Name
Mai Zetterling
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1925-05-24
Deathday
1994-03-17 (69 years old)
Place of Birth
Västerås, Västmanlands län, Sweden
Biography
Mai Elisabeth Zetterling ( May 24, 1925 – March 17, 1994) was a Swedish actress and film director.
She began directing in the early 1960s, starting with political documentaries and a short film called The War Game (1962), which was nominated for a BAFTA award, and won a Silver Lion at Venice. Her first feature film Älskande par (1964, "Loving Couples"), based on the novels of Agnes von Krusenstjerna, was banned at the Cannes Film Festival for its sexual explicitness and nudity. Kenneth Tynan of The Observer later called it "one of the most ambitious debuts since Citizen Kane." It was not the only film she made that would stir up controversy for its frank sexuality (early pioneer on voyeurism).
When critics reviewing her debut feature said that "Mai Zetterling directs like a man," she began to explore feminist themes more explicitly in her work. The Girls, which had an all-star Swedish cast including Bibi Andersson and Harriet Andersson, discussed women's liberation (or lack thereof) in a society controlled by men, as the protagonists compare their lives to characters in the play Lysistrata, and find that things have not progressed very much for women since ancient times.
Known For
6.971
While staying at a hotel in England with his grandmother, Helga, a young boy named Luke in...
6.4
Doctor Glas finds himself attracted to a young woman, married to a corrupt clergyman. She'...
6.942
In Ireland, American lawyer Ingrid Jessner and her activist partner, Paul Sullivan, strugg...
7.5
After a massive luxury liner sinks into the ocean, the ship's officer must command a ricke...
5.527
A man on the verge of marriage is haunted by traumatic memories from his childhood....
7.1
Eight acclaimed filmmakers bring their unique and differing perspectives to the 1972 Summe...
5.7
A U.S. sergeant, a British sergeant and a British pilot hijack gold for a German refugee's...
- 1948 Life Starts Now as Vera Ullman
- 1990 The Witches as Helga Eveshim
- 1956 Ett dockhem as Gurli Pall
- 1993 Minns ni? as (archive footage)
- 1990 Hidden Agenda as Moa
- 1946 Sunshine Follows Rain as Marit Germundsdotter
- 1948 Music in Darkness as Ingrid Olofsson
- 1944 Torment as Bertha Olsson
- 1959 The Traitor as Frau Caypor
- 1962 Only Two Can Play as Liz
- 1947 Frieda as Frieda
- 1954 Knock on Wood as Ilse Nordstrom
- 1960 Faces in the Dark as Christiane Hammond
- 1948 Quartet as Jeanne (segment "The Facts of Life")
- 1957 Seven Waves Away as Nurse Julie White
- 1958 The Master Builder as Hilda Wangel
- 1963 The Man Who Finally Died as Lisa von Deutsch
- 1961 Offbeat as Ruth Lombard
- 1955 A Prize of Gold as Maria
- 1951 Blackmailed as Mrs. Carol Edwards
- 1953 Desperate Moment as Anna DeBurg
- 1992 Sellers' Best as Self
- 2022 Prejudice and Pride: Swedish Film Queer as Self (archive footage)
- 1960 Piccadilly Third Stop as Christine Preedy
- 1943 Jag dräpte as Miss Peters
- 1949 The Romantic Age as Arlette Tessereau
- 1973 Visions of Eight as Narrator
- 1962 The Main Attraction as Gina
- 1949 The Lost People as Lily
- 1951 Hell Is Sold Out as Valerie Martin
- 1952 The Ringer as Lisa
- 1948 Portrait from Life as Lidia
- 1959 Jet Storm as Carol Tilley
- 1954 Dance Little Lady as Nina Gordon
- 1944 Prince Gustaf as Anna Maria Wastenius
- 1952 Tall Headlines as Doris Rickardson
- 1946 Iris and the Lieutenant as Iris Mattson
- 1990 The Making of 'Hidden Agenda' as Self
- 1989 Maybe I Really Am a Sorceress as Self
- 1958 Playing on the Rainbow
- 1965 Lianbron
- 1957 The Truth About Women as Julie Eaton
- 1949 The Bad Lord Byron as Teresa Guiccioli
- 1976 We Have Many Names as Lena
- 1961 Lords of Little Egypt: Mai Zetterling Among the Gypsies
- 1963 The Bay of St. Michel
- 1993 Morfars resa as Elin Fromm
- 1941 Lasse-Maja as Fanny
- 1977 My Heart Is Red as Nietzsche
- 1978 Stulet nyår as Gerda
- 2015 Regissören: En film om Mai Zetterling as Self (archival footage)
- 1996 Meeting with Mai
- 1988 Calling the Shots as Self
- 1978 Mai Zetterling's Stockholm
- Soon The Polite Invasion
- 1948 Studio One ( 1 episode ) as Gabrielle
- 1959 Interpol Calling ( 1 episode ) as Carol
- 1959 The Third Man ( 2 episodes )
- 1978 Svenska noveller ( 1 episode ) as Gerda
- 1971 Film '72 ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1967 One Pair of Eyes ( 1 episode )
- 1956 Armchair Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Miss Julie
- 1956 Armchair Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Louise Josse
- 1960 Danger Man ( 1 episode ) as Nadia
