An innocent couple living on a farm in a place isolated from civilization suddenly find themselves in a war. The film depicts in verismo style the changes the two undergo as events develop. The shocking aspect is not just the brutality of the war, but that under the right circumstances people resort to animal behavior. That's where shame comes in.
Warning: be prepared to discover in very realistic fashion that the human race is not so noble after all.
Bergman's War Movie; And One Of His Very Best
One doesn't think of Ingmar Bergman as a director of action or thriller (genre) movies. But he directs the war sequences in "Shame" with stunning confidence. It seems he could have made many more big (even epic) movies if he had been so inclined. This film features Bergman veterans Von Sydow and Ullmann as ordinary people who are turned into refugees by a ferocious war in which they get caught. They lose everything, are harassed, beaten and exploited. Eventually the neurotic Von Sydow proves he will do anything to survive. Simone Weil once wrote "the great mystery of life is not suffering, but affliction." That is: suffering brings out the best in some people, others it turns into beasts. This movie asks that most painful question: what would you do in the same situation? The film presents a harrowing landscape of hell on earth that ends in a climax that will inevitably remind you of "Titanic", although Bergman did it first. It's more immediately accessible than many of Bergman's other movies because the anguish here takes external form, not just emotionally interior terror. A neglected masterpiece that should be seen at least as often as his other great works.
Living In Shame?
I don't care what people think of me after I make this statement. I don't care if people think I'm over dramatizing or if I sound pretentious. But, Ingmar Bergman, to me, is a cinematic genius! People offen ask me, why do you like Bergman? Aren't you a little too young to watch his films (I'm 18)? When asked these questions my answer is always the same. I watch Bergman's films because I simply love the way he shows the human condition. Unlike Hollywood filmmakers, I think his films are far more personal. He shows society at face values, our good sides and bad. As for me being too young. Well, do you have to be a certain age to have a love for the finer things?
Bergman's films almost if not always conjure important issues. His films make you think. And, they, to me anyway, always have characters that we can relate to. His films leave an emotional impact on his audience. Watching films like "Wild Strawberries", or "The Seventh Seal", "Through A Glass, Darkly", "Persona", and "Cries and Whispers" they are all able to connect with the viewer. We feel for these characters. I've offen joked around and have said that the two characters in "Strawberries" and "Seal" are me! And "Shame" is just as powerful as any other Bergman film. The images we see on screen, grip us. They are intense, but, not like the way cop movies are. They are intense in a realistic point of view. "Shame" directed and written by Bergman stars Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman as Jan and Eva Rosenberg, former violinist, who have not played in some time. I assume this is due to the civil war that is happening. They live on a farm, far away from society. And, according to Jan (Sydow) that is a good thing. He follows the rule of, the less you know the better. He and Eva (Ullman) are having their own personal problems in they relationship. She wants to have a baby, and he thinks they should wait. They have no money, and it clearly is not safe where they are living. They can hear bombs being dropped and the sound of guns being fired. If all of this wasn't enough they are later accused of being in trust I suppose you can say with the enemy. Once you hit this point of the film it is the second "act". They are now put to the test to find out exactly what kind of people they are. Are they just or not? After a suprise ending we see that they have a lot of secrets they now must keep to each other, so they must live in "Shame" due to their actions. The cinematography by Sven Nykvist is wonderful. I feel his work really adds to the film. I found this film very hard to find. I actually had to leave Chicago to buy it lol. I don't know if anyone else had the same problem or not, but if you do, it's really worth the search. Great movie for those who haven't seen a Bergman film yet ("Shame" on you! lol). Powerful, wonderful acting, great directing and photography. A Bergman masterpiece!
Ingmar Bergman's 1966 film, photographed by Sven Nykvist, begins when famous actress Elisabeth Vogler (Liv Ullmann) freezes on stage in the middle of a performance. Struck dumb by an unknown cause, she winds up in the care of young inexperienced nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson), and together they retreat to the seaside for the summer, where they enter into an uncommon intimacy and clash of wills. Bergman's study of the fragility of the human being and the treachery of life is incredibly moving in its perception and unrivaled imagery. And as always with Bergman and his reappearing ensemble of actors, the performances are flawless. Especially notable is the scene in which Alma recounts for the silent Elisabeth a morally and emotionally ambivalent erotic encounter she had experienced on a beach... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bibi Andersson - Liv Ullmann Director(s): Ingmar Bergman DVD Release Date: Released the 10 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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People who aren't "turned off" & disgusted by the current state of the world (enviromentally, politically, culturally, sociologically, etc.) will immediately understand this film and appreciate its beauty! Upon the first time seeing it, I felt it was unfocused and confused. The second time, when it occured to me that these people were living in front of the backdrop of something emotionally emasculating (random slaughtering, War, whatever you want to supplement), I realized what a masterpiece this film is. That uneasy feeling that life is unraveling all around you, that human beings are destroying each other, even though you don't directly see it...Bergman captures that feeling beautifully.
"hour of the wolf" is,...far from a 'lesser' bergman film:it is his best.
johann (max von sydow), and his wife alma (liv ulmann), retreat to an island with one another and try to live a serene, peaceful life while johann works on his art. to say the least, it doesn't exactly pan out.
slowly but surely, johann's demons pursue him and whether they actually 'exist' or not is neither here nor there as far as the message of the movie goes. the most crucial scene is when the puppet show takes place in the demons' castle, and mozart's "magic flute" is done by the birdman, papageno. the darkness and meaninglessness of the human condition is reflected in the lines of mozart's character:"eternal night, eternal night, when whilst thou flee? when will mine eye the daylight see?" while these... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Max von Sydow - Liv Ullmann Director(s): Ingmar Bergman DVD Release Date: Released the 27 April 2004 Usually ships within 2 to 3 days
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This 1966 masterpiece by Michelangelo Antonioni (The Passenger) is set in the heady atmosphere of Swinging London, and stars David Hemmings as an unsmiling fashion photographer hooked on ephemeral meaning attached to anything: art, sex, work, relationships, drugs, events. When a real mystery falls into his lap, he probes the evidence for some reliable truth, but finds it hard to reckon with. Vanessa Redgrave plays an enigmatic woman whose desperation to cover something up only seems like one more phenomenon in Hemmings's disinterested purview. This is one of the key films of the decade, and still an unsettling and lasting experience. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vanessa Redgrave - David Hemmings Director(s): Michelangelo Antonioni DVD Release Date: Released the 17 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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An extraordinary and deeply moving film that retains much of its power since its original release in 1959, Alain Resnais's Hiroshima, Mon Amour is the story of a French woman (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese man (Eiji Okada) who become lovers in the city of Hiroshima, where the U.S. dropped a nuclear bomb to end World War II in the Pacific. Written by Marguerite Duras and juggled, as if by wandering thoughts, in chronology and setting by Resnais, the film reveals the miserable and mortifying experiences of each character during the war and suggests the obvious healing properties of their relationship in the present. An emotional allusion or two can certainly be made with the more recent The English Patient, but nothing can quite prepare one for Resnais's extreme yet... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Emmanuelle Riva - Eiji Okada Director(s): Alain Resnais DVD Release Date: Released the 24 June 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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