Maid in Sweden

A young woman (Christina Lindberg) goes to the big city to visit her older sister who, unbeknownst to her parents, is shacking up with a jerky older guy. Once there, in between some scenic interludes of her shopping and ice skating with her sister, there are a lot of even more scenic interludes of her showering and changing clothes. She has a strange dream where she's apparently gang-raped in a night club, and then goes home to her sister, who makes a lesbian pass at her(!). She is awakened by the sounds of the sister and boyfriend having sex and goes to watch them for awhile before returning to her room and pleasuring herself. The next day the butt-wipe boyfriend introduces her to one of his butt-wipe friends, whom she falls in love with, despite the fact that he date-rapes her on their first date. What little conflict there is in this whole movie then occurs when the boyfriend decides he wants in on the action too.

You kind of get the idea that the whole flimsy plot of this movie is an excuse to get the luscious Christina Lindberg naked as early and often as possible (which alone might make it worth watching for some). Unlike an earlier reviewer, I found this pretty hard to take seriously as a coming-of-age story, but if you do take it seriously the rape scenes might be considered pretty offensive. Personally, I took the whole thing as a fantasy. It's well known that both women and (non-rapist)men often indulge in these kind of rape fantasies. As genre critic Thomas Weissner once astutely pointed out, rape in real-life is certainly not fun or entertaining, but then neither is murder and we certainly get a kick out of that as long as it's put in the fictional/fantasy context of cinema.

Interestingly the sisters here are named "Inga" and "Greta", which are the same names of the characters in Joe Sarno's "Seduction of Inga" (the sequel to his ground-breaking erotic classic "Inga") which was released the same year. These are no doubt pretty common Swedish names, but it's certainly possible that this was meant to ride the coattails of "Inga", and that Christina Lindberg might have been cast in this (one of her earliest roles) because she kind of resembles "Inga" star Marie Lillejedahl (albeit with an even more impressive torso). Lindberg herself would later star in Sarno's best film "Young Playthings". Like a lot of the more famous Swedish erotica this has a lot of American names in the cast and an American title (which makes absolutely no sense given the movie). The voices were dubbed either by the actresses themselves or by other Swedish women, so the dialogue is either more sexy or more incoherent (depending on your point of view) than your usual softcore/sexploitation film. This movie is clearly not for everybody, but you know who you are.

Listed as first film for Christina Lindberg , who must have found it difficult to top herself after such an outstanding visual start. I would certainly recommend this film and any others she appeared in during that time frame. However, except for one other, it appears difficult to locate copies of her subsequent films. Certainly that covers those in which she had a leading role. As for the film, I felt enough thought went into the story line to make it much better than you might expect for this type of film.

A bunch of jerks and A-holes!! Inga put on a good show of being innocent but is very immoral. Greta was the only likeable character. I know this isn't meant to be a serious movie but the messages it sends are awful. Rape a girl long enough and good enough and she will begin to like it and fall in love with you! I don't know which character was worse, Inga or her sisters boyfriend. Both are scum. I liked the interview at the end, Christine Lindberg was still an attractive older lady though I would never guess she was the same person.

Made in Sweden (1971)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

USA/Sweden production has Christina Lindberg in her first major acting role. She plays Inga, a 16-year-old cherry who lives on a farm in the middle of no where. She received a letter from her older sister in the big city who invites her over for a week and this is where she discovers sex. This film has been advertised as a sexploitation movie but it actually tries to be a lot more serious than just some skin flick. That's not to say there isn't any nudity in the picture because that would be an outright lie since Lindberg takes her clothes off any chance she gets. She certainly has one of the most beautiful bodies in this genre so seeing her naked isn't a bad thing and I'm sure it's the main reason people will be drawn to the film. She also manages to give a pretty good performance. This is the third film I've seen with her and I'm always amazed at how natural an actress she is. She pulls the part of the shy, naive girl off very well and she's quite believable in the role of a young girl. Monica Ekman and Krister Ekman play her sister and the sister's boyfriend. Inga gets exposed to sexual pleasure during a rape scene, which I'm sure many will object to. She's being raped but half way through she realizes that sex is something good and I'm sure some might see this as sexist or even worse but I don't think any deep messages where trying to be send with the scene. It's strange that the screenplay would take itself so seriously when it's main purpose was to get men into the theater to see naked women. The coming of age story really doesn't work too well because at the heart this is still a sexploitation movie.

Inga, 16, travels to the city to visit her sister Greta. The walls of Greta's apartment are thin and soon Inga hears Greta and her boyfriend, Carsten making love. Inga's arousal and subsequent journey into adulthood are beautifully and tastefully depicted. The film is lit with exquisite subtlety and edited with calm good taste. Maid in Sweden was one of the first adult films to play in mainstream theaters in the early seventies, and as a sixteen year old myself at the time, this film had particular relevance for me. Upon seeing the film again it still stands the test of time.