I've seen nearly all of the Bergmans available on DVD, except notably Fanny and Alexander, which has been sitting here waiting for a special occasion. So when I saw there was a mini Bergman season on BBC4, with 2 films not available on DVD, I was delighted. The timing wasn't good - it coincided with me going to a festival, but I managed to get the first night's programmes - one film plus two documentaries - on to one tape, and I hope I have another tape with the second film coming from a friend.
This film stars Bergman's favourites from the period - Harriet Andersson, who broke out in Summer with Monika, Eva Dahlbeck, who was a fine comic actress in A Lesson in Love, and the peerless Gunnar Bjornstrand, who was in over 20 of Bergman's films, and is always excellent, whether in comic or serious roles. It comes in the middle of his best comedies - A Lesson in Love and Smiles of a Summer Night, and just before his serious period starts - The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries were both made a couple of years later.
It has a dual plot - Dahlbeck and Andersson are agent and model, and they travel together to a photography shoot. Dahlbeck tries to pick up a previous affair with a married man, whereas Andersson, having split with her boyfriend back home, is picked up by a rich old man, played by Bjornstrand. The latter leads to some light comic scenes, but then the film turns darker. Bjornstrand's wife has been hospitalised since she gave birth to her daughter, who she rejected. The daughter is headstrong and free-spirited, rejecting her father's discipline, and the father pursues young girls who look like the wife he still loves. A casual flirtation turns into something more sordid as the daughter humiliates Andersson.
Similarly, Dahlbeck's potential tryst is interrupted by her lover's wife, as they're planning to elope to Oslo. Both meetings start full of flirtation and hope, and end in disillusion, with a final scene emphasising the solidarity of rejected women, and the fortitude of working women. Bergman is famous for his sympathy to women throughout his career - there are few directors who present such strong women so consistently - and this is again seen through the eyes of women. There are 6 characters - 2 men and 4 women - and it's the men who are weak and pathetic, while the women divide between the betrayed and the pursued, but all, apart from Andersson, who's a child, are strong characters.
I enjoyed this a lot, it was one of Bergman's best that I've seen, and I don't know why it's not yet available on DVD - perhaps it's in the huge boxed set.
This film stars Bergman's favourites from the period - Harriet Andersson, who broke out in Summer with Monika, Eva Dahlbeck, who was a fine comic actress in A Lesson in Love, and the peerless Gunnar Bjornstrand, who was in over 20 of Bergman's films, and is always excellent, whether in comic or serious roles. It comes in the middle of his best comedies - A Lesson in Love and Smiles of a Summer Night, and just before his serious period starts - The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries were both made a couple of years later.
It has a dual plot - Dahlbeck and Andersson are agent and model, and they travel together to a photography shoot. Dahlbeck tries to pick up a previous affair with a married man, whereas Andersson, having split with her boyfriend back home, is picked up by a rich old man, played by Bjornstrand. The latter leads to some light comic scenes, but then the film turns darker. Bjornstrand's wife has been hospitalised since she gave birth to her daughter, who she rejected. The daughter is headstrong and free-spirited, rejecting her father's discipline, and the father pursues young girls who look like the wife he still loves. A casual flirtation turns into something more sordid as the daughter humiliates Andersson.
Similarly, Dahlbeck's potential tryst is interrupted by her lover's wife, as they're planning to elope to Oslo. Both meetings start full of flirtation and hope, and end in disillusion, with a final scene emphasising the solidarity of rejected women, and the fortitude of working women. Bergman is famous for his sympathy to women throughout his career - there are few directors who present such strong women so consistently - and this is again seen through the eyes of women. There are 6 characters - 2 men and 4 women - and it's the men who are weak and pathetic, while the women divide between the betrayed and the pursued, but all, apart from Andersson, who's a child, are strong characters.
I enjoyed this a lot, it was one of Bergman's best that I've seen, and I don't know why it's not yet available on DVD - perhaps it's in the huge boxed set.
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