"Lust och fägring stor" or "All Things Fair" or "Love Lessons" is a Swedish movie from 1995 and this was the last movie made by Bo Widerberg around 2 years before his rather untimely death. Still that makes it almost 25 years old now, maybe more even depending on when you read this review. Anyway, Widerberg is considered to be one of the best Swedish filmmakers of all time, perhaps right behind Bergman in the food chain. Now lets take a look at this film here. It is really long, runs for 2 hours and 10 minutes and this was Sweden's official Oscar submission that year and it managed a nomination in a year when the Netherlands won the category. As for the cast, Widerberg picked his own son Johan for the main character here and the female protagonist is played by Marika Lagercrantz. Johan Widerberg was a few years older than the character he played and his female counterpart Lagercrantz also did not look 40 in this film. By the way, both have managed really strong careers afterward and they are both still going strong having appeared in a handful of prestigious and successful films. So their movie turning out more than just alright here does not come as a surprise to me. Now let me tell you a bit about the story and what I liked and what I did not like that much. This is the story of a student who gets closer to his new teacher and the two are having an affair. Well, that is of course because of the scandalous nature what is most talked about here. But the teacher's husband and his relationship with the student is also pretty interesting (not in a romantic sense of course) and also 2 or 3 other subplots. It needs to be said that this film plays during World War II, but this barely has an impact on the story. The one exception is the main character's brother who fights in the Swedish Army. And who dies eventually in a prestigious submarine. (That this part does not feel too memorable also has to do with the weak idea of secrent message communication between the brothers.) On one occasion, you can also hear a speech by Adolf Hitler. There's more references. I guess this background helped the film in getting some awards recognition as WWII is always (Oscar) bait. But to me personally, this background was really not defining at all in terms of the story. It could have played years later as well, maybe even in the now and the plot would not have been different. Or not vastly different lets say.
It starts with a class full of students experiencing puberty and wondering how many times a male moves in and out the female during intercourse. And there's other relatively childish stuff involving sexuality (pay attention to the Jew reference on one occasion that clearly establishs the male protagonist as a good guy) and, on the non-sexual side, about chewing gum. So the boys' heads were filled with stuff that all other boys' heads are filled with too during that age, not just those by Swedes during wartime. Things move a bit away from these students and the focus drifts towards our "hero" and his secretly significant other. The two get closer and start having an affair, which is first love for the boy. Or just sex? When the two drift apart eventually, he says it meant nothing to him except satisfying his desires and it felt credible the way he said it. One reason for that is the boy expressing sexual interest in girls his age or younger. There is the girl who undresses for him at the family party and he sleeps with her eventually too and realizes that girls his age are maybe more interesting than a woman 20-25 years his senior, even if he can learn a lot from her and obviously did. That scene when he and the girl his age are in hiding during the PE lesson is pretty hilarious and fairly cute too. Maybe the biggest fun moment and one of really very few comedy moments this film has to offer and that one also has a certain charm as the girl was pretty likable too. Anyway, there are many other more serious scenes. I already mentioned the main character's brother and what the woman does with the boy, even if he consents is also somewhat worrying. And lets not forget her man. His struggles with his work and the alcoholism that comes along with it and I am pretty sure he knows what's going on between his wife and the student because he is not stupid, just treated badly by life, but does not dare to say something really because then he would lose it all probably and have nothing, nobody, not realizing that his marriage is really long gone. I initially struggled with the man growing relatively close with his wife's lover, but the longer it went the more realistic and authentic it felt, also because the actor (van Brömssen) was very good, at least as good and memorable as the two in the lead, with considerably less screen time quite an achievement. If we move on towards the end chronolgically, the idea of her fighting him hard after it is basically over felt realistic too and impressed me even more as I did not see it coming. I had no idea where the film was heading. I thought maybe a slow drifting apart without a big boom, but the boom was somewhat there and it meant that the male protagonist had to repeat one year of school and the teacher got away with it. No feel-good ending overall, but those who like happy ending will appreciate the scene how he takes a bit of revenge with his zipper in public. You know which one I meant. And I sure did not expect the teacher to turn into such a b!tch (not sure this word is prohibited here on imdb for reviews, but I absolutely do not want to use another because it is 100% accurate and hits the nail on the head) eventually. So as a whole, I was well entertained here. It never really dragged and these over 2 hours flew by. There's not much negative I can say here. The film did not connect with me that I would say it was really great or one of the year's best for me, but there were moments when it came fairly close to this evaluation. But the last 20-30 minutes meant for me that it was "only" a good watch, not a great one. Still says a lot that Sweden made films like this one on the subject of teachers getting involved with students and well Germany makes that fairly terrible Schweighöfer film when he was pretty young. But I don't want to remember the latter, so lets have a few more words on this one here. However, there is not too much to say other than I am glad it got the Oscar nomination because it is a pretty good film and Widerberg did go out on a high note. May he rest in peace. I am glad I got the chance to see this one as part of a film series here in a local theater and I am also glad I decided to go watch it after initial hesitation. You should do the same. It's absolutely worth it. Thumbs up!
It starts with a class full of students experiencing puberty and wondering how many times a male moves in and out the female during intercourse. And there's other relatively childish stuff involving sexuality (pay attention to the Jew reference on one occasion that clearly establishs the male protagonist as a good guy) and, on the non-sexual side, about chewing gum. So the boys' heads were filled with stuff that all other boys' heads are filled with too during that age, not just those by Swedes during wartime. Things move a bit away from these students and the focus drifts towards our "hero" and his secretly significant other. The two get closer and start having an affair, which is first love for the boy. Or just sex? When the two drift apart eventually, he says it meant nothing to him except satisfying his desires and it felt credible the way he said it. One reason for that is the boy expressing sexual interest in girls his age or younger. There is the girl who undresses for him at the family party and he sleeps with her eventually too and realizes that girls his age are maybe more interesting than a woman 20-25 years his senior, even if he can learn a lot from her and obviously did. That scene when he and the girl his age are in hiding during the PE lesson is pretty hilarious and fairly cute too. Maybe the biggest fun moment and one of really very few comedy moments this film has to offer and that one also has a certain charm as the girl was pretty likable too. Anyway, there are many other more serious scenes. I already mentioned the main character's brother and what the woman does with the boy, even if he consents is also somewhat worrying. And lets not forget her man. His struggles with his work and the alcoholism that comes along with it and I am pretty sure he knows what's going on between his wife and the student because he is not stupid, just treated badly by life, but does not dare to say something really because then he would lose it all probably and have nothing, nobody, not realizing that his marriage is really long gone. I initially struggled with the man growing relatively close with his wife's lover, but the longer it went the more realistic and authentic it felt, also because the actor (van Brömssen) was very good, at least as good and memorable as the two in the lead, with considerably less screen time quite an achievement. If we move on towards the end chronolgically, the idea of her fighting him hard after it is basically over felt realistic too and impressed me even more as I did not see it coming. I had no idea where the film was heading. I thought maybe a slow drifting apart without a big boom, but the boom was somewhat there and it meant that the male protagonist had to repeat one year of school and the teacher got away with it. No feel-good ending overall, but those who like happy ending will appreciate the scene how he takes a bit of revenge with his zipper in public. You know which one I meant. And I sure did not expect the teacher to turn into such a b!tch (not sure this word is prohibited here on imdb for reviews, but I absolutely do not want to use another because it is 100% accurate and hits the nail on the head) eventually. So as a whole, I was well entertained here. It never really dragged and these over 2 hours flew by. There's not much negative I can say here. The film did not connect with me that I would say it was really great or one of the year's best for me, but there were moments when it came fairly close to this evaluation. But the last 20-30 minutes meant for me that it was "only" a good watch, not a great one. Still says a lot that Sweden made films like this one on the subject of teachers getting involved with students and well Germany makes that fairly terrible Schweighöfer film when he was pretty young. But I don't want to remember the latter, so lets have a few more words on this one here. However, there is not too much to say other than I am glad it got the Oscar nomination because it is a pretty good film and Widerberg did go out on a high note. May he rest in peace. I am glad I got the chance to see this one as part of a film series here in a local theater and I am also glad I decided to go watch it after initial hesitation. You should do the same. It's absolutely worth it. Thumbs up!