully and meaningfully imposed by designers on the domains of human life, and the consequences those impositions have on the social worlds in which they are embedded.