Shenanigans at the circus, Bergman style - so there's adultery, unhappy marriages, mistresses, tormented artists and a suicide. There's also a heathy dose of grotesques, which perhaps indicates a Fellini influence. This is visually very trippy with clowns and midgets and elephants walking through a town, an extended silent movie sequence at the beginning, and long bits without dialogue elsewhere.
The plot involves a fat middle aged ringmaster with a girlfriend way too young and hot for him visit his home town and his ex wife. His girlfriend has a fling with an egotistical young actor. Generally the men treat the women badly and it goes haywire with circus performers running through town and over the horizon like at the end of The Seventh Seal.
This is consistently visually interesting and a bit confusing; I liked the girl but really what's she doing with the fat ringmaster? Come on. And the stuff about "I'm a ringmaster and life's a circus" was a bit annoying after a while. Not one of my favourites but it's incredible to see such a visually bold movie from Bergman.
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