Anita: The Story of a Bad Film : The cultural life of Torgny Wickman’s 1973 sex film

Abstract: Anita  (Torgny Wickman 1973) is a typical example of a film produced as part of a wave of Swedish softcore sex films created with an eye on the substantial overseas profits to be made in market curious to witness onscreen Swedish Sin.  Following an extremely brief and limited release in Sweden the film disappeared from popular cultural perception until resurfacing in the late 1990s as an object of nostalgic cult curiosity.  Taking cues from New Cinema History disciplinary methods, cult theory and touching on theories of the dispositif, this thesis maps the manner in which Anita is popularly and academically regarded as a text throughout differently delineated eras of its lifespan. By drawing on its appearance in film listings, popular press, national press and fanzines, and through its various releases and restoration this work builds to an understanding of how uses of this text move from populist via nostalgia through cult to historical canon, and the way in which these uses offer new perspectives on Swedish film history.