Smultronstället [1957]
My first dabble with Bergman was, as for many others, The Seventh Seal, which I saw a couple of months back at the start of the summer. I did not enjoy this film very much but I also saw this before getting an apetite for film makers like Tarkovsky and a lot was probably due to me not quite comprehending what I had seen.
However, my next venture would be with Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries), a movie I enjoyed far more than my previous meeting with Bergman. This is a film that tells the story of a man, at the end of his life, coming to terms with the life he's lived and the impact of his behavior towards others. Victor Sjöström plays the lead, the doctor Isak Borg who early on in the film is confronted with the nature of his persona. His daughter-in-law tells him about how his egoistical behavior has come to deeply hurt his friends and family and how his narcissistic nature has lead people to dislike him. Borg, who's reaching the end of his rope takes this to heart, and we see him attempt to change his ways throughout the film, often through dream sequences where his subconscious is telling him of how he needs to change.
While I did enjoy the film, I didn't find it to be as layered and dense as for instance The Seventh Seal which was released in the same year as Smultronstället. It's an enjoyable film that doesn't ever overstay its welcome with many fine qualities to itself such as the outstanding performances from Ingrid Thulin as the daugther in-law and Victor Sjöström as the remarkable Isak Borg, with such a finesse to even the smallest details such as how we moves and how he carries himself. The plot isn't one of the films strong points but the idea of a long car ride where the people who exit the car are not the same as the people who entered it a couple of hours before is a genius way of story telling. I also want to give some credit for the dream sequences, which most likely were one of the earliest ventures into surrealism for Bergman and which achieve the sense of modernist horror that films like Persona would later be known for in a spectacular fashion. Scenes like the opening nightmare and the horrible exam all feel like if someone had fused Kafka with Dali; it's a marvel of beauty and uncertain wonder at the same time.
Smultronstället [1957]
dir. I. Bergman
7
Anton Öberg Sysojev
I came into Persona with no prior knowledge of the film, maybe that's why it took me by surprise. Right at the interlude I knew I was going into something different, and even know, several days later, I can't quite get this film out of my head.
It's this surrealist film about two women, Liv Ullman playing the ill actor and Bibi Andersson playing her nurse is what we see on the outside of the film but different interpretations tell different stories. It's a modernist horror which feels like an enormous influence on a film like David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, which also features two women with an almost romantic relationship which at times hint at erotic emotions regarding the other person.
You're never quite sure what's going on during Persona and it doesn't really matter for the most part of the film. It's a thing of beauty and one of those moments when Sven Nykvist's cinematography pairs so incredibly well with what I assume is Bergman's vision creating something out of the ordinary and something that feels truly timeless.
Both Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullman play off eachother very well, despite Ullman not having more than I believe two lines throughout the entirety of the film, her role stands as pivotal and her performance being as immersive as that of Bibi Andersson, who in the end steals the show.
It's a unique film, unlike anything I have previously seen and without a doubt the most impressive Bergman I've had the pleasure of seeing so far. Next time I'm watching a Bergman it will definitely be a continuation of his more experimental 60's films in a similar vein to Persona because this film without a doubt deserves its status amongst film buffs.
Persona [1966]
dir. I. Bergman
9
Anton Öberg Sysojev
Fanny & Alexander [1982]
I would have saved this post for tomorrow, or even a later day during the coming week, but I just finished Fanny & Alexander and I had to come here to write about it. I was initially not planning on doing a blog post but I feel that I have a considerate amount to say about this film and I might actually put in the effort to say it right here.
When I dislike a film that's considered by many to be great, a classic or even a masterpiece, I usually find that I'm able to, at the very least, enjoy a few of the films qualities, realize that it's not something I enjoy at this moment and time and assume that I'll be able to enjoy it at a different time of my life. This is not how I feel about Fanny & Alexander. Maybe it's wrong to judge Bergman, a director with a vast output of film, on a film that differs a lot from the previous works I've seen, but judging this movie on its own, I can't say that I enjoyed it a lot, or even found myself believing that I'll enjoy it later.
The story is not a very unique one, it's yet another tale of kids having to suffer through the bad choices of adults, and yet again another story where the kids have to suffer because the adults marries into a horrible relationship with an abusive partner. I do feel empathy for both Fanny & Alexander who are the innocent bystanders, caught in a crossfire of a war that they never belonged to, and I definitely sat on my edge during the scene when Alexander has to swear on the Bible in front of his awful step father but most of all I feel annoyed by the whole situation.
The films's greatest trait is that it plays like the Russian literature classics. It feels like the Anna Karenina or The Brothers Karamazov of film: being almost excruciatingly long, with many characters all with their complex and individual personas, and with a story about the people themselves in a grandiose scope instead of dabbling with existential or philosphoical themes at an equally big level. The story however, is not very interesting and the first half of the film is slow and predictable and this predictability leaves me with a disliking for the characters which feel stupid and naive who constantly do the mistakes you know that they will do. I do believe that the closing part of the film, from when the kids finally leave the horrible stepfathers home to be the most interesting parts of the film. Alexander's meeting with Ismael and the closure to the bishops story arch comes unexpected and almost feels Tarkovvsky-an, where an otherwordly element suddenly finds its way into the otherwise naturalistic story leaving the viewer wondering if it was some kind of clever deception or if things aren't what they seem to be.
Aside from the fact that it feels like a filmatisation of the Russian greats, credit should definitely go to Sven Nykvist (would you have expected differently?) aswell as the terrific work on the sets and the costumes. The different houses that the film is set in have an incredibly rich environment, from the doll makers house to the Ekdahl estate and paired with Nykvist's phenomenal eye for a gorgeus shot leaves a fluidity and a living feel to the world that the film is set in. I do however believe that Nykvist has done far more impressive work with Bergman, but his talent is far from void in this film.
What I dislike the most about this film however, is how awful I find the characters. The burgeoise family that we follow is one that lives a life of luxuary, throwing an enormous christmas party in the beginning of the film for their whole family. It's something I can't relate to in the slightest and something I feel adds to the dumbed down nature of many of the characters, mostly the adults, who live like they've been fed with silver spoons their entire lifes. Maybe conflicts amongst the family members is featured more in the extended version but it's something I felt was lacking throughout the film. The family is there as something huge and important, as we can see in the first half hour of the film, aswell as during the films finale, when Gustav Adolf has his speech around the dinner table, but as it stands now I find that the characters are shallow, narcissistic and uninteresting but most of it may lie in the fact that they are, to me, incredibly unrelatable, aswell as the burgeoisie nature of their behavior being something I have bad experiences with and something I couple with a little drive and little room for development of an original nature. I honestly found the switch of scenes from the police man explaining the situation of the accident at the bishops house, a sad scene in which we see Alexander now realizing that he has been the catalyst for what came to be the end (somewhat) to the man he hated, into this joyous dinner party, where the family yet again is back to living in the excess that they're entitled to, as if nothing awful had happened during the past two hours, to be appalling, distasteful and honestly rude to the viewers; as if the movie had ended on a "and then everything was fine".
Maybe I misunderstood the film, maybe I didn't get the point, or maybe it's just a movie I'll never have any positive feelings around but right now I feel bummed that I didn't do something better with the past three and a half hours of my summer that I didn't spend at work. It is an impressive film, but I don't believe that Bergman has done a good job with this film. I dislike the plot aswell as a big part of what I assume lies in the script (I do believe that most of Alexander's dialogue, aswell as the parts where we see him interacting with characters outside of the Ekdahl family are impressive and actually great) and that is entirely on Bergman and possibly only annoying because I know that he otherwise is massively talented.
I'm not putting a rating on this film because I don't believe I'm sure enough about this film to slap a number on it and leave it at that, I still am curious to see what other people have to say about this film, aswell as maybe letting it sink in for a day or two, but if you've read this far, you can't possibly have any misconception about what my general opinion on this film is at the moment.
Fanny & Alexander [1982]
dir. I. Bergman
Anton Öberg Sysojev
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