Random Thoughts

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 live on Swedish television? Some of the scene changes would seem to require pauses… Or perhaps it wasn’t live. But it’s a play shot with multiple cameras.

Very few of Bergman’s regular crew appears here (as opposed to in Mr. Sleeman Calls). I think the only one is Gunnel Lindblom?

Anyway anyway, this is an Italian bawdy 16th century farce, and it’s quite fun. Very convoluted plot, as you’d expect.

This post is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.

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 Sydow, etc) show up, and it’s all rather fascinating.

The actors are great and I like the staging, but it’s a bit difficult to get around the central conceit of the film: A girl who’s convinced that she has to marry some aged gentleman (for reasons that are never really explained). Why doesn’t she just run away with young strapping von Sydow?

So it’s a bit difficult to get into it when your left eyebrow is constantly raised.

This post is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.

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 a mess. It’s choppy and oddly constructed, and most of the actors seem to have gotten instruction like “BE LESS NATURAL! LESS! NATURAL!”

Which can work, but it doesn’t here. But there are some fun things in here, like the film-in-the-film (that’s in colour) and has a Bergman parody directing it (wearing a white beret).

This post is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.

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’ names are, though. But there’s the occasional amusing anecdote.

This post is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.

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 is part of the 87 Bergman Things series.