‘Four Times Love’ and the making of the Nordic welfare state

Abstract

This article focuses on ‘Four Times Love’ (Faustman and Jacobsen, 1951), the first feature film produced by companies from four Nordic countries. As a transauthoral omnibus film, credited to two directors and several independently working scriptwriters, ‘Four Times Love’ has a reputation as an incoherent film. Indeed, the project started with only a relatively vague idea of a Swedish frame story and one protagonist connecting three episodes that take place in Finland, Denmark and Norway. As the script evolved, however, unifying themes central to the Nordic welfare state – concerning, for example, social equality and political neutrality – seem to have gained ground. The aim of this article is to read this film as a manifestation of such complementary ideas and ideals surrounding the then (re-)emerging Nordic welfare state system.