16/05/2025 - CANNES 2025: As far as classic “new Swedish cinema” goes, the namesake of this solid biographical documentary by Jon Asp and Mattias Nohrborg ticks most of the boxes

The premiere of Jon Asp and Mattias Nohrborg’s biographical documentary Being Bo Widerberg in the Cannes Classics section of the 78th Cannes Film Festival is timely. Twenty-eight years after the passing of the Swedish cinema auteur – ticking most, if not all, of the boxes within the classic French definition of the latter word – Widerberg has attracted increased interest, both on home turf (where he never really left) and, more notably, internationally (where, despite having six Cannes entries in his day, he has been something of a well-kept secret). Directors like Olivier Assayas repeatedly sing his praises, and the Criterion label has put out an elaborate collection of his “new Swedish cinema”. This solid documentary, full of choice archive footage and illuminating interviews, pays further tribute to a career of singular filmmaking.

With his feet on the ground and keeping an intimate eye on his fellow and equal man, Bo Widerberg was the antithesis of the austere and, at times, detached Ingmar Bergman, and even his nemesis; he was appointed as such in a series of fierce debate articles circa 1960, scrutinising and mostly discarding the artistic vision in contemporary Swedish cinema, a territory frequented by operetta-like caricatures. After this, the angry young novelist at the time, quite remarkably, went straight out and directed the kind of film he missed and wanted to see – the intricate The Baby Carriage. The Oscar-nominated Raven’s End came straight after that, and a new Swedish cinema was born – there and then, instantly. Between 1963 and 1996, Widerberg made 13 features that had a huge influence on several generations, effectively creating a national “school” – something Bergman never achieved.

“A humanness, a sensibility, entirely unique” is Assayas’ assessment in the documentary, where directors like Ruben Östlund, Tarik Saleh, Mia Hansen-Løve and Lars von Trier share feelings and reactions to the breathtaking, heartbreaking romance of Elvira Madigan, the political poetry that ends in gunfire in both Ådalen 31 and Joe Hill, and the groundbreaking crime cinema of The Man on the Roof, the veritable father of all “Nordic noir”. A number of co-workers turn up, with Jan Troell and Tommy Berggren being on board at the very start, and Stellan Skarsgård and Stina Ekblad experiencing the latter phase of a directorial journey with its fair share of bumps – as also confirmed by the various wives and girlfriends he so energetically wooed. A lively, colourful personality, to put it mildly, Widerberg not only caused a ruckus within a stale film aesthetic (mainly for good), but also wreaked havoc with his producers and collaborators (bad), and spent a sizeable part of his four active decades out in various degrees of cold. “It just didn’t work out,” says (at least) one ex-girlfriend. “But I loved him. I really did.” If being Bo Widerberg (or indeed being with him) had its calamities, seeing him is an experience brimming with life and colour, which seemingly only gets stronger with time.

Being Bo Widerberg was produced by Sweden’s B-Reel Films with co-production by SVT, Film Stockholm and Film i Skåne.