BTV 1948: Music in Darkness

Music in Darkness (Musik i mörker). Ingmar Bergman. 1948. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★★.

Once again, Birger Malmsten stars, and like Lorens Marmstedt allegedly adviced Bergman two movies ago, “You have to remember that Birger Malmsten is no Jean Gabin”. He still isn’t, but he’s perfectly nice if somewhat uninspiring. (I just had a peek at Bergmans filmography, and it looks like Malmsten is going to star in an ungodly number of Bergman’s films.)

Gunnar Björnstrand pops up again, but Bergman had yet to establish his stable of, er, stable actors.

Once again, Bergman adapts a melodrama based on an existing work. The previous two films were based on plays, but this one is based on a novel, which you would assume would give Bergman a wider range of possibilities. And this one is less like a filmed play, but it’s still pretty uninteresting.

As usual for this time period, just watching the actors is pretty entertaining, especially Mai Zetterling, Björnstrand and Naima Wifstrand (who would go on to appear in half a dozen more Bergman films).

Bergman sure likes having his female actors running around naked. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

(*cough* Weinstein *cough*)

This post is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.

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