Review of Ingmar Bergman: The Collection

Introduction

I received just two discs as a representation of what appears to be a very impressive set indeed; `Dreams` (1955) which turns out to be a quirky melodrama rather than the predicted surreal dreamscape that I was expecting (like `Hour of the Wolf` for example), and `Faro Dokumant 1979`.

DREAMS

The `dreams` that the title refers to are really the crushed aspirations of all four principals. The movie opens with an anxiety charged scene where an uptight (but beautiful) fashion photographer oversees the shooting of a young model. It is their separate (and rejoined) stories that follow in the narrative.

By the time `Dreams` was slated, Bergman already had some 14 films under his belt, and quite a reputation. But great art doesn`t necessarily equate with great profit and for `Dreams` he had promised the financiers a light and quirky comedy. The promise was good enough to realise some first-class production value. The cinematography and settings in the movie are very stylish and there`s an upmarket feel to the movie rarely displayed in his later works. It`s almost full Hollywood gloss. However, Bergman didn`t keep his part of the bargain and produced a quirky but soul-searching melodrama that was extremely light on laughs.

Essentially the story is about crushed dreams. In the first instance unrequited love as Susanne (the photographer played by Eva Dahlbeck) who, now in her late thirties remains obsessed with a married lover determined to end their affair. Despite a spark of hope during the narrative, all hopes are later dashed as the man`s wife arrives to claim back her man. The second arc is about crushed opportunities when a sugar daddy lavishes gifts and attention upon the undeserving model (Harriett Anderson) only to cruelly revoke them towards the film`s end.

In a sense the male protagonists are losers too. The married man also feels passionate about Susanne though the pull of his family and daughters proves to be too strong and he is forced to choose which aspect of his life to lose. The elderly sugar daddy loses too as he is merely seeking the excitement that his brief dalliance with the young model brings to his bleak existence (he has a mad wife and incorrigible daughter). It`s as if he is woken from a dream when his daughter arrives home to find him entertaining the model and, seeing himself through his daughter`s eyes, he calls an end to the affair.

Though not seen as one of Bergman`s better works by critics (hence the delay in its release) it is nonetheless a captivating and enchanting piece, easy to watch and thoroughly involving, raising questions about the human condition that will resonate for days afterwards.

FARO-DOKUMENT 1979

The second disc received was the intriguing `Faro-Dokument 1979`, originally produced for television. Following on from an earlier documentary (`Faro-Dokument 1969) this `ten years on` documentary covers a year in the life of inhabitants of this bleakly remote Swedish island.

Bergman was fascinated by the island and in 1973 decided to make it his own home. In fact he made some of his most haunting dramas there including the excellent `Hour of the Wolf`, `The Passion of Anna` and `Skammen`.

According to this completely compelling documentary, Faro has just 637 inhabitants, with every chance that will shrink further. Bergman shot the movie and wrote and spoke the narration himself (in Swedish).

We see aged farmers battling daily against the cruelty of the elements and the seasons. We hear about the impact of tragedy like fires and deaths, as well as some of the hopes and dreams of the population. We see breath-taking scenes of natural beauty, tinged with a harshness that humbled the inhabitants who were constantly at its mercy.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the film was the revisiting teenagers filmed ten years earlier to see where they ended up. Most had left the island for life in the City; though it wasn`t clear that life was necessarily any better there.

Life is perhaps best summed up by the mother and father of nine children who all narrowly escaped death in a fire when their home and all its contents were cruelly lost because the mainland fire rescue teams missed the ferry. The story is so painful that neither can speak about it without a tear welling up in their eyes.

Life is hard on Faro but despite this there is a terrifying and melancholic beauty too.

Though pretty standard documentary making, Bergman still manages to create an incredibly thought-provoking piece out of what is actually a fairly minute story.

Video

The condition of `Dreams` is very satisfying and it seems to be a nice transfer too with rich blacks and no signs of blocking. `Faro` looks a little tired now though was probably shot on 16mm (standard for TV documentaries of the time) which is a bit prone to a sort of grain unpopular in our digital TV age.

Audio

Digital Mono 2.0 and very reasonable on both discs viewed, though clearly variable from one to the other for obvious reasons.

Features

On `Dreams` there are two trailers (`Persona` and `Autumn Sonata`). There are also text-based filmographies for Ingmar Bergman, Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Björnstrand. Nothing on the other.

Conclusion

This 30 Disc Box Set is an enticing prospect for any fans of the `Director`s Director`, arguably the single most influential auteur of the Twentieth Century (and not much happened on film before that). This may be an incomplete collection, and certainly omits some of his best (presumably through licensing issues) it nonetheless looks like a pretty comprehensive sampling of his work.

Whilst Bergman is never a barrel of laughs, his films generally offer a richly rewarding experience, with frequently breathtaking cinematography and incredibly vivid accounts of existential breakdowns, or surreal dreamscapes connected by only the tiniest thread with reality. His choice of actors is always impeccable, with some of the finest performances ever committed to celluloid, despite being delivered in an alien tongue. Without Bergman there would be no Lynch, no later Woody Allen, and a whole genre of cinema would possibly remain unexplored.

Though I have seen only a few of those included in this set (and very few of the early films which are here in great measure) the two previously unissued discs received by this reviewer as a taster of the set were intriguing indeed, both brilliant in their own way.

This will be an expensive acquisition for those who wish to buy it, and may prove ultimately frustrating as it covers only a part of the prolific Director`s output, and a seemingly random selection at that (no rationale for this particular selection is offered). The two unpublished discs may please completists though this will prove to be an expensive way to acquire them.

I admire the commercial courage of Tartan to issue such a set with a clearly limited potential market, and I hope that most this initial run find suitable homes.