Monthly Archives: November 2015

Sawdust and Tinsel (Gycklarnas afton)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Written by Ingmar Bergman (uncredited)
1953/Sweden
Sandrews
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Anne: I can crack nuts with my teeth too.

Frans: Now I’m scared.[/box]

This is a stunningly photographed film.  There is a little too much cruelty and humiliation for my taste but sometimes that’s just Bergman.

It is maybe 100 years ago in Sweden.  Albert Johanssen owns the traveling Alberti circus. The circus has fallen on hard times and was forced to leave half its costumes in the last town to pay off some debt.  Albert lives with the much-younger Anne (Harriet Andersson).

The film begins with one of the performers telling another about an incident that happened some years before.  This story is photographed in almost surreal, but very beautiful, blindingly bright light.  The wife of a clown, an aging beauty, goes swimming naked with a bunch of soldiers.  Her husband comes to get her.  When they emerge from the water a boy has stolen their clothes and the clown must carry his naked wife home over rocky ground in his bare feet.

When the circus arrives in the next town.  Albert and Anne go to try to borrow some costumes from the resident theater troupe.  One of the actors tries to seduce Anne but she refuses him in a humiliating way.

Albert’s wife lives in the town and he dresses up to visit her and his sons over Anne’s strenuous objections.  In spite, she goes to the theater and looks up the actor.  He is more successful in seducing her this time, bribing her with a supposedly valuable necklace. Albert tells his wife he wants to return to her but she won’t take him back.  He spots Anne coming out of a goldsmith’s shop and immediately suspects she has been unfaithful.

Humiliation, cruelty, and despair follow but life goes on.

This is a beautiful, interestingly shot, and well-acted film.  It simply was not enjoyable for me.  I think it’s a personal thing and that many Bergman fans might love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnzXSxuwrcs

Clip

The Adultress (Thérèse Raquin)
Directed by Marcel Carné
Written by Marcel Carné and Charles Spaak from the novel by Emile Zola
1953/France
Paris Film Productions/Lux Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

“They dared not peer down into their own natures, down into the feverish confusion that filled their minds with a kind of dense, acrid mist.” ― Émile Zola, Thérèse Raquin

I was not really looking forward to this, expecting it to be a melodrama based on my reading of the Zola novel.  I was very pleased to find that Carné had changed the plot and given us an excellent and very dark film noir.

Therese Raquin (Simone Signoret) leads a dreary existence keeping house and helping out in the store of her mother-in-law.  Therese was an orphan who was brought up by her aunt and then married her cousin Camille.  Camille is a thorough mother’s boy and spends most of his time being coddled for various real or imagined illnesses.  One day, truckdriver Laurent (Raf Vallone) takes Camille home after a drinking session.  He falls in love at first sight with Therese.  It takes him awhile, but eventually they begin an affair.  He begs Therese to leave with him for Italy.  She refuses, not wanting to hurt Camille.

So Laurent confronts Camille.  Camille is not about to let Therese go.  He finally persuades her to go to Paris with him for three days to visit his aunt.  He says that if it still doesn’t work out he will let her go.  In reality his plan is to lock Therese up at his aunt’s house.

Laurent finds out about the trip and gets on the same train.  Camille discovers his wife talking with Laurent and begins an argument.  Laurent impulsively throws Camille off the train.  The rest of the movie explores the sad consequences of the murder and includes the appearance of a blackmailer.

I don’t think Signoret ever gave a bad performance and she is just fantastic in this.  I like her clear-eyed calmness here.  The other acting, especially by the supporting players, is excellent.  The film has some of the feeling of Carné’s pre-war work such as Port of Shadows and Le jour se leve.  It won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Recommended.

Clip

The Return of Don Camillo
Directed by Julien Duvivier
Written by Julien Duvivier, René Barjavel, and Giuseppe Amato
1953/Italy/France
Les Films Ariane/Filmsonor/Francinex/Rizzoli Film/Amato Film
First viewing/Netflix rental

Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is. — Hans Urs von Balthasar

If you are looking for something charming and gently amusing, this might be just your cup of tea.

At the end of the previous film, Pepponi Battazi (Gino Servi), the Communist mayor of a small Italian town complained to the bishop when Don Camillo, the parish priest, threw a table at him.  The bishop responded by sending Don Camillo to another parish.  It turns out that this parish is in a village high in the Alps that cannot be reached by road.  Don Camillo does not fare well there.  For one thing, the crucifix in the church does not speak to him.

Pepponi isn’t faring too well either.  The local people refuse to be born, get married or die without their favorite priest.  Pepponi also needs Camillo’s assistance to convince a stubborn landowner to allow a dam needed to protect the village to flood a portion of his property.

So Don Camillo returns and the two resume their friendly war of wills.  The priest needs his bell tower repaired and withholds his assistance until he gets the money to do this.  Then we more or less get a humorous look at life in the village.  While ideology and religion continue to collide, in a clinch the people, not least the priest and the mayor, can be counted on to support one another.

This is another entertaining slice of life in the series.  I think I preferred the first film but enjoyed this one as well.

Trailer (no subtitles)

The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan
Directed by Sidney Gilliat
Written by Sidney Gilliat based on The Gilbert and Sullivan book by Leslie Bailey
1953/UK
London Film Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime

For he himself has said it,
And it’s greatly to his credit,
That he is an Englishman! – from HMS Pinafore, lyric by W.S. Gilbert

If you love Gilbert and Sullivan as much as I do, you will likely love this biopic.

This is the story of the sometimes uneasy collaboration of W.S. Gilbert (Robert Morely) and Arthur Sullivan (Maurice Evans) who created many beloved comic operettas during the second half of the 19th Century.  The film explores the tensions arising from Sullivan’s continuing ambition to write serious classical music.  The story is liberally interspersed with scenes from the operettas.

This film is not as lavish nor as perceptive as Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy (1999), which I really loved.  Nonetheless I was thoroughly entertained and would recommend the film to fellow devotees of the protagonists.

Clip – from a performance of HMS Pinafore in the film