If anything deserves to be called iconic, it's "Raggare!" directed by Olle Hellbom. I could actually end here and direct you to find a place where you can watch it. The film almost immediately creates an atmosphere that feels like the progenitor of a style that we could see in many works by iconic filmmakers in the following decades, focusing on socio-cultural themes. The talent of the young actors in "Raggare!" is truly impressive. Since the film is about the subculture called by that very name, they form the foundation of its storyline. Visually, the film is equally remarkable. Brilliant cinematography, often supported by music from the era that perfectly captures the 1950s vibe, could serve as a source of inspiration for creating music videos that today would be considered retro style. The story is told in a manner appropriate for youthful rebellion. Watching it in 2024, it's hard not to feel nostalgic for those times, even if you never lived in them. Personally, the film astonished me in a way that rarely happens. It definitely belongs in the top five of the films that surprised me the most. It's almost incomprehensible to me that I had never heard of it before. From the very beginning, it deserves to be regularly shown on the most well-known TV channels specializing in classic cinema. There are definitely too few films like this. The problem is that it's hard to expect anyone today or in the future to create anything in this now-forgotten style. Damn.

For the final title in my run of 50's Nordic cinema (1950-1959) reviews, I dug deep into my downloads,and found a film I had forgotten about getting! Trying to play it a few days ago,I kept finding the subtitles refusing to synch up. Searching on how to fix them,I ended up stumbling on a new file of the flick, which led to me becoming the wild one.

View on the film:

Hanging in the back seat as the guys drive round for some cherries to pop, writer/director Olle Hellbom picks a rough and ready Punk Noir atmosphere off from the streets, gathering all the rebellious youth in a cramped cafe that Hellbom pans the camera across the cafe, capturing the cramped, pent-up tension between each gang.

Rocking Bibban between Roffe and Lasse, Hellbom rides them out to a shattering doom-laden final ride with excellent, drenched in shadow close-ups of Bibban eyeing her transformation from pretty young thing into a drained Femme Fatale, being seated next to the rogue, ruthless youthfulness of Roffe being pelted with lines of white lights unzipping each of his rough edges.

Unbuckling all the gangs hanging outside the cafe working on their cars/bikes, the screenplay by Hellbom superbly kicks-starts the troubled relationship between Roffe and Bibban with the spike of the youthful rebellion frustrations of the era, as Roffe hits out at anyone who tries to put limits on him, and becomes growing abusive over Bibban saying no.

Wonderfully contrasting the abrasiveness of Roffe, Hellbom gives the growing bond between Bibban and Lasse a sweet teenage innocence, sparkling in the crisp dialogue between the pair in car rides, driving towards love, before being taken by Roffe off the tracks. Hit by rocks of those who want to knock her down,Christina Schollin gives a outstanding Femme Fatale performance as Bibban, thanks to Schollin wearing a flirting, knife-edge rebellion streak, with a underlying romantic warmth for Lasse,away from the wild one.