Remembrance of Things Past?: The Swedish film Together

The very fine, funny, and surprisingly moving Swedish film (ca. 2000), Together, perfectly captures the mood of its time - 1975 - and of its place: the film is about a small Stockholm commune of political and sexual progressives; many American viewers will well remember houses such as this one, with posters of Ho and Che on the walls, Jimmi Hendix on the stereo, chickpeas on the menu, couples uneasily trading mates and crossing gender barriers, the various liberations from clothing and hygiene, the tense and endless debates about global politics, the sexual warfare over who would do the dishes, the disregard for material possessions, the accusations against those seeking "bourgeois" comforts, the inevitable splits and rifts over issues of ideology and jealousy. What Americans won't quite get is the particularly doctrinaire nature of Swedish radicalism of that era - having lived there during the time, I know that these groups were fewer in # than in the U.S. but much more unflinching and serious-minded - in the U.S. there were so many things to easily oppose - the war of course, and racism, and LBJ and RMN - that it was pretty easy to lightly wear a mantle of progressive and radical views and "lifestyles." Harder to do so in the near-socialist and egalitarian state of Sweden - so their animus was more fierce and in a way more abstract. The beauty of this film is, from out of all this chaos, several plot lines to develop - as we watch several of the characters grow, evolve, change - some leave the commune, others join. The emotional center of the film are the two children of the abused wife whose brother brings her into the commune for her safety - watching their adjustment struggles in this very alien, at first, setting is very moving and sorrowful. There's lot of sorrow, joy, and humor throughout, culminating in a riotous free-form soccer/football "match" at the end that brings a lot of the people - vastly different in so many ways - "together." Very good film - wish more people had seen it, but that would have required a U.S. remake, which was/is not likely to happen.