Month: January 2018
Cornucopia
(January 31, 2018)I ordered a couple of mini-comics from Quimby’s Bookstore, and I got an amusingly large stack of … stuff. At least I think all this was from Quimby’s; I unpacked a lot of stuff at the same time. I can’t think of where else this would come from. First of all, the two comics I … Continue reading Cornucopia
BTXXXV 1961: Through a Glass Darkly
(January 27, 2018)Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel). Ingmar Bergman. 1961. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★. Harriet Andersson is back! After the relationship with Bergman ended (and Bergman started one with her sister), she’d been gone from Bergman’s films for some years. Along with Gunnar Björnstrand and Max von Sydow, this little film has an extremely solid cast. Even … Continue reading BTXXXV 1961: Through a Glass Darkly
BTXXXIV 1960: The Devil’s Eye
(January 27, 2018)The Devil’s Eye (Djävulens öga). Ingmar Bergman. 1960. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★. The studio had bought the rigths to a dusty Danish comedy called The Return of Don Juan. Dymling and I entered into a shameful agreement. I wanted to direct The Virgin Spring, which he detested. He wanted me to direct The Devil’s Eye which I detested. … Continue reading BTXXXIV 1960: The Devil’s Eye
BTXXXIII 1960: Storm Weather
(January 27, 2018)Storm Weather (Oväder). Ingmar Bergman. 1960. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★★. This is a TV play shown on the occasion of Strindberg’s 111th birthday or something equally spurious. It features nobody from Bergman’s usual coterie of actors, so perhaps they’re all taken from Bergman’s theatre ensemble? As theatre actors most of them deliver their lines very crisply and precisely, … Continue reading BTXXXIII 1960: Storm Weather
BTXXXII 1960: The Virgin Spring
(January 26, 2018)The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan). Ingmar Bergman. 1960. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★. This is Bergman’s first Oscar win? It’s not difficult to guess why (spoiler warning: God turns out to be real; i.e., instant US appeal). Even so, it’s rather good. Sven Nykvist is back as the cinematographer, and that really shows. Every scene is a perfect little tableau. … Continue reading BTXXXII 1960: The Virgin Spring
BTXXXI 1958: Behind The Magician
(January 26, 2018)Behind The Magician (Bakomfilm Ansiktet). Ingmar Bergman. 1958. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★★. Same narrator as the previous “behind” featurettes. This one’s quite informative. This post is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.
BTXXX 1958: The Magician
(January 26, 2018)The Magician (Ansiktet). Ingmar Bergman. 1958. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★. We’ve now reached the point where a Bergman film can be immediately identified by just looking at any random frame from his movies, so I guess we’ve gone past the “early” bit of his career. It’s all so programmatically present in this one: All the characters being metaphors … Continue reading BTXXX 1958: The Magician
BTXXIX 1958: Brink of Life
(January 26, 2018)Brink of Life (Nära livet). Ingmar Bergman. 1958. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. At a time when very few men had ever been present at an actual birth, Brink of Life came as a shock for many viewers. The newspapers reported people fainting (the record being set in Bergen in Norway, where eight people passed out during the same … Continue reading BTXXIX 1958: Brink of Life
The Best Countries
(January 24, 2018)A while back, I watched a film and drank a cocktail from each country on Earth, but it occurred to me just now that I had never done any visualisation of where on Earth the good movies and drinks are. Since I had the data semi-readible available, I whipped up some charts. Here’s the film … Continue reading The Best Countries
The Complete Crumb Comics
(January 23, 2018)Robert Crumb is one of the most highly regarded American comics creators, but the past few years has seen both a backlash against his perceived sexism and downright revulsion towards his comics by younger people, as well as a free-floating discussion over teh comix blogs about how Crumb isn’t seen as a major influence over … Continue reading The Complete Crumb Comics
BTXXVIII 1958: The Venetian Woman
(January 21, 2018)The Venetian Woman (Venetianskan). Ingmar Bergman. 1958. ⭐⭐⭐★★★. Bergman was so productive these years that establishing a chronology isn’t trivial. But this TV production seems to have been released before his next feature film, but I have no idea which one was made first. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Anyway, it’s Bergman’s second TV production. It was apparently shown … Continue reading BTXXVIII 1958: The Venetian Woman
BTXXVII 1957: Mr. Sleeman is Coming
(January 21, 2018)Mr. Sleeman is Coming (Herr Sleeman kommer). Ingmar Bergman. 1957. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★. This is Bergman’s first TV movie. It doesn’t seem to have gotten an official release, so I had to get it from teh torrenz. It’s a play filmed for TV (with multiple cameras, I think). Bergman’s usual cohort of actors (Bibi Andersson, Max von … Continue reading BTXXVII 1957: Mr. Sleeman is Coming
BTXXVI 1957: Nattens ljus
(January 20, 2018)Nattens ljus. Lars-Eric Kjellgren. 1957. ⭐⭐★★★★. I got this one from the Bergman Pirate. It’s not officially a Bergman film: He worked on the script, but is uncredited. Is this the only non-Bergman-directed film I’ve seen Gunnar Björnstrand in? And… he’s not as good here as I had come to expect. The entire film is … Continue reading BTXXVI 1957: Nattens ljus
BTXXV 1957: Behind Wild Strawberries
(January 20, 2018)The narrator says “There’s me”. And if she’s the script girl, then that’s Katinka Faragó, according to imdb. Narrator identified! Possibly! Behind Wild Strawberries (Bakomfilm Smultronstället). Ingmar Bergman. 1957. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★★. I still don’t know who’s doing the voice-over on these documentaries, but she seems fun. You don’t really get much information beyond what the actors’ … Continue reading BTXXV 1957: Behind Wild Strawberries
BTXXIV 1957: Wild Strawberries
(January 20, 2018)Wild Strawberries (Smultronstället). Ingmar Bergman. 1957. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Is this Bergman’s greatest commercial success, perhaps? It’s probably second to The Seventh Seal as “The Bergman Film”, though. It’s such a lovely and surprising film. It has a road movie structure where people fade in and out of the proceedings in a very pleasing manner. This post … Continue reading BTXXIV 1957: Wild Strawberries
BTXXIII 1956: Behind The Seventh Seal
(January 20, 2018)Behind The Seventh Seal (Bakomfilm Det sjunde inseglet). Ingmar Bergman. 1956. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★★. The narrator on this short is the same as on the previous one, but I still don’t know who it is. Perhaps the script supervisor? The narration is very seat-of-the-pants: The narrator has obviously never seen the footage before, so she’s commenting on … Continue reading BTXXIII 1956: Behind The Seventh Seal
BTXXII 1957: The Seventh Seal
(January 20, 2018)The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet). Ingmar Bergman. 1957. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. This is probably the one film everybody thinks of when you mention Ingmar Bergman, right? Very serious, filled with symbolism and religious anguish. As pop-culture penetration of art film goes, nothing beats Death on the beach playing chess. And Max von Sydow, for the first … Continue reading BTXXII 1957: The Seventh Seal
All Ears 2018
(January 19, 2018)Joëlle Léandre, Kazehito Seki @ All Ears 2018Watch this video on YouTube Watch this video on YouTube Arma Agharta @ All Ears 2018Watch this video on YouTube Watch this video on YouTube
BTXXI 1955: Smiles of a Summer Night
(January 19, 2018)Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende). Ingmar Bergman. 1955. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. “A romantic comedy by Ingmar Bergman.” Bergman was depressed but needed money, so he made this little masterpiece, which was also his international break-through, I think. It won prizes in Cannes and everything. Gunnar Björnstrand’s glued-on comedy beard is rather disturbing, though. “The last … Continue reading BTXXI 1955: Smiles of a Summer Night
BTXX 1947: Woman Without a Face
(January 19, 2018)Princess!? Such lighting. Woman Without a Face (Kvinna utan ansikte). Gustaf Molander. 1947. ⭐⭐⭐★★★. We’re diverging from the chronological Bergman thing again and skipping back from 1956 to 1947: To this Bergman-scripted, but Gustaf Molander-directed thing. It’s weird being back in this period again after the 1955-56 streak of mature-ish Bergman films. It’s all artifice … Continue reading BTXX 1947: Woman Without a Face
Further Trends in Packaging
(January 16, 2018)I got a package today that had this mysterious item… Epic unpackaging: It’s a cassette! Inside a cardboard thingie! It’s the latest thing.
BTXIX 1954: Behind Dreams
(January 14, 2018)Behind Dreams (Bakomfilm Kvinnodröm). Ingmar Bergman. 1954. ⭐⭐★★★★. This is the behind the scenes documentary for Dreams: The first one of these that were created for Bergman films. We get reminiscences by an unnamed female voice that says things like “that’s a lot of blurry images; I think those should be edited out”. It’s hard … Continue reading BTXIX 1954: Behind Dreams
BTXVIII 1955: Dreams
(January 13, 2018)Dreams (Kvinnodröm). Ingmar Bergman. 1955. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★. After the success of A Lesson in Love, you’d think that making the follow-up (with basically the same cast and crew) would be easy enough. But it just doesn’t have the same sparkle. While it isn’t as effortlessly brilliant as the previous movie, it does demonstrate that Bergman the … Continue reading BTXVIII 1955: Dreams
BTXVII 1954: A Lesson in Love
(January 13, 2018)A Lesson in Love (En lektion i kärlek). Ingmar Bergman. 1954. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. Yay. Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Björnstrand (Sweden’s Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant) are back in this delicious comedy (which is Bergman’s first real comedy). Harriet Andersson does a wonderful performance as a tomboy 15-year-old, too. It’s a thoroughly entertaining film. This post is … Continue reading BTXVII 1954: A Lesson in Love
New Music
(January 11, 2018)Music I’ve bought this month.
BTXVI 1953: Sawdust and Tinsel
(January 10, 2018)Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas afton). Ingmar Bergman. 1953. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★★. Finally cinematographer Sven Nykvist is on board (for part of the film). Unfortunately, he doesn’t return to the fold until 1960, I think… This film perhaps marks the beginning of the end of the end of the “Early Bergman” stretch of films? You’ve got Harriet Andersson … Continue reading BTXVI 1953: Sawdust and Tinsel
BTXV 1948: Eva
(January 10, 2018)Eva. Gustaf Molander. 1948. ⭐⭐⭐★★★. This film didn’t arrive in time for its rightful place in this blog series. Shame! Shame! So cast your mind back from 1953 to the long gone past of 1948… This one is not directed by Bergman, but the script is by him and it’s based on one of his … Continue reading BTXV 1948: Eva
Footnotes*
(January 9, 2018)I was reading the Fantagraphics collection of Zanardi by Andrea Pazienza tonight (it’s not very good; it’s like the stuff you’d stumble upon in European underground magazines in the 80s and be amused by for a couple of pages before you’d get annoyed by the incoherence and bored by the boorish humour and skimmed the … Continue reading Footnotes*
BTXIV 1953: Summer with Monika
(January 8, 2018)Summer with Monika (Sommaren med Monika). Ingmar Bergman. 1953. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★. Another box office smash for Bergman, although this one was critically panned at the time. (And the American “version” (edited down and with added nudist camp shots) led to a trial: “Reporting on the case against the distributor, the Los Angeles Examiner quoted Judge Byron … Continue reading BTXIV 1953: Summer with Monika
BTXIII 1952: Secrets of Women
(January 8, 2018)Secrets of Women (Kvinnors väntan). Ingmar Bergman. 1952. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. After an enforced break after the horrible This Can’t Happen Here, Bergman is back writing and directing this one, designed to be a people-pleasing comedy, because Bergman just couldn’t afford another box office bomb. I think it’s the first kinda real pure Bergman film. The dialogue … Continue reading BTXIII 1952: Secrets of Women
BTXII 1951: Breeze Ads
(January 8, 2018)Breeze Ads (Reklamfilmer för Bris). Ingmar Bergman. 1951. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. I got these ads as part of a haul from a Bergman bootlegger, but the quality is really bad. You can find much better quality footage here, for instance. This DVD looks like it has been through seven generations of RealVideo compression. These are pretty weird … Continue reading BTXII 1951: Breeze Ads
Watch Repair Guy
(January 7, 2018)In my 20s, I bought a bunch of cheap but fun watches. While tidying up the other month, I came across the watch cache, and I thought it might be fun to start wearing them again. The batteries had all expired decades ago, of course, and taking them all to the watchmaker sounded kinda silly, … Continue reading Watch Repair Guy
BTXI 1951: Summer Interlude
(January 6, 2018)Summer Interlude (Sommarlek). Ingmar Bergman. 1951. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★. Oh, right. This film was done before the horrible This Can’t Happen Here, but wasn’t released until a year after due to a strike and economic problems with the film studio. They’re extremely different films: While This Can’t Happen Here is probably the worst film Bergman ever did … Continue reading BTXI 1951: Summer Interlude
BTX 1950: This Can’t Happen Here
(January 6, 2018)This Can’t Happen Here (Sånt händer inte här). Ingmar Bergman. 1950. ⭐★★★★★. This is a movie that apparently has never gotten a DVD release? I had to source it from teh torrentz, and it looks like it has its origin in a VHS copy. Perhaps it was shown on TV at one point? It’s a … Continue reading BTX 1950: This Can’t Happen Here
BTIX 1950: To Joy
(January 6, 2018)To Joy (Till glädje). Ingmar Bergman. 1950. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★★. This is Bergman’s second writer/director credit, and it couldn’t be more different from his first one, Prison. As the title suggests, it’s basically a happy and nostalgic film, where the protagonist is an obvious and hapless stand-in for Bergman himself. It’s pretty funny. Bergman is pretty savage … Continue reading BTIX 1950: To Joy
BTVIII 1949: Thirst
(January 5, 2018)Thirst (Törst). Ingmar Bergman. 1949. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★★. After the brilliant Prison completely bombed at the box office, Bergman is back to directing another movie written by somebody else. A bundle of actors from his previous film reappears here, though. It’s a surprisingly vigorous and amusing film: Bergman isn’t sulking after the less than stellar reception of … Continue reading BTVIII 1949: Thirst
BTVII 1949: Prison
(January 5, 2018)Prison (Fängelse). Ingmar Bergman. 1949. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐★. Finally! A real Bergman film. This is the first of his films that’s both written (not based on a book/play) and directed by Bergman, and we basically get all his obsessions on a plate: Religion, injustice, evil, making movies, symbolism, Fraudianism, watching old movies. It’s the first of these … Continue reading BTVII 1949: Prison
BTVI 1948: Port of Call
(January 5, 2018)Port of Call (Hamnstad). Ingmar Bergman. 1948. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★★. Oh, it’s Bergman’s 100th birthday this year, so there’s supposed to be a bunch of retrospectives, re-releases and documentaries this year. I had no idea when I embarked upon my Bergmania… Anyway, this is a very strangely edited film. It’s like if the editor is off by … Continue reading BTVI 1948: Port of Call
Electric Cars
(January 1, 2018)(Carl Barks, 1955.)