In 2014 Svensk Filmindustri released Rotmanad in its Jan Halldoff 4-disc collection. Amazingly, they thought to add Swedish captions for the hearing impaired, which finally opened this classic for translation into English subtitles. First, this is NOT an "erotic film" in the sense that there is NO pandering to the prurient interests of the audience. True, we see 19-year old Christina Lindberg in a few minutes of nude and semi-nude footage ... but she never engages in anything that might be construed as "sexual". That's what Rotmanad is not. But what, then, is it? It is typically billed as a "comedy" ... but if so, it is a dark comedy ... even tragi-comic. One has to sympathize with Assar Gustafsson (Carl-Gustaf Lindsted), as Anna-Bella's (Lindberg) well-meaning but pathetically hapless father. His carefully-ordered world crashes down around his ears when his estranged wife, Sally - played to perfection by Ulla Sjoblom - unexpectedly returns after an unexplained four-year absence. In the opening title sequence we are led to believe she is desperately fleeing from her recent past - jumping from a bridge (in Stockholm?) and swimming back to her family. Sally is a real piece of work. She is utterly without scruples - a hardened prostitute whose mantra is "eat or be eaten." She's a shrewish bully towards her husband - whom she routinely humiliates by having him serve drinks to her clients, and goes so far as to charge him the going rate to have sex with her. But worse, she openly exploits their teenage daughter, selling her body as a "photographer's model", and coaching her to become a prostitute like herself. When one of Anna-Bella's clients becomes romantically involved with the girl, Sally intervenes - murdering the lad, with the rationale that Anna-Bella can't afford emotions. This triggers a cascade of misfortune for the Gustafsson clan - beginning with Anna-Bella's mortal retribution against her mother. Little did she know that Assar had already planned Sally's death, wiring the whore's love-nest with dynamite. He never has the chance to tell her - getting electrocuted while installing the lightning rod Sally had nagged him about throughout the film. Following in her mother's footsteps, Anna-Bella offers her father's undertaker a roll in the hay in lieu of his fee. Unfortunately, she also uses her mother's booby-trapped love-nest ... leaving the dog, Ludde, as the only surviving member of the family! Dog Days? I guess that's where the title came from. Watch Rotmanad with English subtitles, and I think you'll agree that this is indeed a Swedish classic!
Review of Rötmånad
