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Through a Glass Darkly


Did anyone find this film reminiscent of Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly? As well as the themes of faith and commitment there were similarities in location (were both films shot at the same place?) and other details - pools of surface water, spilt milk, the outside dinner table, an ambulance at the end of both films. It struck me that Tarkovsky may have been responding to Bergman's earlier, darker work wanting to make a more hopeful and positive statement with The Sacrifice.

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Sure, there's an affinty and they're both filmed on the same island, Fåro (just NE of Gotland in the Baltic), which has also been Bergman's summer residence ever since the 60s; he still has a large property there. Moreover, the film was shot by Bergman's ace photographer Sven Nykvist.

I think the commitment to questions of religion, ultimate loyalty and the way religion may interact with mental life is deeply ingrained in both directors. With Bergman it goes back at least to Fängelse ("The Devil's Wanton" on its rare showings in the US) in 1949. btw, the script for that film contained a scene with a girl who was hallucinating and thought the old wallpapers came alive with faces: this was never shot due to technical problems, but resurfaced in "Through A Glass Darkly".

But Bergman and Nykvist were also deeply impressed by "Andrey Rublev" - how could they fail to be? - so no doubt there's been a two-way respect. On seeing "Sacrifice" I felt that it's a profoundly Russian film, and in particular it couldn't have been the work of a Swedish film maker, not even Bergman I think. The climate and structure of this film could only come out of a nation which has suffered badly in war, and where suffering still counts as a sort of treasure, a vital experience.

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Thanks for the response Strausszek.

“On seeing "Sacrifice" I felt that it's a profoundly Russian film, and in particular it couldn't have been the work of a Swedish film maker, not even Bergman I think. The climate and structure of this film could only come out of a nation which has suffered badly in war, and where suffering still counts as a sort of treasure, a vital experience.”

Nicely put. It’s good to hear from the Swedish perspective, especially from someone who clearly has a great understanding of Bergman. Interesting fact about Fängelse, one of the many Bergman films I’ve yet to see.

I have just discovered a quote by Tarkovsky where he addresses the issue of Bergman’s influence on The Sacrifice, and makes me feel a bit stupid into the bargain.

“Here is a difference between me and Bergman: for me God is not a mute. I totally disagree with those who claim an aura of films by the Swedish director is present in The Sacrifice. When Bergman speaks of God, he does it in the context of God who is silent, who is not with us. So we have nothing in common, just the opposite. Some of the superficial remarks were made because the actor in the main role had also worked with Bergman or because of the traces of Swedish landscape in my film. People making such claims have not understood anything in Bergman, they don't know what existentialism is. Bergman is closer to Kierkegaard than to problems of religion.”

In my defence I wasn’t suggesting that Tarkovsky was making a ‘Bergmanesque’ film, rather that perhaps he was intentionally challenging or reacting to Bergman’s representation of an aloof and “mute” God. This seems not to be the case despite some clear similarities between the two films; though I suppose similarities are inevitable given the fact that, as you mentioned, they were shot in the same place by the same person.

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A bit off-topic, here's another "closed room" location which could do wonders for a movie - look at the notice about the "skyscraper prison" this guy saw on April 24 last year from the panorama deck of Sears Tower:

http://www.teehan.ca/mt/archives/paul/2004_04.html

I'd love to see Joaquin Phoenix and Ice Cube on that set :-)

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Incidentally, Fårö can be seen in a number of Bergman movies, e.g. "Vargtimmen" and "En passion". He also shot two documentaries about the island and its people, "Fårödokument" (The Faro Document) in 1969 and "Fårödokument 1979" ten years later. Will try to update the imdb filmography with them. Bergman isn't the only celebrity to have a summer house there; so did Olof Palme.

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Yet more Bergman movies to add to my list. Why couldn't he have made a sensible amount of films like Tarkovsky or Kubrick? ; )

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heh! Still he has done quite many that are very well worth watching!

When you speak of it, I must say that there certainly are reminicences from Såsom i en spegel!

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"heh! Still he has done quite many that are very well worth watching!"


They are certainly worth watching but he's costing me a fortune!

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There's a website coming up at www.ingmarbergman.se - it should be up and running this very month. It will contain making-of-movies, unique stills, scripts and background on many of his films and I think it'll also be about his career as a director in the theatre - a part of his work which has been less easily accessible to people outside Sweden and Germany (he was director of the Residenztheater in Munich in the late seventies) but an integral aspect. Most of the actors in the early "Bergman troupe" seen in "The Seventh Seal" and his early sixties films, were guys he'd worked with on the theatrical stage (Max von Sydow, Bengt Ekerot and Nils Poppe - all of The Seventh Seal - for example).

It's largely based on his own archives - check out that nice trailer and you'll get the idea: it's tongue-in-cheek but Bergman really did make this donation of a lot of his own documents a few years ago. Much of this stuff is in Swedish of course, but I'm sure some of it will be bilingual and the images won't depend on the language.

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Thanks for the info Strausszek; looks interesting.

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The original Swedish title of "Through a Glass Darkly" is Sasom i en spegel, literally: "As through a mirror". The title comes from the bible verse 1 Corinthians 13:12, referring to man's imperfect view of reality / the divine:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.


Other bible translations use "mirror" instead of "glass".

Both mirrors and glass panes feature extensively throughout Tarkovsky's film. Alexander's house has a lot more mirrors than normally necessary, for instance next to the stereo. And likewise, when Maria opens the door in her house, we see the reflecting door reflected in a mirror.

When Otto describes the Leonardo illustration he says: "I can't see it clearly. It's behind glass. And it's dark." The Leonardo illustration reflects both Alexander and the outside world on various occasions.

The two black & white dream sequences with the wrecked car both have mirror reflections of buildings.

The old map is seen through its protective glass, to further point out (as the dialogue does) that what a map depicts is not the real thing, merely a virtual model of it.

Characters are constantly looking out of windows. Alexander and Otto talk to each other with a window pane in between them. On two occasions we observe Alexander through glass veranda doors as he sneaks out of the house. Glass cabinet doors swing to and fro. Wine glasses are held up. A drinking glass is placed on Alexander's personal notes.

The TV-set, with it's glass screen, shows a distorted view of the world before going dark. When lamps are turned off, i.e. become dark, they either have glass shades or stands. Otto checks the time on his pocket watch that has a glass plate, in the context of the film's symbolism an indication that it's not to be trusted, and sure enough the film deals with non-linear, cyclical time.

Of all the places Alexander has to fall off his bike, he falls into a reflecting puddle and there are various reflecting puddles elsewhere. Every floor in the film is polished for reflection.

And sure enough, when the house burns down, besides the flames the most prominent sound is that of glass breaking. With all the glass broken, Alexander is freed to see reality in it's naked form. In that sense, and this is quite an important issue, it is not so much the physical house that he sacrifices. The house symbolises his sanity. He sacrifices his sanity to experience God directly. But the dire consequence of this hubris is to be committed into an insane asylum. We see him one last time through glass, the windows of the ambulance, indicating that the natural order meant for mere mortals is being restored: the distorted reality that is the result of the human senses.

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Some great observations there, Tchoutoye

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I thought it bore a closer resemblance to The Passion of Anna.

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