A Film Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman - Criterion Collection (1964)

The human condition: shadows & light, despair & hope

A God steps down from the mountain: "Through a Glass Darkly"

Although Bergman considers "Through a Glass Darkly" to be a failure (and, to a certain extent, I agree), it was an important step (he says) in liberating himself from the gloomy Lutheran theology of his childhood. Ostensibly, the story is about the relapse of Karin (Harriet Andersson) into mental illness--a relapse, one suspects, which is incurable. Karin is convinced that a god lives on the other side of a strangely papered wall (in fact, Bergman's original title for the film was "The Wallpaper"). It's a god of darkness and sensuality (at one point, Karin orgasms in solitude with her god; at another, she fancies that the god has entered her younger brother Musin [Lars Passgard] and she seduces him), but ultimately it's a god that reveals itself as a horrible, devouring spider.

Bergman's point seems to be that the gods which attract us ultimately reveal themselves to be monstrous destroyers--or, perhaps, that humanity can't survive in the presence of the absolute it so craves. While Karin's godlust drives her into madness, her novelist father (Gunnar Bjornstrand) discovers toward the film's end that the only real god is love, the only safeguard against madness is companionship, and the only chance of fulfillment in this life is learning to love and be loved.

The ending, as Bergman himself notes, is overly didactic (although Musin's "Papa spoke to me!", the final line in the film, gestures at the ending of the later and better "The Silence"). Moreover, as Bergson notes, the father character never quite seems authentic, and even a fine actor like Bjornstrand can't breathe life into him. But flawed as the film is, it's still a thoughtful (and perhaps Jungian-inspired?) exploration of the human yearning for gods and what happens when the gods honor our yearning and step down from their mountains. And Harriet Andersson's performance throughout is absolutely breathtaking.

When God goes silent--what then?: "Winter Light"

At one point in this best of all Bergman films, the despairing pastor Tomas (Gunnar Bjornstrand) realizes that life would be comprehensible if there is no God. All the paradoxes and dilemmas of faith would vanish, and evil, revealed to be meaningless and nonpurposeful, would at least no longer be mysterious. This realization immediately leads into Tomas' final loss of the last shreds of his faith. The silence of God which has been tormenting him is at least seen to be a necessary silence, and that realization gives him a momentary sense of liberation.

But it also leads to a troubling existential quandary: when God goes silent, once and for all, how does one lead one's life? How can broken, lonely, and frightened people make meaningful contact with one another? How can long-held habits of relying on what Tomas comes to call an "echo God"--an imagined deity who tells you exactly what you want to hear--be broken? How does one manage not, as Marta says, to "hate yourself to death"?

Bergman's "Winter Light" is an exploration of these questions (and surely is as autobiographical as it is philosophical). There are no definitive answers here. A life liberated by God's silence is still a life full of ambiguity and suffering, disappointment and unfulfillment. The silence of God--of ultimate meaning and purposefulness to the universe--is still a Christ-like passion many of us must endure in our own Gethsemanes. But the end of "Winter Light," with Tomas acknowledging the hear-and-now presence of Marta, offers some hope, filtered even as it is through the winter light of a new and godless world.

The Long Loneliness: "The Silence"

I can think of no better portrait of alienation and loneliness than Bergman's "The Silence," which I think is one of his three best films. Everything about the film suggests silence, emptiness, aloneness: the huge, baroque, but strangely empty hotel; the silent lonely crowd that fills the streets; the ominous preparations for war; the inability of Anna and Ester to speak the language of the country in which they're stranded; the loveless, desperate coupling of Anna and the waiter she picks up; the frigid, despairing masturbation of Ester; the hotel porter's nostalgic but sad fondness for photographs of his past.

The essential thing is that the sisters Anna and Ester, for all their estrangement from one another, really are kindred. Bergman seems to be suggesting that they represent two irreducible aspects of personality, sensuality and intellect, and that individuals suffer from an inner sense of fragmentation if the two are unreconciled. (In this regard, the message of "The Silence" is not unlike Hermann Hesse's in Narcissus and Goldmund.) So the exterior loneliness in his film is mirrored by the interior loneliness personified by the sisters' feud.

At the end of the film, the silence is broken by Ester's final note to her nephew, Johan, a "translation of words in a foreign language." Words are what create communities. They bind humans together. As such, the end of the film offers a possibility that the long loneliness can be ameliorated by a human invention. In the last analysis, that's all there.

The acting in "The Silence" is superb, from beginning to end. Ingrid Thulin's Ester is frozen, emotionally blocked, but yearning for connection. Gunnel Lindblom's Anna is a sullen carnality that occasionally breaks out in despairing loneliness. Jorgen Lindstrom's Johan is inquisitive, innocently absorbing the world around him. And Hakan Jahnberg's porter, while silent for most of the film, masterfully and poignantly expresses all he needs to in his gestures and face.
July 7, 2008

INGMAR BERGMAN, OPUS 23, 24 AND 25

***** 1961-1963. A box set that should already be in your library. The movies presented are :

***** 1961. THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY. Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. A prize in Berlin and Academy award in the Best Foreign Language Film category. A young woman, her husband, her brother and her father pass their vacation on a Swedish island. Karin is schizophrenic and, soon, suffers from hallucinations. This film marks a radical change in Bergman's cinematic language. One year only separates THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY from The Devil's Eye while the esthetics of these two motion pictures changes so essentially and dramatically thanks to a new photography director (Sven Nykvist), shootings on location (Farö island) and fewer characters on screen. Bach's cello suite, Harriet Andersson's performance and God's presence as a spider will shook you for life. Masterpiece.

**** 1962. WINTER LIGHT. Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Three hours of a pastor's life in the Swedish countryside. Gunnar Björnstrand doesn't manage to find the right words to prevent Max von Sydow's suicide. Note also the 6 minutes long close-up of Ingrid Thulin reading the letter she sent to Gunnar Björnstrand, a scene that has nothing to envy to the then recent innovations of the French New Wave. WINTER LIGHT is an austere and ascetic film worthy to stay in your library. Highly recommended.

***** 1963. THE SILENCE. Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Three Swedish Academy awards (Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress). Two sisters argue in an hotel room while Johan, a 10 years old kid, is discovering the corridors and the strange guests of the hotel. The train compartment, the hotel room and the town, three claustrophobic places that Ester and Anna can't leave while Johan seems to be the only one able to open doors and communicate. THE SILENCE is a huge film which, like some books, can be enjoyed again and again. In my opinion, one of the most beautiful films ever made and one of my most intense experiences in a theatre, ever. Masterpiece.

The fourth DVD presents an indispensable documentary about Ingmar Bergman shot by the Swedish director Vilgot Sjöman. Ingmar Bergman is interviewed while he is writing WINTER LIGHT, then during the shooting of the movie, in the editing room and finally after the premiere of WINTER LIGHT in Stockholm. A documentary which will reconcile you with television. June 15, 2008

Winter Light--Bergman's Masterpiece

Winter Light is Bergman's masterpiece, his most concentrated chamber cinema--bleak and snowy Sunday afternoon in a small parish; a fisherman asks "Why must we live?" in response to a world of poverty, war, and possible nuclear holocaust and commits suicide; a tormented priest in crisis cannot save him and questions his own isolation from others and inability to love, his lack of faith due to the abyss of "God's silence". April 15, 2008

Essential film genius: Bergman's 'Faith Trilogy.'

The world lost one of its greatest film directors yesterday. In his "celluloid poems" (as Woody Allen calls them), film genius Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) examined the human condition in all of its bleakness, despair, humor, and hope, expanding our sense of what it means to be human. He favored intuition over intellect, and his films typically pondered the deepest concerns of humanity: mortality, loneliness, faith, and love. Criterion has released Bergman's films Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, and The Silence both individually and as a boxed-set trilogy. (Bergman stated, "these three films deal with reduction. Through a Glass Darkly -- conquered certainty. Winter Light -- penetrated certainty. The Silence -- God's silence -- the negative imprint. Therefore, they constitute a trilogy.")

Drawn from a Biblical passage (1 Corinthians 13), Through a Glass Darkly (Såsom i en spegel) (1961) explores the nature of schizophrenia, both from the perspective of the patient and the patient's family. While vacationing on a remote island, a daughter, Karin (Harriet Andersson), discovers her father has been using her mental illness for his own literary designs. Her relationship with her father (Gunnar Björnstrand), husband (Max von Sydow), and brother (Lars Passgård) is tested as she falls in and out of lucidity. Bergman makes film history at one particularly memorable moment in the film, when Karin has a vision of "God," who appears to her in the form of a giant spider. Winner of the 1962 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language.

In a world seemingly abandoned by God, Winter Light (Nattvardsgästerna)(1962) tells the story of Tomas Ericsson (Björnstrand), the pastor of a small rural Swedish church, who suffers a spiritual crisis. His questions of God's existence lead him to doubt, apathy, and anger. When asked to provide consolation to a troubled parishioner (Max von Sydow) fearful of nuclear annihilation, Tomas discovers that he can only provide his own uncertainty. Bergman cites Winter Light as his favorite among his films.

In The Silence (Swedish: Tystnaden) (1963) two sisters, terminally-ill, intellectual Ester (Ingrid Thulin) and sensual Anna (Gunnel Lindblom), travel to a foreign country by train with Anna's son Johan (Jorgen Lindstrom). In their alien surroundings, and on the brink of war, the sisters experience emotional isolation in a spiritual void while competing for Johan's affection.

Criterion's impeccable edition of A Film Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman: Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, and The Silence conveys Bergman's deeply personal, intellectually challenging, and enriching works in a crisp digital transfer with the original theatrical trailers. Highly recommended.

G. Merritt July 31, 2007

as good as it gets

I had been looking for a copy of Winter Light in region 1 format for some time wihout much luck. I had rented it on VHS some years ago and since then it remained stuck somewhere in my conciousness after that one viewing. I was not real excited about investing in this box set just to get Winter Light. I had not viewed either of the other films in the trilogy. Even thought the other films had very good reviews, I was still hesitant. I gave this set to myself for a Christmas present this year and have not regretted the purchase. Winter Light remains my favorite, but the other films are excellent. The quality of transfer to DVD is spectacular. The fourth disc in the box set is loaded with extras. These films do belong in a class of their own and I feel like they are a valuable addition to anyone's film library. Enjoy them again and again. January 16, 2007

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