DVD/150: VISKNINGAR OCH ROP (Cries and Whispers) (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)

While filming THE TOUCH, Ingmar Bergman had a recurring idea: four women dressed in white in a large red room; he pursued it through his imagination and made it real in the unrelenting and powerful VISKNINGAR OCH ROP or CRIES AND WHISPERS.

Despite financing problems it won a Cannes jury prize and it's worldwide success culminated in the rare occurance of a foreign language film being nominated for five main Academy Awards, winning for Sven Nykvist's stunning cinematography.

In a large, nearly-empty family mansion, ornate clocks tick away Agnes' life as she slowly dies from cancer, watched over by her attentive maid Anna who mourns the death of her own daughter.

The only other occupants are Agnes' married sisters Katrin and Maria who have come to watch and wait...

The oppresive atmosphere conjours up unhappy memories in each sister; Agnes dies and the sisters let their polite masks drop...

Shelf or charity shop?  Haunting the shelf.  Even with Bergman's body of work the 50 year-old CRIES AND WHISPERS remains an unsettling, disturbing film with four extraordinary performances by the actresses he always envisioned playing the roles - although he actually originally wanted Mia Farrow as Anna the maid!  Kari Sylwan appeared in her first Bergman film playing Anna, the only one who shows any real love for Agnes.  His three other actresses each made 10 films with Bergman:  Harriet Andersson is astonishing as the dying Agnes (in her 8th Bergman role), Ingrid Thulin (in her 9th Bergman role) is icily disdainful as the emotionally dead Katrin - the scene where she cuts her vagina with a broken wine glass has lost none of it's horrific intensity - but the most complex role goes to the magnificent Liv Ullmann who delivers wonderfully.  In her 5th Bergman performance, Ullmann as Maria, whose beauty and sensuality covers an immature and petulant interior, is the one you always watch; in flashback she also plays the sister's mother, beautiful but remote.  Only at the end does Bergman allow a flash of happiness, all the more touching coming after all we have witnessed.

Dvd/150: JUNGFRUKALLÄN (The Virgin Spring) (Ingmar Bergman, 1960)

The first Bergman film to win the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, he later disparaged it as a bad attempt at copying Kurosawa, however it remains intensely powerful.

Medieval farmer Töre lives with his pious wife Märeta and indulged daughter Karin.  Töre asks Karin to take candles to a faraway church; dressed in her best clothes Karin leaves accompanied by surly, pregnant maid Ingeri.  Pagan Ingeri dislikes Karin and offers prayers to Odon to make her suffer.

Ingeri is scared by an old man in the woods so Karin continues alone; she is stopped by two goatherds and their younger brother and she requests they share her food. She slowly realizes their intent but they rape her, killing her afterward.

That night the rapists ask for shelter at Töre's house which he allows while Märeta worries about Karin.  But when they offer Karin's clothes as payment, Töre exacts revenge...

Shelf or charity shop?  The Virgin Spring resides in my storage box of coverless DVDs.  I will keep it for the power of Bergman's direction, Sven Nykvist's glorious b/w cinematography and the performances of Max von Sydow as Töre - only 31 years old when it was filmed - Gunnel Lindblom's earthy Ingeri and Birgitta Pettersson as doomed Karin.  Amazingly, it was the inspiration for Wes Craven's notorious THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

 

Dvd/150: NATTVARDSGASTERNA (Winter Light) (Ingmar Bergman, 1963)

With NATTVARDSGASTERNA, Bergman proudly felt he had got his ideas onto the screen without compromising for commercial appeal.

Bergman's dissection of the loss of faith takes place in 77 real-time minutes: everything's pared to the bone.

Pastor Tomas Ericsson holds a nearly-empty mass on a bleak November morning.  Attending are Marta, a teacher who is having an unhappy relationship with him, and married couple Jonas and Karin.  Tomas is visited later by the couple: pregnant Karin tells Tomas that Jonas is struggling with depression, scared that China is developing an atomic bomb.  Alone with Jonas, Tomas tells him he cannot help as he has lost his faith, believing God helps no one.

Afterwards, atheist Marta attempts to comfort Tomas but they hear Jonas has committed suicide...

Sven Nykvist's stunning cinematography and unsentimental performances from Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ingrid Thulin, Max von Sydow and Gunnel Lindblom make Bergman's vision unforgettable.

Shelf or charity shop?  A difficult film to watch at times but for Bergman's humanist view of man alone in the world, this is one for the shelf...

 

 

Dvd/150: SASOM I EN SPEGEL (Through A Glass Darkly) (Ingmar Bergman, 1961)

The first in Bergman's Faith Trilogy, THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY won the 1961 Oscar for Best Foreign Film and retains an unsettling clarity of vision.

A family of four gather on an austere island: David has returned from finishing a novel abroad but the atmosphere is unsettled, his daughter Karin is recovering from a mental breakdown which involved shock therapy.

Karin's doctor husband Martin watches her closely and reveals to David that she will suffer continued breakdowns.  Also present is Karin's younger brother Minus, unhappy with their father's remoteness.

Karin is already hearing voices telling her people are waiting within the walls for the arrival of God.  She finds in David's diary his confession that he will probably use her breakdowns for a book.

The atmosphere of emotional distrust helps fracture Karen's mental state again...

Harriet Andersson, Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand and Lars Passgard all give raw, memorable performances.

Shelf or charity shop?  I can see myself revisiting Ingmar Bergman's devastating reflection on the loss of faith again so shelf...

Dvd/150: GYCKLARNAS AFTON (Sawdust and Tinsel) (Ingmar Bergman, 1953)

Bergman's first real focus on the psychological shadows of desire was in GYCKLARNAS AFTON (Sawdust and Tinsel) set in a ramshackle travelling circus at the turn of the last century.

This also marked the first time Bergman worked with cinematographer Sven Nykvist who keeps Harriet Andersson luminously photographed - she is effortlessly subversive as Anne, the circus rider who is the mistress of the dour ring-master Albert.

When the circus visits the town where Albert's estranged wife and sons live, he makes Anne jealous by saying he wishes to see them.  They ask the town theatre for some costumes but first must endure the disdain of the director and, for Anna, the attention of a letcherous actor.

Albert's wife refuses his offer to return while Anna sleeps with the actor, both actions leave them unhappy.  When the theatre company visit the circus, humiliation and sadness are top of the bill.

Shelf or charity shop?  It's not an easy watch - particularly because of a punchable clown - but as it's part of a Bergman box-set I will keep it - and also because of the magnicent performance by Harriet Andersson's cat...