Cinema of the World

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The only thing I want to add to the many insightful comments of others is that this is one of the greatest horror films ever made. Yes, I know it doesn't have any of the stock supernatural props we associate with that genre, but it has the trapped-forever-in-a-nightmare atmosphere of the deepest nihilistic horror. It will haunt you.

Favorite moment: Protagonist is approached in the night by a prostitute:

Protagonist: "Go to Hell!"

(Prostitute, laughing): "Where do you think you are?"

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DISK Features
Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) always seemed like the perfect couple. But when Johan suddenly leaves Marianne for another woman, they are forced to confront the disintegration of their marriage. Shot in intense, intimate close-ups by master cinematographer Sven Nykvist, the film chronicles ten years of turmoil and love that bind the couple despite their divorce and subsequent marriages. Flawless acting and dialogue portray the brutal pain and uplifting peace that accompany a lifetime of loving. Originally conceived as a six-part miniseries for Swedish television, The Criterion Collection is proud to present not only the U.S. theatrical version, but also, for the first time on video in the U.S., Ingmar Bergman’s original 5-hour television version of Scenes From a Marriage.

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The following short essay is by Bergman biographer Peter Cowie. It is included in the jacket on the Criterion Collection's release of Cries and Whispers and is also on Criterion's website here.

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In his book Images, Ingmar Bergman has written: "All my films can be thought of in terms of black and white, except for Cries and Whispers. In the screenplay it says that red represents the interior of the soul. When I was a child, I imagined the soul to be a dragon, a shadow floating in the air like blue smoke - a huge winged creature, half bird, half fish. But inside the dragon, everything was red."

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Andreas, a man struggling with the recent demise of his marriage and his own emotional isolation, befriends a married couple also in the midst of psychological turmoil. In turn he meets Anna, who is grieving the recent deaths of her husband and son. She appears zealous in her faith and steadfast in her search for truth, but gradually her delusions surface. Andreas and Anna pursue a love affair, but he is unable to overcome his feelings of deep humiliation and remains disconnected. Meanwhile, the island community is victimized by an unknown person committing acts of animal cruelty.


Extras Review: While The Passion of Anna is probably the least interesting film in MGM's The Ingmar Bergman Collection boxed set, its supplements are the most insightful and revealing of the lot. Liv Ullman's 4m:05s interview is an amusing anecdote about her dachshund "Pet", and reveals the truth about the writing behind Bergman's films. In the 4m:53s allotted to Bibi Andersson, she comments on Bergman's dedication to his art, how the filmmaking climate in Sweden has changed and how it has affected her, and explains why it's not a good idea to invite Bergman to dinner. Erland Josephson speaks of his enduring friendship with Bergman in his brief (2m:25s) interview.

The Photo Gallery consists of the Swedish release poster and 17 production photos, which are duplicated from the Supplemental Materials disc. The U.S. theatrical trailer is in poor shape, with scratchy sound and a damaged source print, but the transfer is adequate.

University of Montreal film professor Marc Gervais contributes the commentary track, as he does for most of the films in the set. It's probably his least interesting talk, which is fair enough because there's simply less the say about this film than the others. He places it in the context of Bergman's other "disintegration" films from the 1960s, and discusses how the film reveals aspects of Bergman's character and personal life. The deconstructive elements of the film are analyzed, including the last shot of the film, where the image of Andreas is gradually obliterated, but this shot is almost certainly an optical effect and not a simple zoom as Gervais claims.

The documentary, Disintegration of Passion, is a bit shorter than the rest in the set, but follows the same format: clips from the film, interview snippets with the actors, comments by Gervais, and excerpts from a 1970 Bergman interview. Gervais mostly repeats observations from his commentary, but the remarks by the other actors provide insights into Bergman's unhappiness at the time, his hesitancies during filming, questionable use of improvisation, and indecision at including the interview segments in the film. If you can ignore the inclusion of the unrelated segments from the 1970 Bergman interview, this is a revealing, insightful documentary.

There's one supplement that breaks away from the formula used on the discs in this set: Elliott Gould reading the story treatment on which The Passion of Anna was based. Bergman typically writes out a detailed version of the story before shooting begins, then shares it with his cast and crew, who use it as a basis for their work. Over the course of more than an hour and a half, Gould reads the story, and it provides a fascinating glimpse into Bergman's working methods.












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English subs:
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Serbian subs:
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The Ritual is an alternate English-language title for Ingmar Bergman's The Rite (Riten). Made for Swedish television in 1969, this short film was Bergman's revenge against those who opposed his management of the Royal Dramatic Theatre.
The storyline involves three actors whose recent production has been judged obscene by the powers-that-be. Bergman deliberately obscures the "controversial" quality of the production itself, forcing the viewers to assess their own opinions over what is obscene and what isn't. Intending to shock and provoke his audience, Bergman was appalled that many viewers laughed at The Rite, misinterpreting it as a satirical comedy. -- Hal Erickson

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During civil war, two musicians retreat to a rural island to farm. They are apolitical; a neighbor sometimes gives them a fish; wine is a luxury. They love each other, but there are problems: the war upsets Jan, he is weepy, too sensitive; Eva wants children, he does not. The war suddenly arrives: rebels attack, neighbors die. When the other side restores order, Jan and Eva are arrested as collaborators. After frightening and roughing them up, the local colonel releases them; then he begins appearing at their farmhouse: to talk or to pursue Eva? He gives her money. The rebels return; chaos ensues. Jan becomes violent and murderous; they flee. Can they escape? If so, to what?

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IMDB

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Madness and demonism, present in many of Bergman's films, are made the explicit themes of Hour of the Wolf. Here they are associated with artistic creativity. Alma (Liv Ullmann) tells of her life with her artist husband, who disappeared, leaving only his diary. "The first of three films featuring Max von Sydow as Bergman's alter ego, the artist in retreat to an island (Fårö, the director's own home) where all his demons and imagined monsters can come out to play, threatening to possess their creator and 'disappear' him into the darkness behind the brain. A strikingly Gothic tale of horror, Hour of the Wolf owes much to Bram Stoker's Dracula in its evocation of the artist's admirers and tormentors as vampires, flocks of flesh-eating birds and insects." --Kathleen Murphy, Film Society of Lincoln Center









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"Heavily artistically infused this chamber piece from Bergman lauded numerous international awards for both the film and the performances. It's beautiful imagery from Sven Nykvist's magnificent cinematography, its high level of pretension and its inability to be comprehensible have given it a unique place in cinema history. "Persona" can causes a myriad of personal reactions. Perhaps its greatest triumph is forcing the viewer to allow "it" to penetrate... to open yourself to its deeply felt expressions and perhaps have it touch upon your own. "Persona" is rife with universal emotions; pain, love, desire, regret, longing. This is a film that can be viewed multiple times garnering more from each visit ... or less, depending on how you allow it to brush your subconscious... that part of you filled with emotions which you rarely, if ever, openly discuss."

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IMDB

The pretentious critic Cornelius is writing a biography on a famous cellist and to do some research he goes to stay in his house for a few days...


What is so rare, and cherishable, as an Ingmar Bergman comedy? All These Women concerns the sexual misadventures of cello-playing Jarl Kulle. Amidst his many romantic pursuits, the egotistical Kulle endeavors to get his life story published, "bribing" a writer by agreeing to perform the latter's musical compositions. Bergman regulars Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson and Bibi Andersson costar in All These Women, while the screenplay was cowritten by another stalwart member of the director's stock company, Erland Josephson. Originally titled For Att Inte Talla om alla dessa Kvindor, All These Women is better known in English-speaking countries as Now About All These Women. -- Hal Erickson







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Two sisters—the sickly, intellectual Ester (Ingrid Thulin) and the sensual, pragmatic Anna (Gunnel Lindblom)—travel by train with Anna’s young son Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom) to a foreign country seemingly on the brink of war. Attempting to cope with their alien surroundings, the sisters resort to their personal vices while vying for Johan’s affection, and in so doing sabotage any hope for a future together. Regarded as one of the most sexually provocative films of its day, Ingmar Bergman’s The Silence offers a brilliant, disturbing vision of emotional isolation in a suffocating spiritual void.

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From the Criterion Collection:

On a cold winter's Sunday, the pastor of a small rural church (Tomas Ericsson) performs service for a tiny congregation; though he is suffering from a cold and a severe crisis of faith. After the service, he attempts to console a fisherman (Jonas Persson) who is tormented by anxiety, but Tomas can only speak about his own troubled relationship with God. A school teacher (Maerta Lundberg) offers Tomas her love as consolation for his loss of faith. But Tomas resists her love as desperately as she offers it to him. This is the second in Bergman's trilogy of films dealing with man's relationship with God.

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ALLMOVIE
Inspired by a medieval Swedish ballad, Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukallan) begins with a scene of unspeakable brutality and ends with an image of uncommon beauty. 15-year-old Birgitta Peterson, on her way to church to light candles for the Virgin Mary, is raped and murdered by two older men. The men look for shelter at the home of Birgitta's father (Max Von Sydow), who murders the bestial killers in cold blood. When the deed is done, Von Sydow, a deeply religious man, begins to question the efficacy of a God that would allow his daughter's death, then permit so bloody a retribution. Then, a fresh, virgin spring bubbles from the ground where his daughter had been lying a few moments before. Taking this natural phenonenon as a sign from above, Von Sydow vows to erect a church on the spot where Birgitta met her doom. The winner of the "best foreign picture" Academy Award, The Virgin Spring currently exists in several versions of varying lengths; the longest, and most graphic, is the original Swedish cut. Believe it or not, this hauntingly beautiful film served as the basis of The Last House on the Left (1972).

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The devil has a stye in his eye, caused by the purity of a vicar's daughter.
To get rid of it, he sends Don Juan up from hell to seduce the 20 year old Britt-Marie and to rob her of her virginity and her belief in love. She however can resist him and things get even turned around when Don Juan falls in love with her. The fact that he feels love for the first time now, makes him even less attractive to her and Don Juan returns to hell.

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IMDB

Synopsis:
Brink of Life pursues Bergman's fascination with the inner lives of women to a maternity ward where three women await the blessed event with mixed attitudes-and fates. Only an unwed teenager who has tried to abort the dreaded newcomer finds herself heading toward a healthy delivery. The film won awards at Cannes not only for the director (his third in a row) but for the actresses - Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck, and Bibi Andersson - whose ensemble work is impressive. The acting holds the charge, and the camera knows it, in this film that is simple in focus, and more clinical than cynical. Not your basic Bergman.

Review:

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"Brink of Life" was shown as part of the exhaustive Bergman retrospective organized by the National Gallery of Art, American Film Institute, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The film curator at the NMWA paired it insightfully with "Karin's Face (1984)," a film of stills about Bergman's mother.

As the two previous reviewers have observed, this little-mentioned film is a classic of its own, dealing with a most challenging and difficult phase of life undeservedly neglected by directors, male or female. Numerous thoughts passed through my mind while viewing it. For those who have experienced some of the events in the film, it rings true. Bergman, with the assistance of the excellent script by Ulla Isaksson, is able to penetrate female psychology about this very elemental subject and to elicit powerful and honest performances from all of his actors. To say that Bergman proves himself to be both psychologist and psychiatrist of the female psyche would not be an exaggeration. But here in 1958 he feels no need for the pathology of "Cries and Whispers," or the sexual neuroses of "Persona."

The setting is "given," almost like a stage play, as it takes place in mainly two rooms of a hospital, and the situation of each of the three women, while different, might even seem a tad "set" or "canned." But as their situations unfold, and as we are drawn into each dilemma, we see how vital this inter-action is between them, between them and the head nurse, and between each of their spouses and lover. From the intensity of being alone (as we see in vivid closeups), their circle of life is gradually drawn wider, encompassing others and us in it. Ultimately, we see how this inter-action deeply affects each of them.

From the standpoint of film making, we can feel how much Bergman loved the archetype Woman, and felt compelled to present in as straightforward and sympathetic a way possible, without melodrama or sentimentality, her predicament as Child-bearer. We are given insight into her innermost fears (what woman has not feared pregnancy before marriage, or a miscarriage, or an abnormal or still birth, an indifferent lover or spouse?), and we are shown how some kind of closure or resolution might be offered through an honest reaching out and sharing of those fears with someone who listens and sympathizes without judgment. Bergman's genius was the ability to reach into the female psyche, to gain the trust of his actors, to allow them to reveal themselves in this most intimate and personal of human emotions and acts, and to make a statement about greeting and accepting life as well as death. He must have obtained this insight early on in life, and for that gift we must thank his mother Karin.

One final note about the men in these women's lives. Ingrid Thulin is matched with Erland Josephson, Eva Dahlbeck with Max von Sydow, and Bibi Andersson speaks on the phone with her lover. Both Josephson and Sydow look very young, much younger than the women appear. Josephson plays a role we seldom see him in, that of the rather unsympathetic spouse, a bit too caught up in himself and appearances.

His sister, interceding for him, is the beautiful and strong, but rarely seen Inga Landgré. Max von Sydow plays a young, very young husband to Dahlbeck -- he seems almost like an adolescent here, even though he was in the "Magician" the same year and "Seventh Seal" the year before. Bibi's errant young man is suitably absent

If we are to read their roles as legitimately portrayed, then I wonder what Bergman was trying to say about Man vis a vis Woman during this phase of pregnancy and childbirth? I hesitate to speculate, but it is almost one of helplessness, even fecklessness, in the face of a life force that is greater than himself.

In all a film of **** well worth searching for and best seen in company with "Karin's Face" if at all possible. I would recommend that all medical students see it, and anyone contemplating childbirth.


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