Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

tieman64 Directed by Roy Andersson, "A Swedish Love Story" stars Rolf Sohlman as Par, a fifteen year old kid who's madly in love with local girl Annika (Ann Kylin). Around our young lovers swirls a world of adults. Alienated, disillusioned, broke, tired, and devoid of hope, these adults seem on the brink of meltdown. Par and Annika, of course, are the opposite. Madly in love, they see the world through idealised eyes; everything's gold. Watch them dance.Novice actors, Rolf and Kylin lend the film a rare fragility. They're awkward, confused, their characters' romance conveyed with amorous glances and simple exchanges. Andersson's direction is low key. Very low key. The film moves like a whisper, a teenage dream, moments of whimsy and bounce periodically giving way to adults who grumble and grouse. Damn them. Damn those pesky adults, with their "problems" and their "baggage". Why they so blue? "Humanity is composed of a bunch of bastards," one grotesque adult grumbles. "Money is all that matters," another moans.But Par and Annika don't notice. How can they? They're like dandelion dust, fluttering, playing in an adolescent fun-yard, touching bodies, experiencing one another, probing and prodding and basking in all that is adolescent and awkward and oh so soft and gentle and my oh my there's my first kiss. To Andersson, Par and Annika are creatures still in a state of innocence. They're Adam and Eve before the fall. Lif and Lifthrasir in their secret forest, though around them the mundanity of maturity heaves its massive bulk. It's coming. But will our young couple turn into monsters? Will they be like daddy and mommy and their dour aunts and uncles? Of course not. They have hope, and zest and look good in miniskirts, tight jeans and when posed on-top motorcycles. They're rebels, baby. They've got things figured out. The world's their oyster. Blue jeans and push up bras. They're the future and the future is bright.Yeah, right.Interestingly, while Andersson's going for a balancing act – the shipwreck of adulthood juxtaposed with the blissful naivety of youth – for the purposes of advocating youthful optimism, the effect is the opposite. You want to slap these kids. You want to tell Annika to stop dressing like a hooker and Par to stop trying to look like James Dean. You ain't cool, kid.Incidentally, though perhaps not surprisingly, once you see how it aestheticises youthfulness, copies of the film frequently turn up after FBI paedophile raids. And whilst Andersson's films frequently counterpoint jaded maturity with blissful ignorance, "A Swedish Love Story's" young/old binary is a bit too simplistic. Often it's pessimists who are the most "optimistic" and the blissful who, in their self absorption, are truly "pessimistic". And of course adults are as delusional as kids, if not more so, and indeed are directly responsible for the delusions of the latter.7.9/10 - Worth one viewing.

anderzzz-1 This film, as I see it, is a slightly absurd view of the world through the selective gaze of two young persons in love. Although this film is far more realistic that the later films by Roy Andersson, it still has an absurd feeling, especially in the final part, but also before. But as a young person this was, at least for me, the way the surrounding appeared to be. You saw things, heard things, people cried and did things for reasons which you did not fully grasped or cared about. The unhealthiness of your family and every-day had become like a too well-known background noise which you only got aware of later in life. Therefore, all the partially touched-upon subjects in this film which never are fully resolved or explained are a strength not a weakness, I think.The film is also political. The class society in welfare Sweden is shown. It is not the upper-class vs. servant class, but rather it is the "quest" for prestige of the every-day among working and middle class that is portrayed, and always in a subtle but critical tone. But all this is through the selective gaze of the two young persons in love, hence never is the film becoming dogmatic in its political sense.A very good film, also with a beautiful photo. As a portrait of society this film is excellent. And please, don't confuse it with Ingmar Bergman's films. They are good in some respects, but this one is more "Swedish" than Bergman ever gets.

drjukebox I actually didn't see this movie when it came out, although I was 13 at the time. I just saw it for the first time. I have heard good things about it, so I watched until the end. It is told slowly and beautifully, as we would expect from this director. The boy, the girl and their teenage love are the story. As a backdrop, we have dysfunctional adults, parents, relatives, friends and others, none of who seems to enjoy life even one bit. That is one of the problems with the film. If it is understood that this is depicted from the children's point of view, then it is perhaps OK. But except for the young couple, they're all cardboard, one-dimensional.I always felt this kind of movie has pretensions of realism, that it was made as a protest/alternative to the usual Hollywood fare, to "acting",to cinema as an escape. But it is only realistic to a very limited extent - the central love story. I frankly can't see it as any closer to "reality" than Sound of Music. Some see streaks of dark humor here. I must admit I cannot see that at all. It wouldn't hurt if it had been played as a comedy. I think that would be the only excusable way you could portray a group of people, a neighborhood, a nation this way - with a sense of humor. A modern successor to Andersson is Lukas Moodysson, equally adept with directing children but unable to direct people past adolescence with any depth. And last, folks, this is not a representative view of Sweden at any point in time, although some (including a few Swedes) claim it to be. It was never like this. I know, because I was there.

von Krolock This is not really a teenager-movie, although some would describe it as such. The main story is about two teenagers falling in love, correct, but that is only the shell. The story inside the shell is the one of the parents with their lost dreams and locked positions. The imagery is truly beautiful(the famous Serojoska-scene stands out) and the film also features Björn Isfält`s first venture into composing for the movies. Den Vackre and The Bertil Theme are particularly beautiful. Sadly this film, Roy Anderssons in my opinion finest one, is not available on video.