Category Archives: Gunnar Björnstrand

#49 Favorite Film, 1957 Films, Art, Bengt Ekerot, Bibi Andersson, Drama, Favorite Film of the Year, Gunnar Björnstrand, Gunnel Lindblom, Ingmar Bergman, International, International Drama, Max von Sydow, Swedish, Top 100 Films, Top 250 Films, Top 50 Films

The Seventh Seal-1957

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The Seventh Seal-1957

Director Ingmar Bergman

Starring Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand

Top 250 Films #49

Scott’s Review #497

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Reviewed October 23, 2016

Grade: A

The Seventh Seal (1957) is an Ingmar Bergman Swedish masterpiece that, after three mere viewings, I am just beginning to appreciate and fall in love with.

It is not that I did not “get” the dark, artsy theme to begin with- I did, but The Seventh Seal is a savory dish meant for repeated offerings, and with each, I have loved it even more.

The subject matter of the plague and the Black Death is heavy.

It is a quiet yet powerful, dark art film about death.

The film is shot in black and white, which does nothing but enhance the cold, stark concepts of the film. The color would have certainly made the film cheery or bright- if that can be said, given the subject matter.

Instead, the filming is cold yet illuminating, and the whites seem very white, while the blacks seem very dark, which symbolizes the film’s concepts.

In the story, a disillusioned medieval knight, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), returns home from war, disenchanted with life. He fought in the Crusades and returned home to Sweden to find it plagued by the Black Death.

He begins to play a game of chess alone- and is visited by Death- a hideous pale creature shrouded in black. Antonius challenges Death to chess- his fate is left so long as the game continues.

Throughout the film, Antonius is the only character who can see Death- the other characters cannot, making the film open to interpretations.

The other characters in the story are a troupe of actors that Antonius meets along the way to his castle, and a young, fresh-faced girl who has been branded a witch and is fated to be burned at the stake is featured.

Since she is close to death, Antonius takes a particular fascination with her.

Throughout the film, as well as the trials and tribulations of the characters, Death continuously lurks around, watching these characters, which is a fascinating part of the film. They cannot see him, so we can only assume their time in this world is limited.

What makes The Seventh Seal so powerful is its honesty—harsh as it is. The knowledge that death is coming for these people is fascinating. Many characters discuss God in length and pray, as religion is an enormous aspect of the film.

It almost contains a good vs. evil, God vs. devil component, and again, important to stress, highly open to interpretation. Great art films are.

Numerous scenes reverberate and are significant iconic moments in film history decades later. The scene of Antonius and Death playing chess on the beach is chilling and ghost-like. Death- his pale face and a black cloak would frighten anyone. This scene has been referenced numerous times over the years.

My favorite is the inevitable final shot of peasants being led to their fate by Death. They are pulled begrudgingly by a rope reminiscent of the Pied Piper titled “Dance of Death.”

The individuals are dressed in black and are atop a hill surrounded by the sky, making the morbid scene highly effective.

The Last Supper scene is powerful, and the group enjoys the final meal, unsure of what fate has in store for them the next day.

I anticipate more viewings of this brilliant piece of filmmaking.

#82 Favorite Film, 1957 Films, Bibi Andersson, Drama, Gunnar Björnstrand, Gunnel Lindblom, Ingmar Bergman, Ingrid Thulin, International, International Drama, Max von Sydow, Swedish, Top 100 Films, Top 250 Films, Victor Sjöström

Wild Strawberries-1957

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Wild Strawberries-1957

Director Ingmar Bergman

Starring Victor Sjostrom, Bibi Andersson

Top 250 Films #82

Scott’s Review #1,111

Reviewed February 10, 2021

Grade: A

A seventy-eight-year-old man (Victor Sjostrom) reflects on life, loss, and a million other emotions as he ponders his inevitable death in the Ingmar Bergman masterpiece Wild Strawberries (1957).

The film’s melancholy tone forces viewers to imagine themselves in the older man’s shoes and wonder how senior citizens view death. One significant point is that it represents the geriatric demographic, which has traditionally been lacking in cinema.

It’s cerebral and reminds me of A Christmas Carol since an older man struggles over his forgotten and sometimes misbegotten youth.

Bergman creates genius on par with his most famous work, The Seventh Seal, also released in 1957. I’d list these two films as his very best and most inspiring.

Do older people fear death?  Do they whimsically revisit their youth from time to time, or do they live with regret and unfulfilled desires?

My hunch is that it’s probably a bit of all.

Wild Strawberries made me think like the older man and the effect was powerful. They made me worry about my death and relive my glory days.

Isak Borg (Sjostrom) begins to reflect on his life after he takes a road trip from his home in Stockholm to the distant town of Lund to receive a special award. Along the way, a string of encounters causes him to experience hallucinations that expose his insecurities and fears.

He realizes that his choices have rendered his life meaningless, or so he perceives it.

He is accompanied by his daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin), who doesn’t like Isak too much, is pregnant, and plans to leave her husband. They meet a trio of friendly hitchhikers led by Sara (Bibi Andersson), who reminds Isak of the love of his youth.

A bickering couple reminds him of his unhappy marriage, while his elderly mother reminds him of himself.

The best part is when the group stops at Isak’s childhood seaside home and imagines his sweetheart, Sara, with whom he remembered gathering strawberries but who instead married his brother.

Anyone who has returned to their childhood home or neighborhood can easily relate to the powerful memories. I pretended I was in Isak’s character, and several emotions occurred.

Sjostrom infuses a natural range of emotions. At first, crotchety and distant, I admired his sentimentality as he fondly recalls innocently picking strawberries on a summer day. How glorious and innocent it is to reminisce in a mundane yet monumental act.

Although he was an older man, he was once young. How quickly the years pass. I took this as a lesson to appreciate each day and experience. Sjostrom had me mesmerized.

Some find Izak unsympathetic. I found him incredibly likable.

Relationships are a strong element of Wild Strawberries. Izak muses over past loves, his mother, daughter-in-law, housekeeper, and hitchhikers. Peculiar is his relationship with his housekeeper, Agda, who is played stunningly well by Julian Kindahl.

Are they secret lovers or platonic friends? They seem like husband and wife.

While the story is astounding, the visual qualities of Wild Strawberries are exceptional.

The video content is crisp and clear, with very bright black-and-white photography. Each shot is mesmerizing and reminiscent of paintings.

There is so much going on in Wild Strawberries. The closest adjectives to describe the experience are hallucinogenic and mesmerizing.

The people gathered over a meal were young, fresh, and carefree. They all have lives ahead of them, and almost every viewer can recount a time when they felt that way.

It’s both nostalgic and sad to realize it doesn’t last, as Bergman makes so painfully evident.

The scene where Isak witnesses a hearse approaching is terrifying. When he realizes it is himself lying in the casket, it gives one a chill. The scene is creepy and powerful in tone and effect.

Wild Strawberries (1957) explores many facets of the human experience, including sorrow, joy, depression, acceptance, frustration, and fulfillment.

This is a work of genius and is highly recommended to anyone who appreciates excellent experiences in cinema.

Oscar Nominations: Best Original Screenplay

1961 Films, Best International Film Oscar Winners, Drama, Gunnar Björnstrand, Harriet Andersson, Ingmar Bergman, International, International Drama, Lars Passgård, Max von Sydow, Swedish

Through a Glass Darkly-1961

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Through a Glass Darkly-1961

Director Ingmar Bergman

Starring Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow

Scott’s Review #1,377

Reviewed July 15, 2023

Grade: A

I recently acquired a robust Ingmar Bergman collection featuring over three dozen of the great director’s works, so I have much introspective filmmaking to look forward to.

Considered visionary, influential, and many other stellar adjectives, his films are personal and human. They are frequently dark and not easy to watch, but the payoff is significant for the patient cinephile.

His 1961 work, Through a Glass Darkly (1961), tells the story of a schizophrenic young woman, Karin (Harriet Andersson), vacationing on a remote island with her husband Martin (Max von Sydow), novelist father David (Gunnar Björnstrand), and frustrated younger brother Minus (Lars Passgård).

She has been released from the hospital and plans to enjoy the summer tranquility at the family’s quaint cottage.

She slowly unravels as the reality sets in that she may not get better, and the family is aware of this.

The story is told in a brisk twenty-four-hour period and consists of only four characters. It is structured as a three-act play that runs for ninety-one minutes.

Let’s remember that mental illness was not as advanced in 1961 as it is decades later. Most who suffered from it were tossed away into a ‘loony bin’ and quickly discarded from society.

Delving into such controversial and unpleasant territory in 1961 deserves enormous accolades.

The brilliance of Through a Glass Darkly is how Karin realizes her mental illness and its fateful ravages. She is aware of what’s happening to her and that she will never recover. After all, the hen’s mother also had a mental illness.

Her rich characterization is powerfully played by Andersson, who stands out in the film. This could be because of Sven Nykvist’s cinematography, but sometimes Karin looks like a little girl and, at other times, a haggard older woman.

I wonder if Bergman was trying to show the parallel between Karin and her mother.

Speaking of the camerawork, as in Bergman’s films, the black-and-white style only enhances the quality of the picture. The contrast between black and white and the frequent close-ups of the characters reveal glowing and ghostlike facial images.

I champion shots like this because they enrich the visual perspective and shift away from the story.

Andersson is not the only excellent actor; second place belongs to Björnstrand as the father. His character is a writer and deeply pained. Revealed to have tried to commit suicide,e he is riddled with guilt, regret, and desperation.

Von Sydow is decent as Karin’s husband, but the actor has much better Bergman roles to reflect on. Any cinema lover will associate the great actor with The Seventh Seal (1957).

Towards the end of Through a Glass Darkly, I didn’t quite connect the dots when the characters go into detail about how god is equated with love.

I focused on Karin and the other characters coming to terms with the fact that she would go to an asylum and never return.

What Bergman does so well in Through a Glass Darkly is making the audience envelop the characters, accepting and feeling their pain. I despair with Karin when she imagines a spider emerging from the walls and crawling on her.

Of course, the audience doesn’t see what Karin imagines, which makes the scene much scarier than if Bergman had shown a giant spider.

One’s imagination is always worse than what is on the screen.

Requiring patience and a deep dive into despair, Through a Glass Darkly (1961) is worth the work. Lovely beachside images and beautiful sunlight mix perfectly with anguish and depression, creating an intimate experience.

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-Best Foreign Language Film (won), Best Original Screenplay

1968 Films, Art, Bibi Andersson, Drama, Feminist, Gunnar Björnstrand, Gunnel Lindblom, Harriet Andersson, International, International Drama, Mai Zetterling, Swedish

The Girls-1968

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The Girls-1968

Director Mai Zetterling

Starring Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson

Scott’s Review #404

70052262

Reviewed May 11, 2016

Grade: B+

The Girls is a 1968 Swedish film that is political, surreal, dreamlike, and feminist. These may seem like too many adjectives to describe a movie, but they all happen to be warranted and work to categorize it, which is tough- it is a complex film.

The film left me deep in thought about what I had just viewed- that is a positive for me.

Directed by Mai Zetterling, a woman, the film is told from a female perspective and is quite tricky to follow. However, the message portrayed is a compelling thought of a woman repressed, whether in reality or fantasy, by men.

In my attempt to describe The Girls accurately, it appears to feature a boys-versus-girls element throughout, told by the girls. The plot centers around three women: Liz (Bibi Andersson), Marianne (Harriet Andersson), and Gunilla (Gunnel Lindblom).

The women are hired to star in a touring production of Lysistrata, and each faces conflict and concern over leaving their respective families, but for differing reasons.

Liz’s husband, who is having an affair, cannot get rid of her soon enough. Marianne has recently dumped her married boyfriend. Gunilla has four children and suffers from guilt.  All of the women are very friendly with each other.

All three principal actresses are familiar to eagle-eyed Ingmar Bergman fans as each of them has appeared in numerous films of his-in very different types of roles.

Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal (both 1957) feature these actresses.

The women go on tour and have various surreal experiences based on the play in which they are stars. The film, made in black and white, has very overexposed cinematography. The blacks and the whites look very sharp, and this is no doubt done deliberately.

On the surface, it would appear that the women hate men and yearn to be free of them. Is that the point of the film? It seems to go in other directions as well. Do they hate their lives and feel confined with men and free without them, when they are touring their play?

How do they feel about their children? Do they miss them on tour, love them, resent them, or perhaps a bit of each? They yearn to be free of restraint.

We are treated to numerous scenes that seem to be a dreamlike state or a fantasy of one of the women. One runs through the forest and comes upon a grizzled, dirty child on the ground. Is it hers? She then sees her husband sitting in a living room chair in the middle of the forest.

The symbolism resonating through The Girls is countless. We also see the women fantasize about a handsome, young man. Are they tired of the doldrums- looks and otherwise- that their husbands have caused them?

Many political protests occur throughout the film. In one, the women march in unison- Nazi-style and chant. In another, the women lead what appears to be a charge of women-suffragette style, until the women start attacking each other and punching and kicking each other in the streets.

These scenes and countless others are tough to analyze, but perhaps this is the point. I decided to escape into the film and not try to figure out what everything meant.

Fantastic to see the exterior scenes shot in Stockholm, Sweden, which reminds us what a liberal, democratic city it is. Yet the women are repressed. Made in 1968, during the sexual revolution, the film’s timing is perfect.

The Girls (1968) left me pondering the story and the viewpoint, and I will need further viewings for the film to sink in more successfully and for me to get it, if I ever do, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

The film is the kind of film that requires further viewing to understand. I look forward to watching this film again, which is high praise.