Of God, Incest, Belief, and Madness: quietly Wow-full to say the least!
Bergman shot the first of his three Trilogy films on the island of Faro, where he later retired to. His go-to cinematographer Sven Nykvist renders this bleak somewhat stage-ish drama in beautiful black and white. Background Bach chamber music underscores the overall gloomy, existentialist desolation.
This is the story of Karin (Harriet Andersson) who moves convincingly into schizophrenia, as witnessed by her writer-father David (Gunnar Bjornstrand) who uses her illness in her writing (!), her loyal doctor-husband Martin (Max von Sydow) who cannot physically love her, and her brother Minus (Lars Passgard) who is coming of age while flirting with her. No large cast is needed; this is very much a claustrophobic closet drama with myriad brilliant insights into the powerful, deep subjects mentioned above.
There are, incidentally, elements of Gilman’s early feminist short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” in the madness scenes. The sets and the locales are well-chosen and morph into another seamlessly and suspense-fully. The acting is extremely realistic and poignant; three of these actors were Bergman movie and theatre vets.
Things start innocently enough before becoming dark and menacing. Details are unfolded memorably along the way as the story and the viewer’s understanding are both filled in. The ambiguous ending between father and son deals with God, belief, and love and is well-worth a rewind/second look; the ‘right’ things get said, but the resolutions remain deliberately ambiguous in essential Bergman style. The viewer may have much of the available information about these characters, but is also left with much uncertainty as to ‘answers’.
Highly recommended for sensitive and thoughtful viewers with an interest in these deep topics as well as devoted fans of Bergman’s o’er brimming film catalogue/career.