"Ingmar Bergman's films utterly depressing" -- Ingmar Bergman

So, can somebody explain to me what made Persona a parable about the Vietnam conflict? I've heard this mentioned several times, and beyond the self-immolation fragment in the opening montage I don't understand the connection. Answers appreciated, this has been bothering me for some time and Film Four's Bergman season means its bothering me again.

The parallel is made by zealous film professors.

Yeah but based on what? It's always puzzled me, I can't even see it in a tenuous way

I'll keep this in mind if I stay up during Film Four's screening tomorrow night.

Doubt I'll stay with it...

No it's really gripping all the way through, esp once they get to the house, but Vietnam?

my Bergman prof didn't mention vietnam. Just a lot of stuff about the opening montage being a summation of the history of cinema and the rest the film discussed in terms of "psychological vampirism".

see now, that's what I got

Finally watched Seventh Seal last night...sort of a duty-to-the-classic-canon thing rather than because I really wanted to watch it. But I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

I saw it just now and it'sastoundingly brilliant. Fucking funny, sad, human, triumphant, frightening study of death and the unknowability of the divine. With a truly inspired ensemble cast, and that one scene with the eating of wild strawberries ("I will never forget this moment") which almost had me weeping for joy

so, was amateurist joking when he said he never saw a bergman film in 2004?

if he wasn't, i am really fucking stunned!

Persona has to be one of the 10 greatest, no doubt in my mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXGFo2WI2aw

Witless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17fGOC0IC9I

anyone who mistakes bergman for being austere/cold/humourless should see this movie

<3 it

kinda reminds me of the muppet show

Oh dear god no song gets stuck in my head like Papageno!

I had no idea he did a The Magic Flute.

it is... wonderful.

please to see it.

it would be great to watch this on a big screen outdoors this summer, i feel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpIUYzxlpjw

also anyone making common cause with john simon is pretty suspect.

*hisses and boos*

Simon is terrific and his reviews were wickedly funny. Your point about Simon trashing the abstruse but digging "Persona" is kinda OTM though

kinda did a little tribute to magic flute here

That's great!

thk u!

I have pushed this o the top of my Netflix queue btw. I am so stoked!

Bergman in switched @ birth shockah!

his real dad was Steve jobs

I watched the "film" version of Scenes From a Marriage about sixteen years ago. Criterion released both versions. Is the TV version better?

Just watched "Seventh Seal" for the first time. My first Bergman. It was wonderful!

Best Death ever!

The part where they are watching the witch be burned, and they are looking into her eyes and not seeing God in them, is pretty amazing.

For all the existential angst, there's a lot of humor in this.

I once tried to watch Wild Strawberries when I was on the comedown off Ecstasy. It's a great movie, but dear god, what was I thinking? I will never understand why I thought it would be suitable for that frame of mind. Had to turn it off.

Bergman has been my 2nd-favorite discovery since I started my heavy film-immersion program a few years ago. I recommend The Magician next or soonish.

Thanks, I will definitely check that out next!

This opens here shortly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELIMeemx-FI

I invented a new word to describe it: "Bergmanesque."

Summer Interlude is probably my favourite. Summer with Monika, Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and Through A Glass Darkly are all solid gold. and Virgin Spring (two really shockingly violent bits)

you're right about 7th seal and the humour - bloke climbs a tree to escape death, death gets out a saw. slapstick. also feels like every single frame of the film would make a great poster.

> Bergman has been my 2nd-favorite discovery since I started my heavy film-immersion program

and the first?

Yes, Death with the saw! So good! Also when the squire is off to the side calling every trick Lisa is going to use to calm her furious husband. "It's only a matter of time before she brings up his favorite dish..." This kind of humor is all over sitcoms!

Also the bit where they are doing that silly play with the devil and a somewhat vulgarly playful song and all of a sudden this mass of Black Death ecstatics wanders into town and just completely usurps their act. People whipping each other and calling out to God, making such a big show of it all. Suddenly the fool and his family dressed up in silly devil costumes seem the most genuine people around.

I definitely need to watch it again, there's a lot of commentary on the performance aspects of religion, on people willfully fooling each other. The painter in the monastery painting pictures to stir up church attendance, the witch who is desperately trying to convince herself - in the face of her own death - that the devil is real and in her eyes.

This movie seems heavily influenced by the tarot, beginning and ending w the fool, plenty of knights and cups and clubs, etc. throughout. Then again the Tarot is probably influenced by Revelations...

koogs -- #1 is Ozu

5-week retro in NYC

https://filmforum.org/series/ingmar-bergman-centennial-retrospective-series

Liv Ullmann talks about Bergman in anticipation of BFI retrospective:

http://www.dazeddigital.com/film-tv/article/38835/1/liv-ullmann-ingmar-bergman-bfi

Saw "Through a Glass Darkly" at the cinema only yesterday!

Got F&A out of the library for my first viewing in 15 years, particularly for the TV version, which I haven't seen. Is it worth it?

yes it absolutely is

Abysmal.

lol wrong thread soz

Yes, at least one of my favorite scenes is cut from the theatrical.

It was "The Silence" today. Still recovering.

and is there more of Fanny? I would think so.

i've never seen the theatrical cut so i can't say, but also nothing seems remotely excessive in the tv version so i don't really have a desire to watch the other one