Summary:
An artist and his younger pregnant wife retreat to an island, where the husband can paint. While there, the artist confronts secrets from his past that slowly drive him mad.
My Thoughts:
Ah, Bergman…
The Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema box set by Criterion just came out today, and of course, Bergman being my favorite director, I had to pick it up. I am ecstatic about this set, so forgive the influx of Bergman reviews that will undoubtedly flood this site over the next few months. I wanted to start with something I hadn’t heard much about, and I figured this would be as good a place as any.
“Now is when nightmares come to us. And if we are awake… we are afraid.”
The film stars Bergman regulars Max von Sydow (“Conan the Barbarian”) as Johan Borg and Liv Ullmann (“Persona”) as his wife pregnant wife Alma. The two retreat to a remote island where Johan hopes to continue his work. For a while, the two are happy, but after peculiar people repeatedly visit Johan, he reveals to Alma one of the secrets that plagues his past and is slowly driving him mad.
So, first and foremost, the thing that brings me to any Bergman film is of course Bergman himself. This film, like all his others, is intricately layered with multiple symbolic meanings in every shot. I love Bergman because his films often set up metaphorical imagery and then he just lingers on those shots to let the implication sink in. There’s a shot where Max von Sydow stands by a lake and a boy approaches him from behind, and the way that the shot lingers and the soundtrack raises atmospherically makes it feel as if Bergman is trying to convey that the lake represents death. The image is incredibly haunting and it works wonders as a preceding scene for the action that follows.
The way Bergman tells this story is divided into two parts (the title card actually divides those parts down the middle). The first half of the story is lighter, both in terms of content and cinematography. A lot of the stuff we’re shown in the first half of the film is photographed outside, and from a distance away, making things feel open, freer, and brighter. There are lots of gorgeous shots of the Swedish island on which our heroes retreat, and even when they are inside, the framing feels more relaxed and the way the characters hold themselves almost seems as if their lounging (they are on a sort of vacation, after all). In the second half of the film, the shadows are harsher, the lighting darker, the way that the subject of the shot are framed are more jarring, almost antagonistic. When we do see shots outside, we see images of twisted roots and tree branches, clouded skies, or turbulent lakes. The world of the film switches almost exactly down the middle from a lighter piece (it is Bergman, so not too light) to a far darker one. One thing I love about Bergman is his ability to work in meaningful surrealist imagery without it feeling over the top on the nose. His imagery often feels like we’ve simply wandered from reality into a dream, and this film has tons of moments that feel just like that.
As far as the story goes, I really love the way this film plays out. For the most part, we see things from Alma’s perspective as she watches her husband sink further into his own mind. This perspective is great because it adds a layer of tension and emotion to the film; tension because at first everything seems okay and then we slowly peel back layers to reveal how horrible things are underneath, and emotion because Alma has to watch from an outside perspective as mental illness eats away at someone she loves- a horrifying and no doubt devastating experience. The film ramps up the tension immensely by the second act, and there are some moments that truly shocked me (enough that I rewound a bit to show one of my roommates). While I wouldn’t really say any of Bergman’s films are light watches, this one in particular focuses on themes that Bergman is familiar with (isolation, mental illness, repressed sins and shame) but in a darker approach: there isn’t much hope at the end of this film.
Verdict:
This is a really good movie, and it’s not one that I often hear mentioned when Bergman’s name first comes up. That, more than anything, is a testament to how great Bergman was. I absolutely recommend this movie, but if you’re new to Bergman, and are looking for something more mainstream, maybe try "Wild Strawberries" or “Seventh Seal”.
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