Women’s Film Histories in Scandinavia: Historiography, Screenwriting and Costume explores the role of women in Scandinavian cinema from the silent-film era to the present day. Whereas film scholarship has traditionally focused on directors or actors, this collection examines other contributors to film production, offering fresh perspectives on women’s creative work in the industry. The book centers on two professions in which women have been notably active throughout film history: costume design and screenwriting. These roles occupy different positions in film culture and production, and by bringing them together, the collection highlights women’s significance in film history in both distinct and complementary ways. Screenwriters have at times enjoyed relatively high status and, in certain historical contexts, have even been regarded as the primary creators of a film. Costume designers, by contrast, often belong to the more invisible members of a production team—classified as “below the line.” In addition to discussions on costume work and screenwriting, the book includes a section addressing historiographical questions concerning women’s place in film history. Many of the women examined here are previously unknown or understudied figures, but the analysis also sheds new light on more familiar names such as Asta Nielsen and Astrid Lindgren. By illuminating women’s contributions beyond the conventional focus on directors and actors, Women’s Film Histories in Scandinavia presents women’s film history as an alternative way of writing the history of cinema.

Women’s Film Histories in Scandinavia: Historiography, Screenwriting and Costume explores the role of women in Scandinavian cinema from the silent-film era to the present day. Whereas film scholarship has traditionally focused on directors or actors, this collection examines other contributors to film production, offering fresh perspectives on women’s creative work in the industry. The book centers on two professions in which women have been notably active throughout film history: costume design and screenwriting. These roles occupy different positions in film culture and production, and by bringing them together, the collection highlights women’s significance in film history in both distinct and complementary ways. Screenwriters have at times enjoyed relatively high status and, in certain historical contexts, have even been regarded as the primary creators of a film. Costume designers, by contrast, often belong to the more invisible members of a production team—classified as “below the line.” In addition to discussions on costume work and screenwriting, the book includes a section addressing historiographical questions concerning women’s place in film history. Many of the women examined here are previously unknown or understudied figures, but the analysis also sheds new light on more familiar names such as Asta Nielsen and Astrid Lindgren. By illuminating women’s contributions beyond the conventional focus on directors and actors, Women’s Film Histories in Scandinavia presents women’s film history as an alternative way of writing the history of cinema.

It is hardly controversial to state that Ingmar Bergman is still almost exclusively defined as an art filmmaker and auteur in Sweden and, especially, beyond. This chapter focuses on some particular issues and areas that have largely fallen by the wayside within Bergman scholarship, in large part due to the historical, accumulative impact of auteurist approaches, and that arguably form the very antithesis of what is generally associated with Bergman – notably, popularity, fashion, superficiality. In this context, it is of no small interest that Bergman so skilfully, and well before the existence of professional public relations people and other spin doctors, was able to manipulate journalists at will, almost as a one-man show, literally directing them as if they were players on stage. If Bergman can be regarded as a celebrity, then gossip is a viable and necessary object of study.

Based on 30 semi-structured interviews, this chapter focuses on women film workers’ representation and work life experiences in the Swedish film industry – internationally hailed as the most equal film industry in the world – and on these women's various strategies to survive in an industry that, since the late 19th century, been male-dominated. With more than 20 years of ambitious gender equality work informing this industry, and with an insistence on ‘50/50 by 2020’, the number of women in ‘above-the line-positions’ (i.e. directors, script writers and producers) has increased steadily over the years. Yet, women are met with several obstacles that are directly tied to their gender and although one is close to 50/50, women continue to be considered an exception, or even abnormality, in the industry. Here, Joan Acker's notion of ‘ideal worker’ (Acker 1990, 1998, 2006) is useful in that it highlights how the male norm still dictates the industry.