All language subtitles for Brutal (Eric M. Nilsson, 1980)

The Swedish Film Institute
financed this film.

Length: 7 minutes.

Now a message to those
who first and foremost

wants to discuss taste and quality
rather than costs.

This 7 minute film
does not aim for quality.

It is mainly about money.

I repeat:

This 7 minute film
does not aim for quality.

It is mainly about money.

It is also about being tormented
and about tormenting others.

for the sake of money.

Brutal.

Brutal can mean harsh, raw, violent

rough, direct, ruthless

as using strength, as using violence.

Sometimes it is justified to be brutal

bad or even nasty.

This image of a lake has so far
been shown for 20 seconds.

That is one twentieth
of the film's total length.

One could argue that it has costed
5 750 Swedish kronas.

Roughly speaking one twentieth
of the film's total budget

of 115 000 kronas.

A scandal.

Art can be scandalous.

Art is quality,
someone writes.

Not always.

Art can be reduced to a product

which is bought and sold.

It's value then becomes a fiction

while it's price becomes a reality

independent of quality.

And therefore the following statement:

Art

culture

information

will be the motor of the Western economy
in the end of this century

just as the car industry
has been until now

and as the railways were

at the end of the last century.

A Swedish minister replies.

I would hope, in a sense,
that this is what will happen

but I'm afraid I do not believe so.

I think it is more proper to say
that culture and art

will be considered more valuable

as people will request
a higher quality of life

rather than material benefits
and raised living standards.

Thus the demand for culture and art
will raise.

Yet I do not think of this as
such a driving force for the economy

which automatically will lead
to economical growth.

He talks about "quality of life".

Quality of life in Sweden, 1980.

A minister replies cautiously.

In less than 20 seconds
the minister of Culture explained

why art won't become the future
driving force in Western economy.

Films are made by filmmakers

who call themselves film workers.

The film worker sits - for instance -
at the barber

He films.

He is fascinated by the gaze of others
among other things.

The film worker wants to give meaning
to the gaze of others.

The filmmaker makes an effort.

He makes art.

He makes art for the sake of money.

1 meter.

2 meters.

3 meters.

4 meters.

1 meter of 16mm colour negative
costs 2 kronas and 37 cents.

Including development, workprint,
35mm negative blow-up

copy print and VAT

94 kronas and 75 cents
for 5 seconds of film.

Now there are 2 minutes and 50 seconds
remaining of the film.

In other words 48 000 kronas to spend.

To create these images
costs 274 kronas per second in total.

Regardless of quality.

And now 46 900 kronas are left to spend.

Enough to buy a new Volvo.

A banal association.

Films can be constructed out associations.

Different kinds of associations.

The film should be about brutality.

The film is indeed about brutality

in Sweden, 1980.

The film worker makes an honest
and serious effort at the barber

giving meaning to the meaningless.

Music.

And images.

And sound.

And words.

Film.

Multiple images means
less expensive images.

Images of things.

Pieces of things.

Pieces of people.

The purpose of cinema
is to create false contexts

compensating for contexts
that does not exist in real life.

The cinematic language
evokes images of a mutilated reality

which only appears as pieces.

One piece here.

One piece there.

The film worker makes an effort

and the scarcity of means
becomes an expression

for the scandalous meaninglessness
of the subject matter.

12 seconds are now remaining.

The man who bears the ultimate
economical responsibility for this film

gets a question.

Why this movie?

Because I thought people wanted to make documentaries.

Jörn Donner
CEO of The Swedish Film Institute

That's all I can say.

What the hell do you want me to say?

And now you will get to see more film.