Kurt has been delving into the archives yet again, and has very kindly sent us this:
John: In connection with our discussion of corporal punishment in
continental Europe, it occurred to me to bring readers' attention to a
superb film by Ingmar Bergman, the famous Swedish director, which has
autobiographical overtones concerning his own boyhood in Sweden in the
early twentieth century. The film, as many will recall, is entitled
"Fanny and Alexander (1983). Alexander is about ten or eleven in the
film and his sister, Fanny, about eight or nine. Alexander of course
wears short trousers with long stockings and garters, presumably
fastened to the Swedish equivalent of a Leibchen or bodice. In one
scene, Alexander is punished with a cane by his step-father, a severe
Lutheran bishop, for failing to be completely truthful. As I recall,
he is made to take down his trousers and bend over to receive his
whipping in front of adults (servants and family members) as well as
his sister. Here are two shots from the film. In the first you see
Alexander emerging from his hiding place under a table. Notice that the
fastener of his garter is visible on his right thigh just at the hem of
his short trousers. In the second shot, Alexander is being
interrogated before the bishop just prior to his being humiliated and
caned on his trouserless bottom.
