Article:

« … not just simple remakes». Sweded Movies als Filmtravestien

In his motion picture BE KIND REWIND (2009) Michel Gondry created the «sweded movies», a form of amateur-remakes which was applauded by the cineaste public and led to hundreds of imitations on YouTube. Structurally, the main type is marked by an extreme compression of the discourse time and seems to consist of a series of anthological scenes of successful movies, among them a high average of science fiction blockbusters. Stylistically the props attract attention because they are mainly decontextualizations of everyday objects. This grants these movies a soupçon of avant-garde, the more so as many examples include a self-reflexive level. At the same time »swedes« can be regarded as a form of collective and playful appropriation of contemporary myths. While earlier amateur-remakes never left the private sphere, nowadays their makers present them publicly via the internet and make their movies a vivid illustration of the participatory culture. Under the perspective of genre »sweded movies« are film travesties. In consideration of the fact that the industry rarely produces travesties, one more reason for the interest in »Swedes« might be that they fill a gap in the pattern of hypertexts.