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Bergmans weakest film?


After watching the Seventh Seal I fell in love with Ingmars work and think hes one of the true geniuses of film. However watching this film was the only time I felt underwhelmed. The strange juxtapositions of the disturbing images and the icy landscap, the fact that Max Von Sydows character is so unexpressive he borders on dull and then the interviews with the actors in the middle of the scenes. This is clearly a picture that Ingmar used to experiment and play with and thats fine, just a bit disappointing as a follow up to his real masterpieces.

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I thought it rather excellent. It's his second color film but the first time he and cinematographer Sven Nykvist got it right.

Max is playing an emotionally crippled character, but he was expressive when he was drunk, romantic when he and Eva were seducing each other, violent when he tried to chop Anna's head off and in the car at the end. The whole point of the film stock seeming to disintegrate at the end underscores his Nowhere Man status.

And I love the little dangling bear hanging from the rear view mirror as Andreas lets Anna have it. Perfect throwback to how Andreas found his puppy. Violence underscores everything that goes on on that island, whether emotional or physical.

If you really want to be underwhelmed by a Bergman film, see the one he made right after this one, The Touch. On second thought, under no circumstances see The Touch if The Passion of Anna did nothing for you.

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jlent,

I agree. I am a big fan of Bergman, and love several of his films. Persona of course has its own difficulties for the viewer, and is in some ways a virtually experimental film. Yet it does not receive the negative assessments Anna does, and certainly not the lack of attention.

Admirers of Anna such as myself acknowledge the "issues" with the interviews with the actors, and while they do not bother me, I can see how others might wonder at their inclusion. But even so that should not make the viewing of the film a ruined experience, or anything of the sort. But it is not only that, of course. I think it is also difficult to admire the characters, but at the same time we can relate to parts of each of them. I frankly think that is part of what makes Anna a difficult film at least for some. The distinguishing between that which we relate to in each of the characters, at the same time we recognize in each a lacking or even a dysfunction.

But then, who among us has no lacking?

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Well, to be honest, like mk-etc in the OP, I was a little underwhelmed with Anna. The interviews didn't make the film any worse. It already sucked. The acting seemed like rehearsal takes. The thread of the story was OK I suppose, perhaps a little weird in the end, but the whole film was just a bit too avant-garde for my liking. Maybe I couldn't appreciate the film because of the Swedish culture. I don't know.

I did wonder though if the two Andreas were one and the same person. The one played by Max von Sydow was the dead Andreas somewhere in purgatory. There were some Hellish scenes and the film ended with him banging on opposite sides of the screen ad infinitum.

None the less, just after watching Anna I watched Scenes from a Marriage and found that film a lot better. The acting was better for starters, the story was more cohesive and there were no non sequitur interviews.

For the record, I rated Anna 5/10.

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The acting was bad????

Here you have in one Bergman film his strongest four actors (as much as I lke and admire others who appeared in his films, but these four are the tops). And you have Bergman himself, of course. His first full length color film. Why all of a sudden should it be that the acting is bad?

Ftr I find the acting to be uniformly great in Anna. Perhaps the best is Bibi Andersson, but they are all great.

The story has metaphorical elements, and the notion of violence, first against animals, later against Johan, in the confines of the island adds a claustrophobic element. But the film has aspects of true genius and insight. Take the scene were Elis describes to Andreas his own "awareness" of the limitations of photography in asertaining the interiority of the human subjects. The analogy to film, and the concerns present here as in Persona and other Bergman films, is evident and telling.

Perhaps what i most enjoyed about Anna is the way Andreas's ambivalent feelings about being with others in the Heidegerrian sense are shown. I suppose if someone does not understand how brilliantly this film explores those feelings and is comfortable with the potentially unpleasant thoughts that exploration can dig up will not like the film.

I thought it was great.

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Definitely one of them.

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