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By and large,in my book ,with a few exceptions ,Roger Vadim's works have not aged well : "et mourir de plaisir' (1960)which was his first attempt at Gothic fantasy (based on the fact that a vampire does not have to be ugly and can take the shape of a gorgeous girl ) was going in a good direction.

He had all the cards for "château en Suède" : cinematography by Armand Thirard (splendid exterior shots), a dream of the cast : the young generation (Brialy , Trintignant,Vitti ) the veterans (Jurgens ,Flon and the wonderful Madame Sylvie) .The beginning promises a good movie: the sinister-looking servant (Daniel Emilfork,one of the strangest faces in the French cinema) , a skeleton in the park , a ghost (?) called Ophelia (Françoise Hardy , arguably the best pop French female singer of the sixties ,but whose acting leaves a lot to be desired),a trouble brother/sister relationship.

I must confess that Sagan never enthused me ;but with a director such as Roman Polanski ,one could have had something a la "cul de sac";but Vadim was never a great director : the actors are left to their own devices: Brialy ,Jurgens and Vitti overplay and are almost unbearable, Trintignant and Flon seem self-conscious and wondering what the hell they are doing here ,Sylvie 's got only to chuckle and to stuff herself with chocolates .

Was it a Gothic farce? A spoof on those movies with a place you can enter but never leave?(the average viewer has seen the final scene a hundred times or more). Black humor is terribly lacking,the lines fall flat , the hints at Shakespeare ("hamlet" ) ,La fontaine and Edgar Poe ("the cask of Amontillado ")are ludicrous .

Do not "step into this den of iniquity ,insanity and infidelity "!

Frederic, a student, got himself invited by a Swedish family, living in an isolated castle (hence the title: "a castle in Sweden"). The scene takes place in cold winter, the castle being surrounded by snow. Frederic slowly depicts one after another, each member of that strange family: Hugo, the Castle's master, 40 years old, married to Eleanore whom Frederic begins to be attracted to; Sebastien, Eleanore's incestuous and dandy brother; Agathe, Hugo's old fashioned sister; and Ophelie... Who is Ophelie actually? That is one among several mysteries that Frederic will try to solve out. Who is manipulating whom? Frederic's rising love to Eleanore and the truth about the gorgeous Ophelie will lead to unpredictable consequences. An amazing casting and a mysterious Ophelie give birth on the screen to Sagan's play. I personally didn't like the play but I love this movie.