In hindsight, I don’t think it was wise to make Ingmar Bergman’s final film my first Bergman film. It’s a fundamental flaw of my “Movie Homework Month” I’m doing right now. I’m watching the movies with the highest scores on my Movie Watchlist. The points come from things like Oscar nominations, National Board of Review and AFI yearly lists, Greatest Films of All Time lists, and other such things. By the 80s, Bergman was an established legend, so of course his later films people would be more aware of for awards. I don’t think this was a great introduction to him though.
First of all, the movie is long. And it should’ve been longer. It was meant to be a mini-series and I watched the theatrical cut. This is a pretty movie, but pretty dull. It doesn’t have the striking direction that Bergman is known for. It’s more straightforward. A quick look at the reviews of it featured words like “warmth” a lot. I can see that. The acting seems pretty good too. I just wasn’t dialed in on this wavelength. Perhaps once I’m more accustomed to Bergman’s normal tone and rhythms, I can appreciate the departures in this. As is, this was very much vegetables viewing. I really need to get to playing chess with death first.
Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment