Sytten
Encyclopedia
Sytten is a 1965 Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 coming-of-age sex comedy directed by Annelise Meineche and starring Ole Søltoft
Ole Søltoft
Ole Søltoft was a Danish actor who became an icon of the 1970s wave of Danish erotic feature film comedies. For over a decade he starred or co-starred in nearly all notable film in this genre and became hopelessly typecast, usually playing naive, likeable guys with a healthy sexual appetite...

 and Ghita Nørby
Ghita Nørby
Ghita Nørby is a popular Danish actress with 117 film credits to her name from 1956-2005, making her one of the most active Danish actresses ever. She was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to opera singer Einar Nørby...

. Søltoft plays a 17-year-old high school student who discovers the youthful excesses of sexual desire during his summer vacation in 1913. Based upon the semi-autobiographical 1953 novel by Carl Erik Soya
Carl Erik Soya
Carl Erik Soya, , also known by the single appellation Soya, was a Danish author and dramatist. His works were often satirical provocations against double-standards and dishonesty...

, Sytten was a financial success for the Palladium Film company and ushered in a wave of erotic films such as the Bedside-films
Bedside-films
The Bedside-films is a series of eight feature films directed by John Hilbard in 1970-1976, and form part of the wave of erotic films from Denmark.The eight films are connected by the Danish word "sengekant" in the title of each film...

 and Zodiac-films
Zodiac-films
The Zodiac-films is a series of six feature films from 1973-1978, and form part of the wave of erotic films from Denmark.The Six films are connected by a zodiac-starsign in the title of each film. They were produced by the film company Happy Film. The first film was directed by Finn Karlsson, the...

, most of which starred Søltoft.

Plot

In the summer of 1913, 17-year-old Jacob (Ole Soltoft), a Danish high school student, lives in the frustrating limbo between boyhood and manhood. He worries about his excessive focus on masturbation and, although he is aware of the sexual overtures by the housemaid Sophie (Lise Rosendahl), Jacob doesn't know how to respond to her. Jacob is invited to spend his vacation at the summer house of his wealthy uncle (Ole Monty). At the summer house in an idyllic coastal town, Jacob meets his uncle, aunt (Bodil Steen), free-spirited housemaid Hansigne (Susanne Heinrich), virginal housekeeper Rosegod (Lily Broberg), and his dream-girl cousin Vibeke (Ghita Nørby). He is also pursued by his Uncle's employee (Ingolf David), who tries to seduce Jacob. While the Uncle is off on a fishing trip and the Aunt spends the night in town with her lover, Jacob has his first sexual experience with Vibeke—an awkward encounter. Afterwards, when Vibeke leaves for school, Jacob spends his nights with Hansigne—a joyful, uncomplicated and liberated woman. She guides him through his awkwardness and teaches him erotic techniques. One night, Hansigne's boyfriend Knud (Hugo Herrestrup) catches them together and attacks and threatens Jacob. Jacob discovers he finally feels like a man. In great spirits, he returns home after vacation and prepares to accept the advances of Sophie.

Cast

  • Ole Søltoft
    Ole Søltoft
    Ole Søltoft was a Danish actor who became an icon of the 1970s wave of Danish erotic feature film comedies. For over a decade he starred or co-starred in nearly all notable film in this genre and became hopelessly typecast, usually playing naive, likeable guys with a healthy sexual appetite...

     as Jacob Petersen, a 17-year-old searching for sexual experience. The role was a break-out performance for the 23-year-old Søltoft. Although he tried a few serious roles, he was quickly typecast in comedic sex romps. Through the late-60s and 70s, he went on to star in a successful series of Danish sex comedies before retiring from film in 1978.

  • Ghita Nørby
    Ghita Nørby
    Ghita Nørby is a popular Danish actress with 117 film credits to her name from 1956-2005, making her one of the most active Danish actresses ever. She was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to opera singer Einar Nørby...

     as Vibeke

  • Emil Hass Christensen
    Emil Hass Christensen
    Emil Hass Christensen was a Danish film actor. He appeared in 60 films between 1925 and 1978.He was born in Frederiksberg, Denmark and died in Denmark.-Filmography:*Cirkusrevyen 1936 - 1936...

     as Professor Petersen

  • Ole Monty
    Ole Monty
    Ole Monty was a Danish film actor. He appeared in 65 films between 1937 and 1976.He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and died in Denmark.-Filmography:*Flådens blå matroser - 1937*Under byens tage - 1938...

     as Jacob's Uncle

  • Bodil Steen
    Bodil Steen
    Bodil Jørri Jensen Steen was a Danish stage and film actress.-Filmography:*I dag begynder livet - 1939*Tror du jeg er født i går? - 1941*Når katten er ude - 1947*Det hændte i København - 1949...

     as Jacob's Aunt

  • Lily Broberg
    Lily Broberg
    Lily Broberg was a Danish stage and film actress.- Filmography :*Lev livet let - 1944*Bedstemor går amok - 1945*En ny dag gryer - 1945*Panik i familien - 1945*Diskret ophold - 1946...

     as Mrs. Rosegod

  • Arthur Jensen
    Arthur Jensen
    Arthur Robert Jensen is a Professor Emeritus of educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Jensen is known for his work in psychometrics and differential psychology, which is concerned with how and why individuals differ behaviorally from one another.He is a major proponent...

     as Konduktøren

  • Henry Nielsen
    Henry Nielsen
    Henry Nielsen was a Danish stage and film actor.-Filmography:*Han, hun og Hamlet - 1932*Ud i den kolde sne - 1934*Min kone er husar - 1935*Millionærdrengen - 1936*I folkets navn - 1938...

     as Stationsforstanderen

  • Annie Birgit Garde
    Annie Birgit Garde
    Annie Birgit Garde is a Danish film actress. She has appeared in 31 films since 1955.She was born in Frederiksund, Denmark.-Selected filmography:* Father of Four and the Wolf Cubs * Soldaterkammerater rykker ud...

     as Girl on Train

  • Susanne Heinrich as Hansigne

  • Ingolf David as Pharmacist

  • Jørgen Kiil as Dr. Irving Mogensen

  • Hugo Herrestrup
    Hugo Herrestrup
    Hugo Herrestrup is a Danish film actor. He appeared in 35 films between 1953 and 1996.He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.-Selected filmography:* Father of Four * Sømand i knibe...

     as Knud

  • Lise Rosendahl as Sophie

  • Jytte Abildstrøm
    Jytte Abildstrøm
    Jytte Abildstrøm is a Danish film actress. She has appeared in 40 films since 1956.She was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is the mother of Peter Mygind.-Filmography:* Der var engang en dreng * Freak Show 2003...

     as Mrs. Steinkop

Reaction

Although Sytten was one of the first mainstream films in Denmark dealing with explicit nudity and sex (along with Jeg en kvinde and Halløj i himmelsengen), the film provoked little controversy within the country. It had been more than ten years since the Danish public was indignant over the publication of Soya's novel as well as other controversial novels by Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...

 and Agnar Mykle
Agnar Mykle
Agnar Mykle was a Norwegian author. He became one of the most controversial figures in Norwegian literature in the 20th century.-Early life:...

. By 1965, Danish attitudes had changed. In 1964, the state prosecutor had brought a pro forma
Pro forma
The term pro forma is a term applied to practices or documents that are done as a pure formality, perfunctory, or seek to satisfy the minimum requirements or to conform to a convention or doctrine...

 obscenity case against the publishers of a new translation of Fanny Hill
Fanny Hill
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure is an erotic novel by John Cleland first published in England in 1748...

 which ended in acquittal. Two years later, Denmark's laws against pornographic literature were repealed, and, in 1969, pictorial pornography was also decriminalized.

Reaction outside of Denmark was different and viewings were limited. In the United Kingdom, the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) refused to certify Sytten for viewing in standard cinemas. However, the final decision is always left to individual local authorities (which normally follow the BBFC's decisions). Only in London, the Greater London Council
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area...

 permitted showings under an X-rating (for individuals aged 16 or over, at that time).

The film became an enormous box office success in Denmark, achieving a record profit of 3 million Danish kroner for the Palladium film studio. Palladium followed it the next year with a more serious work, Soya's Tagsten, also based upon a novel by Soya
Carl Erik Soya
Carl Erik Soya, , also known by the single appellation Soya, was a Danish author and dramatist. His works were often satirical provocations against double-standards and dishonesty...

, however this film was a financial failure. After a few more attempts at more serious erotic films, Palladium finally discovered the correct formula was sex comedies with Ole Søltoft in the lead, such as Mazurka på sengekanten,. The film was the final production by Palladium, but it was another box-office hit, had many sequels and continued the wave of erotic comedies.

External links

  • Sytten at IMDb
  • Sytten at Den Danske Fim Database (in Danish)
  • Sytten at Det Danske Filminstitut (in Danish)

See also

  • Bedside-films
    Bedside-films
    The Bedside-films is a series of eight feature films directed by John Hilbard in 1970-1976, and form part of the wave of erotic films from Denmark.The eight films are connected by the Danish word "sengekant" in the title of each film...

  • Zodiac-films
    Zodiac-films
    The Zodiac-films is a series of six feature films from 1973-1978, and form part of the wave of erotic films from Denmark.The Six films are connected by a zodiac-starsign in the title of each film. They were produced by the film company Happy Film. The first film was directed by Finn Karlsson, the...

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