Way back when, I numbered Bergman’s 1961 film among my favorites, and I’ve no reason to back out on that after this viewing. It’s by no means as watertight as many others of Bergman’s films — Sawdust and Tinsel, Smiles of a Summer Night, Wild Strawberries, Shame, Cries and Whispers, and Scenes from a Marriage seem to me virtually perfect films, and there are probably others — but Through a Glass Darkly is a good fulcrum for Bergman’s career, a distillation of themes that preceded it and a hint of what’s to come. It is, for starters, Bergman’s first with Nykvist as a full-time staffer and his first film on Fårö, and the way in which Nykvist captures the island’s somber light, the film’s beautifully measured pacing, and the plot’s truly weird tug-of-war between concrete reality and delusion, more than make up for the silly, uneven characterization of Minus and his rather obvious, embarassing epilogue.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: Tartan Video DVD
10 Jan 2007 5:03 PM | Submit Comment