Bergman Receives Seal of Approval

Film

Ingmar Bergman at 75: Women, Dreams and Demons

A restrospective exhibition of film and photography

at the Harvard Film Archive from March 25

Film

Smiles of a Summer Night

directed by Ingmar Bergman

starring Eva Dahlbeck, Gunnar Bjornstrand and Ulla Jacobsson

March 25, 27 and 28

at the Harvard Film Archive

Film

The Seventh Seal

directed by Ingmar Bergman

starring Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand and Bengt Ekerot

March 26, 27, and 30

at the Harvard Film Archive

It seems particularly fitting that Ingmar Bergman should have been born on July 14, for the Swedish director has always been something of a revolutionary. While Sweden's film industry had made a name for itself during the years of silent movies, producing actors like Greta Garbo and directors like Victor Sjostrom, it became practically unknown after the advent of sound. This was the state of affairs until Bergman single-handedly put Swedish film on the map again in the 1950s. Until his retirement in 1983, Bergman produced a corpus of films which marked him as one of the most important and influential film directors of the twentieth century.

In order to celebrate Bergman's seventy fifth birthday last year, the Swedish Film Institute organized a retrospective of Bergman's work, entitled "Bergman at 75 Women, Dreams and Demons." The retrospective, accompanied by a photo exhibition opens at the Harvard film Archive on March 25, and provides an excellent opportunity to view Bergman's whole oeuvre, presented in chronological sequence.

Bergman's films are highly philosophical and characterized by metaphysical anguish and despair over mankind's search for meaning. Detractors dubbed Bergman the "Master of Angst," seeing him as a purveyor of the stereotypical Nordic anxiety which Norwegian painter Edward Munch punchily captured in "The Scream," recently stolen by angst-ridden environmentalists.

Despite his reputation for melancholy films, Bergman actually began his career by making comedies. One of these, "Smiles of a Summer Night," which was released in December of 1955, became Bergman's breakthrough film. Many critics have seen it as the culmination of Bergman's so-called "rose period," during which he made lighter-hearted films. Ostensibly a comedy of manners, "Smiles of a Summer Night" stars Gunnar Bjornstrand as Fredrik Egerman, a successful middle-aged lawyer whose second wife is the virginal 18-year-old Anne (Ulla Jacobsson). As Anne rebuffs Egerman's physical advances, Egerman turns to the actress Desiree Armfeldt (Eva Dahlbeck), an old lover and friend of his, for help. During a visit to Desiree's lodgings, Egerman has a run-in with the jealous Count Malcolm (Jarl Kulle), Desiree's current lover.

To further complicate matters, Countess Malcolm (Margit Carlqvist) is jealous of Desiree, and Henrik (Bjorn Bjelvenstam), Egerman's grown son from his first marriage, is in love with Anne. Old Mrs. Armfeldt, prodded by her daughter, invites everyone to spend the weekend at her country estate. During the course of the summer night, and under the influence of a mysterious love potion served at dinner, eight people turn into four couples.

Bergman plays with several different elements in "Smiles of a Summer Night." The film is grounded in the notion of Shakespearean comedy, particularly A Midsummer Night's Dream. The tropes of the husband and wife who are separated and then reunited, the sylvan atmosphere and the magic spells buttress the film. Egerman is very much like Bottom; he plays an ass throughout the movie, but at the end, after Anne has run off with Henrik, he is made human again. The film also contains echoes of Beaumarchais' The Marriage of Figaro and allusions to Jean Renior's classic 1939 film, "The Rules of the Game."

"Smiles of a Summer Night" has many funny moments, and the film feels lighter than many of Bergman's other works. However, in true Bergmanesque fashion, the comedy is laced with tragedy and pathos. The epigrams, though elegant and humorous, are capable of wounding. While the characters comply with the structure of a comedy of manners by affirming love and happy endings, they consistently undercut the same structure with theri realization of the futility of all sentiments, most especialy love. The film ends with all the participants coupled, but this highly conventional resolution, required in all classic boudoir farces, is shattered by the bursts of despair, contempt and naked pity throughout the film. Bergman explodes the structure of the comedy of manners from within.

The performers in "Smiles of a Summer Night" are uniformly fine, with Bjornstrand and Dahlbeck leading the elegiac minuet. Dahlbeck's face, no longer displaying the blush of youth, makes a great subject for the camera. While Bjornstrand's features oftern seem a mask concealing his ture emotions, Dahlbeck's face bears witness to all the joys and travails to which life has subjected her. Naima Wifstrand as old-Mrs. Armfeldt steals every scene she in which she appears; her impossibly wise old dragon is as good as anything Edna May Oliver ever did in Hollywood.

The almost imperceptible line between comedy and pathos in "Smiles of a Summer Night" has helped to make the film an influential classic. Stephen Sondheim based his musical A Little Night Music on it, and Woody Allen, who is one of Bergman's greatest admirers, paid homage to the film in "A Mid-summer Night's Sex Comedy."

Despite the success of his comedy, Bergman didn't dally long in the realms of the humorous. In "The Seventh Seal," which was made after "Smiles of a Summer Night," Bergman turns fuly to the exploration of despair. In this medieval allegory, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), a Knight, returns with his squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand) to Sweden after ten years in the Crusades. Death, played inndibly by Bengt Ekerot, comes to take the Knight, but the Knight, Seeking to win a respite, challenges Death to a game of chess. The Knight and Jons travel the contryside, which is ravaged by the plague. Also roaming the land is a band of travelling players--Jof (Nils Poppe), a visionary who sees the Virgin Mary, Jof's wife Mia (Bibi Andersson) and their baby.

The Knight seks answers, knowledge, assurances, but he cannot find them anywhere. He is confronted by the effects of the plague, trains of flagellants and a young girl accused of witchcraft and sentenced to be burned at the stake. The Knight and Jons meet up with Jof's family, and together they cross the forest at night. There, they witness the execution of the of the young witch, played by Mausd Hansson. This is the most powerful scene in the film, and one of the most memorable in the history of the movies. Hansson's performance leaves one awestruck. She truly seems possessed, and the mad look in her eyes lacerating; it burns itself slowly into the viewer's memory, and, etched indelibly in fire, it becomes impossible to forget and is capable of giving one nightmares for days.

The immediacy of the film is impressive; as Pauline Kael wrote in her review, the film almsot seems to play itself out in a medieval present. At first there is a temptation to mock the seriousness of the film and the self-importance of the Knight's quest, which at times appears like a remnant of 1950s existentialist philosophy; but the images in "The Seventh Seal" are so hypnotically charged that one is pulled in and held fast.

Ekerot, swathed in black robes, his angular, bony face impossibly white, stands with Maria Casares in Jean Cocteau's "Orpheus" and the peasant in Roberto Gavalodon's "Macario" as one of the greatest visualizations of death in cinema. At one point, Jof sees the Knight playing chess with Death, and he escapes with Mia and their son. The Knight travels to his castle with several of his companios, and it is there that Death finds them. As the film closes, Jof has a vision of Death leading the Knight and his companions in a dance across the horizon.

The plot synopsis in the notes for the retrospective concludes with the sentence, "Film ends as Jof, Mia and their child walk off towards a new day." That is as cliched a sentence as one can find, but the ending of "The Seventh Seal" is far from cliched. Just as the ending of "Smiles of a Summer Night" was in many rspects a false ending belied by the content of the film, the optimistic ending of "The Seventh Seal" is ironical. Mia and Jof walking into the sunrise cannot erase the previous images; Death will come for them in the end too.

For anyone uncaquainted with Bergman's work, "Smiles of a Summer Night" and, "The Seventh Seal" make excellent introductions. For those already familiar with Bergmar, the retrospective at the Harvard Film Arc provides an opportunity to rediscer Bergman's greatness. The retrospective continues with "Wild Strawberris," Persona," "Cries and Whispers" and "Fanny and Alexander."