★ 8 / 10
Now is when most nightmares come to us
John Chard
Now is when most nightmares come to us... Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen) is written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It stars Max Von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Gertrud…
Now is when most nightmares come to us...
Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen) is written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It stars Max Von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Gertrud Fridh, Georg Rydeberg and Ingrid Thulin. Music is by Lars Johan Werle and cinematography by Sven Nyquist.
While vacationing on a remote Scandanavian island with his younger pregnant wife, an artist has an emotional breakdown while confronting his repressed desires.
Is this really Ingmar Bergman's only genuine horror movie? I would argue that pretty much most of his movies have horrific elements. That said, this one is haunting in its dissection of a fragmented mind, to see the unravelling of an artistic persona tortured by repression, doubt and a nightmarish world that he, or us, are not sure exists or not.
When Bergman was at his pomp, he had this knack of drawing in his audience to be part of his plays, so it be here. Sydow yet again gives his all for his director, absolutely sinking into the role of troubled artist Johan Borg. Ullman (playing pregnant and genuinely pregnant with Bergman's child), yet again hits all the emotive discordant notes of a woman in love but fearful of where both her sanity - and that of her husband - is heading.
As Johan's drawings start to take on disturbing overtones (we don't see them, he narrates to his wife but we get the picture), we then get pulled into Bergman's world of flashbacks and the question of reality or nightmares?. Here the director unleashes his weapons of choice, human demons - grotesques, all cloaked magnificently by cinematographer Nyquist who once again follows his leader down the road of chilly expressionism.
Alma (Ullman) quite early on announces that couples who are together for so long start to resemble each other, so is it any coincidence that as things reach fever pitch Johan is wearing lipstick? Are we to buy into the notion that Sydow's character's under Bergman are in fact his alter egos? Does it matter? No it doesn't, for Bergman is a fascinating director (I personally don't like all his films), what you do come away with is a feeling of being invaded mentally - and joyously so. 8/10
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★ 8 / 10
dark and haunting portrait of one man's inner demons
cheese_cake
a man moves to a remote island with his wife. he cannot sleep at night and is tormented by inner demons. the film tracks this madness of his. excellent…
a man moves to a remote island with his wife. he cannot sleep at night and is tormented by inner demons. the film tracks this madness of his. excellent performances by max snydow and liv ullman. the cinematography is beautiful and precise. as is usual with bergman's films, it is not clear on first viewing what the movie is all about. why the man is tormented, is a mystery, at least to me.
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★ 9 / 10
Torture, Torment & Trauma...
Xstal
Johan can't escape from traumas past, he's tormented, harrowed, provoked and harassed, his mind is playing tricks, it tortures, taunts, afflicts, leaves him…
Johan can't escape from traumas past, he's tormented, harrowed, provoked and harassed, his mind is playing tricks, it tortures, taunts, afflicts, leaves him confused, muddled, perplexed and aghast.
A surreal overflowing meltdown, full of symbolism, abstraction and confusion, as the artist Johan Borg struggles to cope with the visions and apparitions that haunt his disturbed being. Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman once again present us with characters from the imagination of Ingmar Bergman that exist in an alien world, or at least one most of us are quite unfamiliar with (thank goodness), in a piece of cinema, like so many others from the director, that need revisiting whenever you get the chance, if for no other reason than to see what you missed previously.
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It really is a shame English subs are not included. These are great copies.