Advertising through Experimental Film : Gösta Werner’s Tåget (1948)

This paper centers in on the production of the experimental film The Train (1948) and the negotiations between the Swedish filmmaker Gösta Werner and the commissioner, The Swedish State Railways. Although recent developments in film studies show an upsurge of interest in the previously neglected field of the sponsored film, in-depth case studies of the relationship between commissioners and avant-garde filmmakers remain rare. In cooperation with the modernist painter Lennart Rohde, who was influenced by the French avant-garde film movement cinema pur, Werner desired to push visual storytelling to its limits. Lacking a straight narrative and dialogue, The Train came to cross borders both not only in terms of style but also regarding the manner in which it travelled nationally and internationally. Analyzing the film text and the formal devices employed, the paper concludes that the commissioner offered Werner the opportunity to experiment while the relationship simultaneously issued creative constraints.