Review of Serpent`s Egg, The

Introduction

Directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring David Carradine who featured in Kill Bill recently and Liv Ullman who appears in Bergman films regularly. This film was made in 1977 during a period of personal turmoil for Bergman.

Germany, the late 1920s with rampant inflation, Nazi bully boys and a couple of brothers who are out of work circus performers. One of them commits suicide and the other, Abel (Carradine) tries to come to terms with his death in the bizarre society he is living in. Mostly he drinks but he also hooks up with his brother`s ex wife who performs in a cabaret club. She feels sorry for him and tries to look after him. However as time goes on Abel becomes even more distracted, denying his Jewish heritage and then he discovers the horrors perpetuated by his benefactor at the hospital where he works.

Video

Sven Nykvist, the cinematographer, is another Bergman regular, his portrayal of mid twenties Germany is evocative. There does not appear to be too much print damage or dirt.

Audio

With a soundtrack that feels lifted from Cabaret this film gives us louche musical hall performances and Hitler youth hymns.

As to script-I`m still trying to figure it out and according to everything I`ve read I`m not alone.

Features

Just a basic disc with chapter content and subtitles available.
Having looked this up there is a region 1 Special Edition which has a commentary and a featurette on German Expressionism so I am surprised that region 2 has this basic release.

Conclusion

I just could not get to grips with this film at all, directed by Ingmar Bergman I expected something intriguing but I just got an achingly dull so-called murder mystery that I found painful to watch. Every so often I thought it might spark into life but it just got slower and slower until I could not remember what had happened in the previous scene. How many ways can I say that it was boring, uninspiring, tedious and tiresome-yes I`m running out of synonyms. It finally livened up and made some sort of sense in the last fifteen minutes but I think most viewers like me would have lost patience with it. If you are interested and want to save time in your life at the end of the film the phrase`serpent`s egg` is explained, it is because the egg is practically see-through and you can see the smake inside.

This is a hugely disappointing title from one of the greatest names in cinema from the 20th Century. The treatment of the decadent 1920`s was approached much better in `Cabaret` where the subtleties of the inhumanities to come were left just as hints. A moment in this film where the Hitler Youth sing felt like it had been recycled from that film and I felt the immdeidate desire to watch that instead. The plot such as it is takes an interminable age to develop and I felt that life was too short as I watched the clock ticking away.

For Bergman completionists only.