::
films
::
theatre
::
television
::
radio
::
writings
::
repertory co.
|
|
The Magic Works of Ingmar Bergman is now located at www.bergmanorama.com. Please update your bookmarks. Thank you for visiting!
SAWDUST AND TINSEL
(1953)
Acknowledging the influence of Dupont's Variety�one of the keystones of German expressionism, in which marriage was seen as a perilous high-wire act�Bergman here employs the circus as a metaphor for the humiliating hoops through which men and women are put by their sexual dreams and desires. Heavily masochistic in its anguished account of the futile attempts of an ageing circus owner (Gr�nberg) and his steely young mistress (Andersson) to escape the dreary limitations of their mutually destructive involvement, it isn't exactly prepossessing in theme. But visually it is a treat, with Bergman's richly baroque compositions and persistent use of deep focus brilliantly exploiting the circus and theatre settings. And the performances are first-rate. (Tom Milne, Time Out)
|
| Original title: |
Gycklarnas afton ["Evening of the jesters"] |
| Other title: |
The Naked Night |
| Production: |
Sandrewproduktion |
| Distribution: |
Sandrew-Bauman |
| Premiere: |
14 September 1953 (Grand, Stockholm) |
| Running time: |
93 minutes |
| Aspect ratio: |
1.37:1 |
| Language: |
Swedish |
| Filmed: |
on location in Arild, southern Sweden, and at Sandrews Studios, G�rdet, Stockholm; from spring to early summer 1953. |
|
|
|
| CREDITS |
| Producer: |
Rune Waldekranz |
| Director: |
Ingmar Bergman |
| Screenplay: |
Ingmar Bergman |
| Cinematography: |
Hilding Bladh, Sven Nykvist |
| Art Direction: |
Bibi Lindstr�m |
| Music: |
Karl-Birger Blomdahl |
| Editor: |
Carl-Olov Skeppstedt |
|
| REVIEWS |
|
"Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, the film is set in the circus world at the turn of the century. It opens with a flashback shot on different film stock: a clown's wife�a dumpy, middle-aged woman�bathes exhibitionistically in view of a whole regiment of soldiers; the clown comes and takes her away. From there the story moves to the circus owner, �ke Gr�nberg, and his voluptuous mistress,
Harriet Andersson; this swinish Circe betrays him, and is in turn betrayed, and they go on together. The atmosphere suggests E.A. Dupont's 1925 film, Variety, with Emil Jannings, but has upsetting qualities all its own. There is an erotic scene between
Miss Andersson and Hasse Ekman, as a seducer-actor, that leaves audiences slightly out of breath. The Naked Night is one of the bleakest of Bergman's films: no one is saved from total damnation; life is a circus, and the people are gross clowns; it is a round of frustration, humiliation, and defeat. Yet this heavy, mawkish Expressionism, of a kind widespread in Germany in the 20s, was extraordinarily popular with young Americans in the late 60s."
� Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies
|
home :: biography :: career :: gallery :: news :: links
|
|
