Filmhuset plays host to Anita Ekberg

On 29 September, the legendary Swedish film star Anita Ekberg will be 75 years old. The Swedish Film Institute is celebrating this event with the exhibition Anita of Sweden and a series of her films at Cinemateket this autumn.


The exhibition Anita of Sweden is made up of photographs, film stills and posters from the Swedish Film Institute archives – unique photographs by Georg Oddner – some of which were previously unseen, and memorabilia on loan to the institute, including costumes, etc. The curators are Louise Lagerström and Ragnar Berthling.

Anita of Sweden opens on 1 October, and the ceremony will be followed by a conversation between Anita Ekberg and Stina Lundberg Dabrowski in Filmhuset's Cinema Victor. After the conversation, La Dolce Vita will be screened.

In a career spanning six decades, Anita Ekberg has taken part in more than 60 films. Crowned as Miss Sweden in 1951, she went on to take part in the Miss Universe pageant in the United States, where she was offered a training contract by Universal Studios.

In 1956 she was awarded a Golden Globe in the "most promising newcomer" section. In the early 1960s she left Hollywood for Italy, where her role as the glamorous film star Sylvia in Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) won her instant fame around the world. Her scenes with Marcello Mastroianni in the Fontana di Trevi are among the most well known in the entire history of cinema.

In addition to Fellini, Anita Ekberg has worked with directors such as King Vidor (War and Peace), Robert Aldrich (4 for Texas), Vittorio De Sica (Woman times 7) and Bigas Luna (La Bámbola). The films to be screened at Cinemateket during October and November are War and Peace, Back from Eternity, Screaming Mimi, La Dolce Vita, Boccaccio 70, 4 for Texas, Gold of the Amazon Women and Fellini's Intervista.

Tickets for the event on 1 October (the conversation will be held in Swedish) can be purchased from the Filmhuset shop (open daily 11.00-16.00, or during evening screenings at Filmhuset between 19.00 and 21.00) or via the website www.sfi.se/filmbutiken.

The exhibition will run until the end of the year.

Photo: La Dolce Vita/Nordisk Film.