VL 'Stokely's dog' 49.1

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

I think "Wild Strawberries" is a great road movie. The depiction
of "modern youth" (the hitchhikers) is quite affected, though. But
Victor Sjöström's performance may be the finest portrayal of old
age in film. And there's also...Ingrid Thulin... (who also figures
in "The Magician" - on one level a metacommentary on the status of
fictitious art, especially cinematographic art, in society).

"Smiles of a Summer Night", one of the best comedies in cinema, is
not only Renoiresque, it's Ophülsian too. So fin-de-siecle Viennese
(cf. Schnitzler and the rest of *Young Vienna* - and AtD). And
Shakespearean. At the same time, unique.

BUT. Not all "Bergman Lite" films are masterworks. For instance,
"All These Women" (1964) is not a good film. It desperately tries
to be funny, sure.


I'll hold off my judgement on VL until I've finished it for a 3rd
time.


Heikki


On Mon, 15 Dec 2008, Henry wrote:
> Yeh, I was thinking of including "The Magician," and even "Summer with
> Monika" as examples of extreme brilliance and beauty without obvious, i.e.
> mid-depth, gravitas.  The Magician, for example, deals with god and the
> paranormal universe as earthboundly as possible.  I do need to give Wild
> Strawberries another chance, as I loved it when I was a teen, but I've
> questioned its value as I matured.  I was so much older then...
>
> Henry Mu
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robin Landseadel
>
> I've seen a lot of Bergman. Have you ever seen what Bergman did with
> Mozart's "Magic Flute?" One of my all-time faves and every bit as
> mannered as "Vineland."
>
> I do love "Smiles of a Summer Night" and the way it echos some of Jean
> Renoir's pastoral work. Bergman's little seen "The Magician" manages
> to echo some of the dark themes about faith in "Seventh Seal" but is
> altogether different.
>
> Similar, perhaps with lines that lead more towards "Against the Day,"
> Bergman's "Fanny & Alexander" manages to be both more monumental and
> in some way more personal and bound up with memory, time and the not-
> so distant past than "Seventh Seal" and "Persona."
>
> Thanks for chiming in, Henry. It would be a pity if all that Pynchon
> came up with was Gravity's Rainbow, great as it is.
>
> . . .like, say, Beethoven's 14 quartet in c-sharp minor---one of his
> peaks.
>
> On Dec 15, 2008, at 3:58 PM, Henry wrote:
>
> Have you ever seen Bergman's "Smiles of a Summer Night?"  Not as long or as
> "heavy" as Personna or The Seventh Seal, but it's beautiful nonetheless.
> It's like comparing a quartet to a symphony, they may be the same length,
> but while the density of and width of a quartet may be less, it's height may
> surpass any orchestral works.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/bergman-on-amazon
>
>
>