Figure 1.--In this scene from the documentary, "The Making of Fanny and Alexander" we see a couple of school boys wearing the typical Swedish dress of about 1910--sailor suits with middy blouses, caps with visors, backpacks for school books, short knee pants, black long stockings, and high-top shoes.

A documentary was made about the filming of thhis classic Swedish film. It was entitled simoly "The Making of `Fanny and Alexander'". It contains some scenes that were not used in the earlier film, and is interesting for the historical accuracy of the costuming. The documentary was released in 1983. Here we see a couple of school boys wearing the typical Swedish dress of about 1910--sailor suits with middy blouses, caps with visors, backpacks for school books, short knee pants, black long stockings, and high-top shoes. The boys look to be about 12 to 13 years old. In this Upsala street scene with the Swedish school boys, we see the director Bergman (in modern clothes) giving the boys in 1910 costume a few directions about their movements.

The documentary gives us some detailed information about a number of the important scenes in "Fanny and Alexander". For instance, we see the actors rehearsing the bedroom pillow fight (wearing their night shirts), the children being brought to the bedside of their deceased actor-father with considerable fearfulness (because they have never experienced death before), the dance-like procession around the Christmas table, and so forth. Bergman himself explains to the actors and the technical staff just what effects he hopes to achieve. One gets a good sense of Bergman's gentle but nevertheless demanding requirements for actors, camera men, wardrobe people, and so forth. One of the most interesting features of the documentary film is the way the children and other actors have to get used to the rather complicated clothes they are required to wear.

Created: November 12, 2003
Last updated: November 17, 2003