bergman – PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – Winter Light

Winter Light (1963)
Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman

It didn’t take me very long while watching Winter Light to realize what contemporary film was essentially a remake of it, Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. Schraeder certainly localizes the story to upstate New York and removes or alters certain details, but narratively & thematically they share so much. Both are films where I can’t imagine them being set in any season other than winter. The cold, the snow, the silence. They are all significant parts of setting the atmosphere for this story of spiritual doubt and crisis. Ingmar Bergman was a person always in some type of spiritual introspection and with Winter Light he’s wondering about those who seem certain about the existence of a God who cares about humanity.

Movie Review – Hour of the Wolf

Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman

I can’t say I’ve fallen in love with the work of Ingmar Bergman. I’ve seen four of his works – Persona, Scenes from a Marriage (television version), Fanny and Alexander (film version), and now this movie. Of the four, Fanny and Alexander is my favorite because it feels like a mature take on the Christmas movie. Otherwise, I find Bergman’s work to come from an emotional place that isn’t culturally the same as mine. It makes sense. Sweden is very different from the United States. Even more so, Ingmar Bergman is very different from me, especially in how he treated his wives and consistently cheated on them with actresses he worked with. I feel at odds with Bergman, but I am still open to watching his films to try and understand what he is saying through his work.

Movie Review – Persona

Persona (1966)
Written & Directed by Ingmar Bergman

Persona is a fever dream. Literally. Writer-director Ingmar Bergman says he worked out the rough draft over nine weeks while recovering from pneumonia in the hospital. The film is tangled up in Bergman’s rather complicated personal life. At one point, Bergman was involved romantically with actress Bibi Andersson. A few years later, he ran into her in Stockholm, where he met Liv Ullman, who was friends with Andersson. The director says the friends’ resemblance to each other was uncanny, and the idea of this blending of identity came from that thought. Bergman, who was married to this third wife at the time, would eventually start an extramarital affair with Ullman and would have a child with her. Persona ends up being a film as complicated and entangled as the filmmaker’s own personal life.

TV Review – Scenes From a Marriage (1973)

Scenes from a Marriage (Criterion Channel)
Written & Directed by Ingmar Bergman

While I am very much aware of Ingmar Bergman, I sadly admit he is a blind spot in my personal cinema education. The only other work I’ve watched is the theatrical version of Fanny and Alexander, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. With HBO releasing a modern remake of Scenes From a Marriage, I thought it would be an excellent time to watch the original and expand my knowledge of the Swedish director’s filmography. The only thing I really knew going into the six-episode mini-series was that it had such a profound effect on Europeans that it caused a spike in the divorce rate due to its frank portrayal of marriage and the difficulties associated with the union.

Movie Review – Fanny and Alexander

Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Written & Directed by Ingmar Bergman

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At the start of the 20th century, the Ekdahl family are living a luxurious and free life. Helena is the matriarch of this clan, followed by three sons at various stages of life. Gustav is a boisterous restauranter, Oscar manages the theater Helena and her husband used to own, and Carl has fallen into ill repute as a result of a drink. The family is seen through the eyes of Oscar’s son Alexander during their last Christmas Eve as a complete unit, and then tragedy strikes. A series of rash decisions leaves Alexander and his sister Fanny in a dire situation and their family grieves while trying to find a way to reunite them all.

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