Random Thoughts

The Lie (Reservatet). Jan Molander. 1970. ⭐⭐⭐★★★.

This TV play (directed by Jan Molander from a script by Bergman) had its origin in the work with The Passion of Anna film: The script for that film apparently started off as this script, but then evolved into something very different, so Bergman gave the original script to somebody else to direct.

Or something.

I found this on the SVT web page, but had to use a VPN to trick it into believing that I’m in Sweden to get it to allow me to watch it.

A British version was also made, directed by Alan Bridges. And… an American version? And a Yugoslav version? It’s all so confusing. Hm…

Oh!

This was simultaneously made in many European countries as part of the EBU “The Largest Theatre in the World” project, where each member country offered a TV play which member states then made their own language versions of.

I wouldn’t really have guessed that this was a Bergman script if I hadn’t known, I think. It seems so scattered and unfocused.

This post is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.

The Touch (Beröringen). Ingmar Bergman. 1971. ⭐⭐★★★★.

The intention was to shoot The Touch in both English and Swedish. In an original version that doesn’t seem to exist anymore, English was spoken by those who were English-speaking and Swedish by those who were Swedes. I belive that it just possibly was slightly less unbearable than the totally English-language version, which was made at the request of the Americans.

There are only two films Bergman has forbidden from being shown: This Can’t Happen Here and this one.

So I had to get my copy off of teh torrentz, which seems to be sourced from a copy of a rental VHS, partially overwritten.

Who knew that Elliott Gould is a bad actor? I mean, he isn’t, but he is here, so Bergman really screwed up here.

This is the first one he did with an American actor, I think? I think it’s here to prepare us for his really bad films he did in the late 70s, if I remember correctly, but I guess we’ll see…

It’s not as bad as This Can’t Happen Here. But it’s a strangely amateurish film: Bergman’s usually so careful about the sound, for instance, and it’s a constant shifting symphony of various buzzing sounds here. It sounds and looks like an low-budget film for the first time in Bergman’s career.

Or perhaps it’s just this copy of a VHS copy.

This post is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.

The Passion of Anna (En passion). Ingmar Bergman. 1969. ⭐⭐⭐⭐★★.

Whaa? This film is not in 4:3? It’s more like… 16:11? At least the DVD is.

And it’s in colour, too, but Bergman’s already done that.

You kinda think of Bergman as being extremely distinctive and set in his own ways, but viewing his films chronologically, you really get a feel for how he changes with the times. It’s obvious that he’s seen a lot of Jean-Luc Godard before making this one, for instance.

(The bit where Liv Ullmann talks to the camera rather shows Bergman’s pettiness.  He cuts her off mid-sentence, as if to make fun of her.  It’s a childish act of aggression.)

It’s another chamber piece, but with some excursions. But what an amazing cast: Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow and (relative Bergman newcomer) Erland Josephson. They’re scintillating.

But somehow… it’s doesn’t quite come together.

United Artists was the company responsible for international distribution of The Passion of Anna. The Swedish newspaper Expressen was far from happy with the company’s marketing: ‘Despite their new style of language, the same old clichés are being trotted out: A film from Sweden – that nation of suicidal sex addicts who find the temperature cold outside but all the more warm in bed.’

Miaow.

This post is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.