Ingmar - a round dozen

My friend Mike in San Francisco (my oldest pal, we were penfriends when we were 17 - what people did before the internet and Facebook) and I have been ruminating on Ingmar Bergman films. Hard to believe now but when I was first in London, aged 18 in 1964, we went to a screening of Bergman's THE SILENCE, an arthouse hit then (which we followed by going to see the routine THE CHALK GARDEN). 

It seems inpossible now that teenagers would go and see a sombre black and white Swedish film with sub-titles, but back then arthouse movies were part of the general movie scene, with several crossover hits and every reasonable size city had one or two for the trendy folk to go to. (There was a more exotic or erotic arthouse cinemas for those looking for something more explicit than what the local Odeon or ABC served up..."the dirty mac brigade").  Of course there were less distractions then, just 2 television channels here in the UK, in black and white; no internet or cellphones. Mike was saying his students would not even watch an old Greta Garbo movie now. 
Of course THE SEVENTH SEAL was stunning on a first view, we had seen nothing like it, as it later became an arthouse cliche, and his lovely film of Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE is still a perfect opera film. 

Anyway to Bergman, a list of my favourites:

• THE SEVENTH SEAL
• SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT
• WILD STRAWBERRIES
• THE MAGICIAN
• THE SILENCE
• PERSONA
• CRIES AND WHISPERS
• AUTUMN SONATA
• THE MAGIC FLUTE
• FANNY & ALEXANDER

Theres also the early SUMMER WITH MONIKA, and THE VIRGIN SPRING, THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, WINTER LIGHT and those unsparing Liv Ullmann dramas FACE TO FACE and SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. I have not seen the 1964 comedy NOW ABOUT THESE WOMEN, or the later THE SERPENT’S EGG.

Bergman (1918-2007) directed a total of 67 films, and died on the same day as Michelangelo Antonioni – which was quite a surprise for us in 2007, but the movies go on and continue to resonate with us. 
We were also fascinated by his troupe of actresses: Thulin, Lindblom, Ullmann, Bibi and Harriet Andersson, Eva Dahlbeck ... and Ingrid having a late career swansong with that SONATA. 
I went twice to his 1970 London theatre production of HEDDA GABLER - a very intense staging with actors in black on a red stage (rather like CRIES & WHISPERS) - with Maggie Smith (right) giving one of her best stage performances. 
I have written more on some of these at Bergman label, but must return to them and review some more over the winter months. (Above, the two Bergmans on AUTUMN SONATA). 

Visconti

Today, a selection of stills from Visconti films. Luchino Visconti who died in 1976 certainly left a great legacy of films and performances stretching back to the neo-realism of the '40s and LE TERRA TREMA and OBSESSIONE, and with Antonioni and Fellini remains one of that trio of great Italian directors. Performers like Bogarde, Lancaster, Delon, Schneider, Cardinale, Valli blossomed in films like SENSO, THE LEOPARD, SANDRA (VAGHE STELLE DELL'ORSA), the sensational THE DAMNED. DEATH IN VENICE and his monumental LUDWIG may be his most personal, and that interesting last two: CONVERSATION PIECE and his swansong with L'INNOCENTE in 1976 - one of the most ravishing costume films ever. Did any director do period recreations like Visconti, making films like THE LEOPARD endlessly fascinating and re-watchable. Its a perfect film of a book I love. SENSO from '54 also has a stunning peformance by Alida Valli. Visconti of course was an aristocrat [the Duke of Modrone] and, as per the books on him, certainly lived like one - reports of dining at the Visconti castle recall a lost world of opulence. His theatre and opera productions were also legendary, including several key Maria Callas roles. [He also directed Delon and Schneider in Paris in '59 in a production of Ford's "Tis Pity She's A Whore", a clip of which used to be on YouTube. Michael Craig's memoir recounts how he liked working with Visconti on SANDRA and describes his working methods.]

Romy Schneider has one of her best moments in his episode from BOCCACCIO 70. Claudia is at her zenith in the 1965 drama SANDRA, and Helmut Berger was a sensation in THE DAMNED, ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS launched Alain Delon to prominence. Ingrid Thulin scores in THE DAMNED, Silvana Mangano is almost silent in DEATH IN VENICE but is perfect in LUDWIG and CONVERSATION PIECE, a very mysterious film where reclusive professor (Lancaster) clashes with the noisy Eurotrash family (headed by Mangano and Berger) who move in upstairs. Schneider's mature SISSI is stunning in LUDWIG where Berger is perfectly cast - as are Trevor Howard and Mangano as the Wagners. The whole ensemble in L'INNOCENTE from the Gabriele D'Annunzio story is superb - perhaps only SENSO, THE LEOPARD, DEATH IN VENICE and Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON are more perfectly realised period recreations. The Verdi waltz and that sumptuous long ballroom sequence in THE LEOPARD is something one can experience over and over.

above: Visconti with Schneider and Berger on LUDWIG; Schneider in BOCCACCIO 70, Berger with Thulin in THE DAMNED, which also featured Charlotte Rampling and Florinda Bolkan in eye-catching roles; Berger and Lancaster in CONVERSATION PIECE and Mangano in the same film; right: THE DAMNED. See Visconti label for more on SANDRA (VAGHE STELLE DELL'ORSA). Visconti's '67 film of Camus' THE STRANGER with Mastroianni seems totally unavailable now, and of course his earlier films like BELLISSIMA with Magnani and WHITE NIGHTS are hard to see now.

Fantasy double bill: Lizard / Ashes

LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN from 1971 is another of those steamy Italian giallo thrillers with heightened drama and piling on the exotica, by stalwart Lucio Fulci. I liked those two I saw a while back: SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS with Jean Sorel and Ingrid Thulin and Barbara Bach, which was stunningly done and involving, and Sorel again with Carroll Baker in one of theirs, A QUIET PLACE FOR A KILL in 1970.

This one is all about Florinda Bolkan - that stunning Brazilian who came to prominence in Visconti's THE DAMNED in '69 and was the lead in De Sica's A BRIEF VACATION, as well as her Lola Montez in Dick Lester's ROYAL FLASH in '75 (see previous post....). Here she is Carol who is having very realistic dreams or nightmares where she is involved with the sex crazed lesbian who lives next door - cue lots of girl on girl action which takes a violent twist when the said neighbour is found stabbed to death, with Carol's fur coat and scarf nearby .... in Carol's nightmares she is the guilty party who then realises after the stabbing that she is being watched by two hippies who are out of their minds on acid.... What is real and what is fantasy or nightmare? Is Carol being set up? Carol dreamed the killing, and there are her prints all over the place. She claims she didn't kill her, but then who? Can Carol's father find out and put the blame? Will the police detectives solve the crime, which could be a set-up. There are several striking sequences such as Carol fighting her way through a crowded train corridor when suddenly all the other people on the train are naked....

Fulci takes the viewer on a convoluted journey through Carol's psyche, with the various endless corridors, winding staircases and labyrinthine buildings through which she finds herself being pursued (whether by actual physical forces or her own subconscious) reflecting her confused and deeply convoluted mental anguish.

The supporting cast is similarly excellent, combining famous British faces - an older Stanley Baker as the investigating policeman and QUO VADIS's Leo Genn (that dependable English actor) as her wealthy father, and as her husband giallo regular Jean Sorel who really has not too much to do here. The sets are opulent and there is that chase through the deserted Alexandra Palace, which features a bat attack clearly influenced by Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. Other London locations are well used too, and there is the usual Morricone score. The ending is quite a revelation....

What I actually enjoyed more was the 1965 British thriller RETURN FROM THE ASHES, a long unseen item, by stalwart J. Lee Thompson, shot in Panavision monochrome by Christopher Challis with a good score by Johnny Darkworth (who also did those scores for THE SERVANT and MODESTY BLAISE among others). This is an involving thriller heading by Ingrid Thulin terrific as ever as the woman returning to Paris from the concentration camps - we first see her on a crowded train unaware of her surroundings as an annoying child falls from the train, her tattoo visible on her arm. She books into a cheap hotel in Paris and even her old work colleague Herbert Lom does not initially recognise her. Before the war she had married an opportunistic chess player Maximilian Schell but is he really carrying on with her tease of a step-daughter Samantha Eggar?

It turns out that Thulin is now a very wealthy woman and Eggar and Max want to get their hands on it. Sam spots Thulin in the street and realises they could use her to pose as her mother, whom they believe died in the camps, to get their hands on the money. Ingrid goes along with this, not telling them who she really is. The plot twists and turns, with a very good bathroom scene, until final retribution. It is actually very enjoyable and the 3 leads excel. Highly recommended - if you can find it!

People We Like: Ingrid Thulin

Ingrid Thulin [1926-2004] is the glacial Nordic blonde of several of Ingmar Bergman’s most austere films, and is perhaps seen as his most 'intellectual' actress, the others being considered more earthy?. She also had a varied international career ending up in Italian films of varying quality as she spent her later years in Rome. Her striking looks and voice are unusual – though for some reason she was dubbed by Angela Lansbury in her first Hollywood movie! Like Jeanne Moreau she can look beautiful, plain, serene, intense or agonised at will.

The other Bergman muses also had international roles of varied quality: Harriet Andersson in THE DEADLY AFFAIR, Bibi Andersson in Huston’s THE KREMLIN LETTER and a lesser Altman, QUINTET with Paul Newman; Eva Dahlbeck in THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR, and, most popular of all, Liv Ullmann - though most of her English speaking films were odd choices to say the least: anyone for FORTY CARATS, POPE JOAN, THE ABDICATION or the toe-curling remake of THE LOST HORIZON ? She was better served with Jan Troell in THE EMIGRANTS and THE NEW LAND and a welcome return to form with both Bergmans in AUTUMN SONATA and later in Ingmar’s last film SARABAND, as well as her own writing and directing efforts. There is a brilliant Ingmar Bergman site: http://bergmanorama.webs.com/repertory.htm which contains a wealth of material on Bergman and his main players [including Thulin], with photos, comments etc.

Ingrid began in Swedish films in the late 40s. I first saw her in the 1956 thriller FOREIGN INTRIGUE when I was a child and she stayed in the memory as a mysterious blonde in this Robert Mitchum thriller, which also featured Genevieve Page. WILD STRAWBERRIES in 1957 is of course her breakthrough movie and one of Ingmar Bergman’s most fascinating works. I have just had another look at it and it is as mesmerising as ever. Thulin is Marianna, the daughter-in-law accompanying the ageing professor in this very moving symbolic tale of an old man's journey from emotional isolation to a kind of personal renaissance. One does watch this though with a whole different perspective when in one's early 60s than one did when in one's twenties !

I have not seen her following films with Bergman: BRINK OF LIFE or WINTER LIGHT in 1962 but their reputations suggest they will be worth eventually catching up with. THE MAGICIAN from 1958 was spell-binding when I saw it recently, as per my review. A detour to Hollywood followed in 1962 with Vincente Minnelli’s odd film the remake of THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALPYSE with Thulin as Glenn Ford’s romantic interest and, I only found out later, dubbed by Angela Lansbury.

As it happens one of the first films I saw when I moved to London aged 18 in 1964 was Bergman’s THE SILENCE, rather a notorious film at the time due to some implied lesbian content between the two sisters, but Thulin as the ill Ester is certainly emotionally wrenching in her isolation in a hotel in a strange city while her sultry sister Anna – Gunnel Lindblom, another Bergman regular – picks up a man and tells her sister about it afterwards while the little boy wanders around the hotel.

RETURN FROM THE ASHES is a brilliant thriller by ever-dependable J Lee Thompson in 1965 which had been out of circulation for a long time, so it was good to re-see it recently. Thulin scores as the woman returning from a concentration camp, it also features Maximilian Schell and Samantha Eggar, and there is a great bathroom scene … definitely one to watch out for. Two of Thulin’s from 1966 that I unaccountably missed are Resnais’s LE GUERRE EST FINIE (the War is Over) where she is Yves Montand’s mistress, and also Mai Zetterling’s directing debut NIGHT GAMES. Two more (unseen!) Bergmans followed: HOUR OF THE WOLF in 1968 and THE RITE in 1969.

Visconti’s THE DAMNED in 1969 was a major international hit, maybe for the wrong reasons, but we all flocked to this chunk of Italian-German decadence which had some striking sequences among the more sensational: Helmut Berger in drag for starters! Thulin is little more than a waxwork as his mother, particularly at her wedding to Dirk Bogarde as the nazi’s take over, Charlotte Rampling makes a vivid impression and its all still tremendously watchable.

An Italian giallo thriller SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS in 1971 is a fascinating example of the genre: Jean Sorel is found apparently dead in a Prague park and brought to the morgue, but he is still alive but paralysed as he tries to remember what happened to him and his missing girlfriend and that strange club where other girls go missing. Medics try to revive him but time is running out as he is wheeled to the autopsy room …. Thulin is under-used here as a fellow journalist and ex-lover of Sorel, but sports a chic line of headscarfes.

In 1972 came the searing experience that is Bergman’s CRIES AND WHISPERS, emotionally powerful at the time I have not seen it since but it remains one to re-see. Here, Harriet Andersson is the dying sister in turn of the century Sweden. Her two sisters try to care for her but she finds more solace with the devoted maid Anna. It is of course about pain, death, love, lust, hate, and self-loathing - Liv Ullmann the sensual sister and Thulin the icy control freak who cannot bear to be touched – even mutilating herself with glass to keep her husband away. Like Ingmar Bergman’s stage production of HEDDA GABLER (with Maggie Smith, which I saw in London in 1970) it is set in red rooms with people clad in black. A film of powerful images and emotions.

She was Miriam in MOSES THE LAWGIVER, a tv mini-series in 1974, with Burt Lancaster as Moses. SALON KITTY in 1976 is a Tinto Brass confection about the seedy goings-on at Madame Kitty's Berlin brothel during WWII, and was a film that movie buffs like me didn’t bother with at the time, but I may actually put it on my wanted list now, as it should at least provide some amusement, if the comments on imdb are any guide – ““Cabaret” on acid” being one comment!. Thulin of course is Kitty, with Helmut Berger again, though not playing her son this time!

THE CASSANDRA CROSSING also in 1976 was a lot of fun, one of the last of the 70s disaster movies this was set on a train going across Europe which some terrorists who have picked up plague germs from a botched robbery have boarded. The authorities led by ruthless officer Burt Lancaster have to keep the train moving and re-route it to an unsafe bridge in Poland…. It’s a great all star cast of the time headed by Sophia Loren and Richard Harris, with Ava Gardner having a choice time with toyboy Martin Sheen. Even O C Simpson and Lee Stransberg are on board, others like Alida Valli or John Philip Law are in little more than walk-ons. Ingrid thankfully is not on the doomed train but back in Geneva at World Health HQ as she argues with Burt about rescuing the passengers – they do manage to rescue a dog who does recover but Lancaster is determined there shall be no survivors …..

Thulin’s 9th and final Bergman film AFTER THE REHEARSAL was in 1984 for tv, again its an unseen item as are several more until her last credit in 1988. She died in 2004. She had been married to Harry Schein, head of the Swedish Film Institute.

Its an interesting international career, her Bergman films will be watched and re-watched as long as we watch movies.

Back to art house ...

Time to catch up with those art house classics I had been meaning to watch, or in the case of Visconti's SANDRA see again after a gap of 45 years .... its been a dim memory since I saw it aged 19 in 1965, so (again) its been terrific to track down a copy now. [It was on YouTube in segments with Japanese subtitles!]. Its original title is VAGHE STELLE DELL'ORSA or OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS as it was titled for the UK, and it now seems to be titled SANDRA (much easier all round) and now plays like a classic Visconti drama. Sandra Dawson (Claudia Cardinale) and her husband Andrew (Michael Craig) travel to her hometown, the Etruscan city of Volterra for a homage of the locals to her father, a prominent scientist who died in a concentration camp. The long drive in the car during the credits is fascinating. The couple are welcomed by the servant Fosca, and Andrew becomes fascinated with the house. Sandra has issues over the estate with her stepfather and her mentally ill mother (Marie Bell) and misses her brother Gianni (Jean Sorel), who is an aspirant writer. When Gianni appears in the house out of the blue, Andrew unravels a shadowy secret from the past of the siblings. It is Greek tragedy really in the shape of Electra and Orestes... it unfolds as if a dream, (or a typical '60s art movie), interesting seeing Visconti tackle a "small" film here, before moving on to those more opulent titles like THE DAMNED, DEATH IN VENICE, LUDWIG and that final L'INNOCENTE. His follow-up to SANDRA, a 1967 adaptation of Camus's THE OUTSIDER with Mastroianni, is also a very lost title, I don't think we even got a chance to see it in London...

"Vaghe Stelle dell'Orsa..." ("Bright star of the Bear", a poem that is referred to in the text) has a plot about a once incestuous brother and sister (though he wants to resume their illicit relationship) which in the hands of another director could have become a melodramatic soap-opera, but Visconti explores the sensuality and beauty of Claudia Cardinale [often in close-up, and that amazing voice of hers] to deliver an intriguing and quite erotic family drama, peopled with beautiful leads in their mid-60s perfection. The set decoration, as usual, is another piece of art, supported by a classical music soundtrack by Cesar Franck. Good to see English actor Michael Craig here too - five years earlier he was the star of a British comedy UPSTAIRS AND DOWNSTAIRS and Cardinale had a small part, her first in English probably, as one of the servants!

To add in the next few days: first looks at Antonioni's IL GRIDO, Bergman's THE MAGICIAN, Truffaut's LE PEAU DEUCE...

Hardly a likeable film or one which one would want to return to right away, Antonioni's IL GRIDO has be one of the bleakest views of the human condition ever, more so than say UMBERTO D or AU HASARD BALTHASAR, as it shows the downward spiral of Aldo, the workman abandoned by the woman he loves. It is though totally compelling to see now, Antonioni's last before L'AVVENTURA and those films showing the ennui of the Italian monied classes. Here we are, comparatively speaking, in the lower depths of society - workmen and women in rundown towns along the muddy banks of the Po river.

Aldo has lived with Irma the woman he loves for 7 years and they have a daughter, he thinks they will get married when news arrives that her husband, working in Australia all these years, is killed - but for Irma (Alida Valli) it is over - she may even have a new man already. Uncomprehending Aldo (Steve Cochran, the playboy and tough guy of American films, ideally cast here) after beating her in public takes to the road with their daughter Rosina in tow, as they wander from town to town. First he returns to Elvira (Betsy Blair) his previous love who would take him back, but not when she discovers he only came back because Irma threw him out ... then he takes up with Virginia (the oddly named Dorian Gray, who it seems was dubbed by Monica Vitti, her first association with Antonioni) who runs a petrol pump station. Aldo and the daughter settle for a while but this too peters out, as he moves on to prostitute Andreina. He sends the daughter home to Irma and is now on his own as he seems to give up on life and has no interest in living. The film comes full circle as he returns to the factory where he used to work, sees the daughter entering a strange house so he looks through the window and sees Irma with a new baby. She sees him and follows as he enters the factory and climbs the tower. The cry of the title IL GRIDO is Irma's scream as Aldo walks towards his destiny .... there are the usual Antonioni touches with landscapes, the spaces and lack of communiation between people (Irma can hardly articulate her feelings why she does not want Aldo any more and he can only resort to violence). Its powerful and affecting and certainly paved the way for the films which followed....

Ingmar Bergman's THE MAGICIAN is a baroque tale of a bizarre troupe of travelling players in the Victorian era led by a mute Max von Sydow who may be a magician, or a hypnotist, or even just a charlatan. This is a Bergman film I had not seen before - my Bergman canon includes THE SEVENTH SEAL, WILD STRAWBERRIES, SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, THE SILENCE, PERSONA, CRIES & WHISPERS, AUTUMN SONATA and his wonderful 1975 opera film THE MAGIC FLUTE (we loved that back in the '70s) and FANNY AND ALEXANDER. [I had no interest at the time for his other '70s films like THE TOUCH, SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE or THE SERPENT'S EGG, but I liked his 1970 London production of HEDDA GABLER with Maggie Smith so much that I went to it twice - it was dazzling theatre with the cast clad in black against those red walls...]

THE MAGICIAN (or THE FACE) is a fascinating puzzle from 1958 with terrific photography like those shots of the carriage emerging from the forest with the light shining through the trees... Vogler (Sydow) and his wife Ingrid Thulin (who dresses as a man, as part of the act), and the old crone who may be his grandmother and their florid manager arrive in a new town and are halted by some petty officials who see an evening's entertainment in making the entertainers do their act to see if they are suitable for the public. They certainly get more than they bargained for, particularly Gunnar Bjornstrand as Dr Vergerus, the officious medical advisor who is fascinated with hypnotism and magic rituals and would dearly love to perform an autopsy on Vogler to examine his brain, eyes etc. There is an old drunk whom they pick up en route, who finally dies. Bjornstrand gets to do his autopsy but surely would have realised which body he was examining? Vogler's face is a mask - once the wig, beard and make-up are removed the real Von Sydow emerges, and is an interesting contrast with the silent brooding Vogler in that this new persona is just a money-seeking actor. Other characters also change: the serving wench Bibi Andersson joins the party as the manager stays behind. The town official and his wife, mourning their lost child, also re-discover each other, and Vergerus gets the biggest surprise of all .... its brilliantly photographed, Sydow and Thulin shine as ever, and the Bergman players are a pleasure as usual. The ending seems rather rushed though - certainly a Bergman worth seeing but maybe not one of his key works - it could almost be marketed as a superior horror film. Next on my list will be THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY...