Movie review - "Incubus" (1966) ***

This movie is best remembered for two things, both of which made me love it before even seeing it, a) the fact it was shot in Esperanto, and b) the curse associated with it - several people who worked on the film have had tragic ends.

It's a surprise to find that it's actually a decent movie - ambitious, genuinely creepy and unsettling. I don't want to over praise it or anything but the atmosphere is very effective, heavily influenced by Ingmar Bergman. Conrad Hall was the cinematographer so it looks beautiful. And all the Esperanto does create an off-kilther, otherworldly feeling.

The story was a little confusing in places but basically effective: an evil creature (Allyson Ames) who lures men to their deaths surprises herself by falling in love. The rape and murder of Ann Atmar is genuinely unsettling and probably the movie's most powerful sequence. (At heart it's about an independent woman who turns "good" via the love of a good man, which will offend some). William Shatner is the guy Aymes falls in love with.

Book review - "Masque of the Red Death" by Elise Lee (1964)

I'm really loving this series of film novelisations that Bear Manor Media are republishing - like their one on The Raven this comes with a sort of DVD extras equivalent, an interview with Roger Corman on the making of the film, which I found very interesting: he says he wanted to make Masque from the beginning but was worried about similarities with The Seventh Seal. Hence, it was not made until towards the end of the cycle - however this did mean it could be shot in England with greater production value, and also Corman's skills as a director were reaching its peak.

Corman had a deal of trouble getting a script he was happy with and numerous writers worked on Masque - end credit goes to Charles Beaumont and William Campbell. Truth be told, the script is a bit messy with a lot of repetition and sketchy characters: Gino and his father are just bland hot headed idiots (though supposed to be the hero), Francesca is just a hot girl who is kidnapped, Gino escapes and is recaptured, there's a lot of tap dancing dramatically until the deux ex machina of the red-clad visitor. It's not as well structured as say Richard Matheson's Poe scripts.

However, when it's good it's excellent, with some captivating atmosphere, and a stunningly good line up of bad characters: satanist Prospero, jealous Juliana, determined to be married to Satan, Hop Toad the dwarf, Alfredo the duke. It's a bleak world of death, injustice, pain, sex, religious devotion and superstition. It's a flawed script but the novelisation captures the atmosphere and is consistently interesting.

Movie review - "The Silence" (1963) ***

Two sisters and the young son of one of them wind up in an small town on the brink of war. The elder sister is ill, masturbates; the younger sister walks around topless a lot, goes to a cinema and sees two strangers have raunchy sex (they really go for it, with straddling laps and boobs and everything), then picks up a waiter and has sex with him.

These things helped make this movie a considerable box office success on the art house circuit - more so than, say, the troupe of midgets who are also in the movie or the little kid who acts as a kind of go-between. I could recognise the quality of the acting, particular Ingrid Thulin, who played the eldest sister, and the scenes - and I got the two women were meant to be different sides of the same person, or something.And it's beautifully shot.

But for me it really lacked story - and that got to me. Also the character of the younger sister was not that engaging, no matter how sexy she was. This film wasn't that emotionally involving.

Movie review - "Winter Light" (1962) ****

Bergman wasn't stuffing around with his themes at this stage: God, love, the meaning of life, suicide. Gunnar Bjorstrand is a priest who is over it all - sick of God, his declining bunch of parishioners, life, work, everything... Nerdy Ingrid Thulin loves him but he's sick of her, parishoner Max Von Sydow wants some help dealing with the horror of the world but the priest can't so it so he kills himself, Thulin throws herself at him but he tells her to get stuffed, and the organist gets a bit tipsy and the hunchbacked assistant goes on about Jesus.

It's talky yet there are some visually striking sequences such as Thulin's long monologue to camera and seeing von Sydow's dead body and Thulin praying at the end. Bjorstrand's casting in the lead as opposed to vin Sydow means he's even more humourless. And I found it surprisingly gripping - it plunges head on into some big issues, it feels true, it packs a punch.

Movie review - "Wild Strawberries" (1957) ****

Ingmar Bergman's road trip - an old professor is going to accept an award and in doing so meets people who sheds light on his life, and flashes back to important incidents. He has quite a large car which can fit several people - his pregnant daughter in law, some kids who are hitchhiking, a squabbling couple whose car he hits.

This has a great archetypal idea - reflecting on your life while being honoured. I think a lot of viewers would watch this and daydream "I wonder what I would think looking back at this time". I know I did.

The professor has nightmares, less stressful dreams, remembers a childhood home and falling in love. A lot of this was surprisingly broad: comedy at a family dinner, including gags involving twins and a paterfamilias with an enormous mustache; the young hitchhikers feel more like caricatures of young people than real characters (they don't compare well with the young people in love in Bergman's earlier movies). Ingrid Thulin is very pretty but I wouldn't rank her efforts with the great Bergman female performances.

However Victor Sjostrom is superb as the professor (what a great face) and there are some incredible bits such as the dream sequences, the devastating chat between the unhappily married couple, Thulin's matter of fact treatment of her life. Many memorable images too. Woody Allen has clearly plundered it several times.

Movie review - "Through a Glass Darkly" (1961) ****

Not for the faint hearted: four people are on an island, while one of them (Harriett Andersson) goes insane. She possibly seduces her 17 year old brother, is coldly observed by her writer father, and is tolerated by her loving husband. You could do a misogynist reading of this - poor old men tormented by crazy women - but its done incredibly well, with some remarkable performances.

There are a lot of familiar Bergman themes: insanity, the role of the artist, feeling vs unfeeling, God, life and death; an island. Strong drama plus some very spooky moments when Andersson loses it that reminded me of Repulsion. An excellent movie.

Movie review - Bergman - "The Devil's Eye" (1960) **

Made during the period where Bergman was cranking out masterpieces left right and centre, I've got to admit I'd never heard of this one (apparently he made it to ensure finance for The Virgin Spring). It's a rather silly fantasy sex comedy - the Devil sends Don Juan down to earth to seduce a woman.

Gunnar Bjornstrand is in it, introducing the movie, and there's actors from other Bergman films (Bibi Andersson) but at the risk of sounding like a philistine I really needed some stars who I knew and were experienced in light comedy (don't laugh, but say Robert Cummings). Its not un-entertaining - it bubbles along, there are some funny bits - but it's a very minor work.

Movie review - "The Virgin Spring" (1960) ****

For those who all thought Bergman only went into existential tales of the meaning of life - well, this does too only it's also a vigilante movie. The first 40 minutes are hard going if you know what it's about - a bright happy blonde girl, a little irritating, is off to church, with the fond wishes of her mother and father. She's accompanied by the family maid, a trashy, pregnant and quite sexy pagan - the maid takes off, the girl runs into two herdsmen and a kid... The two guys rape her, we see it and its quite full on, and then they kill her. She's alive for a bit then she dies. The kid throws up.

Then the rapists rock up at the parent's house. Dad and mum figure out what's going on (the maid saw it all) and dad wreck's vengeance. He doesn't feel great about it but we're not too offended (I wasn't anyway) since the rapists were such loathsome creatures. Maybe it was harsh to kill the kid.

Some Bergman fans don't like this - it is kind of pro vigilante, and there's all this stuff going on with the tight bond between father and daughter, and the girl's purity, and the slutty other girl. You could interpret it a lot of different ways, some of them bad. I found it very powerful on a universal theme and it hasn't dated.

Movie review - "The Seventh Seal" (1955) ***** (warning: spoilers)

After the enchanting Smiles of a Summer Night Bergman took several of the cast, stayed in period, but came up with something very different. This is best known for being about a knight and Death playing chess on the beach but that actually doesn't take up much of the running time: there's lots of the knight riding around with his squire, the squire rescuing a girl from being raped and having an on-going feud with the attempted rapist, some strolling players (one of several Shakespearean touches here - like in Sawdust and Tinsel there's a married couple where the girl is too hot for the guy), a trampy girl and her husband, the knight's wife.

Not terribly plotty - there's a lot of debate, and conversation - but there is an overall structure: death wants some people, and knocks them off gradually. Most people know the images of death on the beach and dancing off with people at the end, but he also chops down a tree with an actor up the top; there's knights going through the mist; the burning of a woman at the stake.

Not always a fun movie to watch - the people who go off to die at the end seem like nice people (not the rapist but the knight, the world weary squire, the young girl, the married couple)... I don't know why the actors deserve to live. But then that's the point. Despite all the jokes thrown at it, it lingers in the mind.

Movie review - "Smiles of a Summer Night" (1955) ****

This is so sexy. Ulla Jacobsen shimmies and pouts as the 19 year old virgin bride, Harriet Andersson also pouts as a Bardot-like maid Petra, flirting with everyone, Eva Dahlbeck being wise and world weary, Margit Carlqvist being proud as she's cuckolded. The men are behind the eight ball most of the time - pompous Gunnary Bjornstrand who hasn't had sex with his wife in two years (this actor always leaves me a bit cold in comedy), Bjorn Bjelfvenstam as his dumb son... you're not likely to remember the guys actually (including Andersson's guy who just sort of randomly comes along) but the women are so good.

The jokes aren't terribly memorable, the situations and characters not exactly fresh (sexy maid, sexually experienced actress, naive young man, randy count) but it has an air of magic about it, like those Shakespeare comedies set in a forest. Lovely.

Movie review - Bergman#15 - "Dreams" (1955) **1/2

Lesser known Bergman movie is about a model (Harriet Andersson) and her photographer (Eva Dahlbeck), a former model, and their love lives. They go to a small town and both have sort-of romances with guys - the model with someone new, the photographer with a distractingly bald old flame.

Bergman was fully confident by now - his handling of the material is bold and strong. I wish I enjoyed this movie more. I was thrown by the structure - it concentrates on the young girl then switches and concentrates on the older one. Also the plot seems uninspired - the wife/daughter turn up, people are tempted but don't go through with things, reality isn't as good as memory, middle age men are prats trying to reinvigorate themselves through affairs who shouldn't be relied on, etc.

Most memorable bit was when the elder woman shoves her head out of a train in the rain. Of the two leads I thought Andersson came across better than Dahlbeck because the latter was such a misery guts.

Movie review - Bergman#13 - "Sawdust and Tinsel" (1953) **

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.

Movie review - Bergman#11 - "Secrets of Women" (1952) ***

Bergman's take on A Letter for Three Wives - four women chat in a summer cottage while waiting for their husbands, each one flashing back to an adventure they'd had in the past. One has an affair, with quite a sexy seduction scene followed by a a boring denouement involving her husband; one flashes back to her pregnancy where she flashed back to getting pregnant (a summer affair in Paris); one remembers being stuck in an elevator with her husband who she normally doesn't spend much time with. A fourth, which is played out and not a flashback, decides to elope.

I really liked this - I didn't expect to, and the stories aren't that amazing but all of them are different. The first one is this sort of erotic melodrama, similar in many ways to later Bergman, full of sex and angst and married people battling on no matter want; the second one has an extended silent sequence and is highly visual (the director flexing his visual muscles and pulling it off, helped off course by his ace cinematographer); the third one is two people stuck in a room learning to reconnect (it reminded me in a way of the Linda Darnell Paul Douglas scene in Wives).

It's not a masterpiece but it's well done with some accomplished acting and is consistently interesting. 

Movie review - Bergman#10 - "Summer Interlude" (1951) ***1/2

This has been described as the film where Bergman really became Bergman. It's a lovely story about a hard arse ballerina who is sent a copy of her old diary - she reads it and recalls when she was young and in love. These flashback scenes are poetic and wonderful - I kept thinking of Galsworthy's Apple Tree and Nick Earls' After January. It's helped by some divine photography and Maj-Britt Nilsson is terrific as the girl.

Bergman fans will get a kick out of some (in hindsight) allusions to other works: characters eating strawberries, playing chess, etc. And when I think about it this covers much of the same ground of To Joy: a young couple in love, one of them a tormented artist (in this case it's ballet) allowing frequent cutting away to performance scenes, we know up front it's going to end badly. But this is much better - the leading couple are nicer, the middle aged man who gets involved is a threat not a kindly old buffer who provides no drama, the handling is far more sure.

The stuff on the island is magical, I found the last third less so - although it does have some great clown make up and more superb Nilsson acting.

Movie review - Bergman#9 - "This Can't Happen Here" (1950) *1/2

Bergman used to trash this movie - it and The Touch were two he always bagged. For the first half hour or so I thought he was being way too hard on himself, showing off with his self-deprecation - it was a perfectly acceptable spy thriller with men in hats driving around in cars and hanging around in alleyways talking mysteriously. The opening spiel which said "this is all made up and takes place somewhere that doesn't exist" was annoying (and patronising) but I went with it.

It's set in a fictional Eastern European country where a secret agent for the baddies goes to visit his ex who is a (unpaid) secret agent for the goodies (a people smuggler) and she winds up trying to kill him... which is fairly full on for the hero. She's not the only hero - there's a dull honest cop who is investigating. There are villainous associations, people who aren't what they appear to be, car chases, assassinations and a race for the border. It's crap.

Signe Hasso, who appeared in some Hollywood movies, plays the lead but isn't that good - no one in this movie is, really. It's done well enough technically, with some nice cinematography, a few funky camera angles, and gets novelty points for being a Bergman thriller with an anti-Soviet slant. But it's dull and confusing and I found it a real struggle to watch. Maybe this is hindsight but Bergman's contempt for his material does come across.

(This was actually made before Summer Interlude but released afterwards.)

Movie review - Bergman#8 - "To Joy" (1950) **1/2

We hear that a woman has been killed by an exploding stove so Bergman isn't exactly setting us up for a romantic comedy. Wed flashback to seven years beforehand when the woman met her husband while both were working in an orchestra. Like many of Bergman's early films it's about a young couple in love trying to make a go of it; but Bergman's a little bit older now - a little more bitter and weary. So while the two are sweet falling in love she's worried about being a fraud, and so is he, and he gets jealous.

There's lots of music here, and Victor Sjostrom as the wise conductor, but this is mostly about the self loathing male lead - he worries about not being up to being a violinist, he realises he isn't up to it (an effective sequence), he cheats on his wife, he slaps her around (my sympathy for him vanished at this point), he's moody and annoying but she loves him and I think it's meant to be sad when it doesn't turn out for him.

Bergman was apparently inspired by his own feelings of guilt from cheating on his wife. "Look at me, I'm cheating on my wife and feeling bad about it! I have a rotten protagonist and give all the sympathy to the woman! I can't overcome my demons but I don't feel good. Look at me!"

This got on my nerves, you can tell. You can't dismiss it - it was clearly made by a person of great talent, the photography is wonderful and there are some outstanding sequences. But I wasn't that impressed. I know it's Bergman but sorry it's true.

Movie review - Bergman#6 - "Prison" (1949) **1/2

The opening shot is of a figure walking on their own though a deserted landscape... Bergman is beginning to become Bergman. He's working from his own script, and you can tell the different - it's more theatrical, with longer scenes of people talking at a much fast pace; a lot of the talk is about the big issues like heaven and hell and good and evil and sex; it's self referential - the story is about a screenwriting writing a script.

Couples are unhappy (the writer tells his partner he's afraid of dying, thinks they are going to wind up tearing each other apart), there is lots of talk of suicide. I'm not really into movies about making movies, which is what this is; there's an incredible amount of talent and imagination on display here, lots of interesting ideas, but I admit I didn't really get into this.

Movie review - Bergman#5 - "Port of Call" (1948) ***

Another young lovers tale from Bergman, although you can feel him pushing himself - it's grittier, tougher (this was influenced by neo-realism), and begins with a young woman trying to kill herself in the water. The story has her fall in love with a sailor who is shocked when he finds out about her past, and we wonder if he can forgive her.

This is really a story of the girl rather than her romance - I mean, the romance is the spine, but it's more a character study. We find out abut the girl's abusive father, manipulative and cold mother, mean bosses, tough upbringing (including a stint in juvey), sympathetic social worker.s We never find out that much about him, and it isn't nearly as interesting.

Nine Christine Jonsson, who plays the girl, is excellent and easily outshines the guy. Of course the fact she has a better part helps a lot but I don't think that explains everything. It's melodrama but well done, with the bonus of some terrific location shooting. It's very frank, too - there's an abortion and some nudity.

Movie review - Bergman#4 - "Music in Darkness" (1948) ***

You never would have guessed Ingmar Bergman to start a movie where a soldier is injured on a firing range while trying to save a puppy - yes, a puppy - but as if to compensate almost immediately the director throws in his most trippy sequence yet, with the man traipsing through a swamp and having incredible avante-garde visions while in hospital. (Unlike anything he'd made until then.)

The rest of the movie follows along the lines of many of his early movies - a melodrama about young lovers. He's a blind piano player (40s cinema was full of blind pianists eg Love Story), she's the maid, they love each other but are kept apart by social class and his bitterness. Eventually love finds a way.

This is a really sweet movie, helped considerably by Mai Zetterling's charming performance as the maid. The guy is okay (he reminded me of a young Dirk Bogarde at times... and you know something, this would have made a good Bogarde vehicle) but Zetterling is a star; the first real one Bergman worked with. Maybe his other leads were stars at home, but she's the first one for me where charisma really came across. The movie suffers in the second act when she's not on screen. (NB She does a nude scene too - running naked across the room getting changed, showing her backside and a bit of boob. It really surprised me.)

This is a heartwarming, very well done movie with Bergman's increasing confidence evident. Maybe a bit silly but I went with it.

Movie review - Bergman#3 - "A Ship Bound for India" (1947) ***

More young-people-battling-against-the-odds melodrama from Bergman, showing increasing confidence and skill. He was pretty much a good filmmaker by now, even if his material isn't always the best. This one is about a young sailor with a hunchback (not immediately obvious) who returns home after being away from seven years; it turns out he had a fling with his father's mistress.

The oppressive martinet father figure (uncaring, sadistic, manipulative, going blind) is perhaps the most complex in this movie. This is a bit hokey at times to be sure, and in one or two spots I was bored (as well as worried about the future of a relationship between a hunchback sailor and a woman who slept with said hunchback's awful father for a long time... maybe that's why the seven year gap is there) but it's effective, and I did find myself hoping these two young people would make it.

I'm really glad I'm watching these early Bergmans; he's not known as a champion of youth director but he was in his early days, very much so.