The nudes from “I Am Curious” (video)

There are movies that are shocking. Others that stimulate. And some, a few, that do both, with intensity, like "I Am Curious (Yellow)." This Swedish film was released in 1967 and made its mark on cinema history. It is not just a film. It's how a story, a love scandal becomes art. Or is it the other way around? Lena Nyman, the heroine of director Vilgot Sjöman, is a Swedish wild woman who doesn't know what shame is. She strips, kisses, sucks with the same passion that she reads Marx or asks passers-by about social justice. Because Lena is not just looking for truths, she wants to taste them and put them inside her. Her body is what you'd expect from a 60s Scandinavian who didn't learn to say "no" to desire: soft, bright, with those tits that don't... look, but talk to you. They're full, natural, luscious, with nipples that register perfectly on camera. The actress walks around naked, and somewhere between scenes of socialist questions and discussions of rights, the film suddenly slips into passionate sex.

The oral in "I Am Curious"

So passionate that it results in a real oral sex. Yeah, real. No fake kisses and covered scenes. Lena lies on top of him, opens her lips and takes him inside her mouth with vigor. Her lover moans, and she looks at him. With a look between tenderness and domination. This scene doesn't just play a part in the plot, it's the plot itself. It is the moment when Lena's... curiosity becomes liquid, raw pleasure, in front of the audience, without fear, without shame. The film was banned in many countries, considered pornography, censored, fought over. In our country it was shown in a truncated form and with the inappropriate title, "I am a curious yellow"! Internationally, it entered festivals and was discussed in universities. It was worshipped by the bold because it did the obvious: it showed that the female gaze can be both political and horny. Lena becomes a fantasy because she shows how a woman feels when you allow her to say: I want. That's what "I Am Curious" is.