Michael Tapper

Michael Tapper, Ph.D./Reader in film studies, M.A. in journalism. Besides being an affiliated researcher in film studies at Lund University in Sweden, I work as a film critic at Sydsvenska Dagbladet and Helsingborgs Dagblad. Since 1989 I have contributed to a number of newspapers, journals (Chaplin, FLM, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television), anthologies and encyclopaedias such as the Swedish National Encyclopaedia..

You will find my home page at: https://michaeltapper.se

My home page at Lund University is: http://www.sol.lu.se/en/sol/staff/MichaelTapper/

In English I have published: 1. 'Swedish Cops: From Sjöwall & Wahlöö to Stieg Larsson' (London: Intellect Books/Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014). 2. 'Ingmar Bergman's Face to Face' (London & New York: Wallflower Press, september 2017).

In Swedish I have published: 1. 'Clint Eastwood' (Historiska Media 2011), a monography. 2. The dissertation 'Snuten i skymningslandet: Svenska polisberättelser i roman och film 1965-2010' (Nordic Academic Press 2011), a political history of the Swedish police novel and film (translated, revised, updated and edited to 'Swedish Cops').

Awards: Jurgen Schildt Award (film criticism, 2000), Elisabet Sörenson Award (film criticism, 2002), The Swedish Crime Writers' Association's Best Specialist Literature Award for 'Snuten i skymningslandet' (2011).

Anthologies in English with my contributions include: '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die' (ed. by Steven Jay Schneider, Cassel, 2003), 'Lars von Trier: Interviews' (ed. by Jan Lumholdt, University of Mississippi Press, 2003), 'Scandinavian Crime Fiction' (ed. by Andrew Nestingen & Paula Arvas, University of Wales Press, 2011) and 'Nordic Genre Film' (ed. by Tommy Gustafsson & Pietari Kääpä, Edinburgh University Press, 2015).

Between 1998 and 2002 I was the chief editor of film journal Filmhäftet, then chief editor of its English successor Film International (2003-04). In 2005 I signed over the journal to Intellect. I have also been a member of the editorial board of Cinema Journal (2003-07).

I mainly write about my subjects in a historical context. Hence, 'Clint Eastwood' is not a biography but a history of the actor as both a public figure and an iconographical legend - one that he consciously cultivated in his films. My book on the Swedish police novel and film - 'Swedish Cops' - is a political history about the Swedish welfare state and its critics, who used the crime genre as an instrument in their attacks.

My latest title, 'Ingmar Bergman's Face to Face', is a book about a film director, his influences, and a now much-forgotten work that he made at the height of his international fame in 1975. It is also one about the contemporary context of the work: the intellectual and artistic tendencies, the social debates, the books he read, and the films he saw at the time of the production.