Marcus Killerby
29Mar12
it is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity, and it exists between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. We call this dimension The Twilight Zone
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Displaying wall posts 1 - 30 of 42 in total
trolley freak
2May12
The tortured psyche of a troubled artist haunted by his past and struggling to find inspiration is explored in this intense Bergman drama. Ullmann gives the best performance in the film as she narrates the story of her husband von Sydow's disappearance from a windswept island after losing the battle to maintain his sanity. Expertly photographed by Nykvist, this surreal gothic horror film is confusing but intriguing..
Chris Jones
22Feb12
This movie reminds me a lot of Eraserhead, in that both transition seamlessly from having a general sense of unease to being a nightmarish assault on the senses. One of the most disorienting films I've ever seen.
comeandsee
6Feb12
it is at once strange, and typical bergman. infact i think bergman gets closer to dreyer than almost no one else with the intensity of the emotional performances, the beauty he finds in the anguish of the human face. the main performances are superlative, while the plot is strange, unpredictable and all the better for the surrealist comparisons.
Mr. Arkadin likes this
Guillermo Padilla
31Jan12
El tormento de un artista bajo los fantasmas aristocraticos, una musa perdida, una esposa idealista una isla en medio de la nada... Excelente pelicula de Bergman, me quedo con dos escenas: la del niño y el arrecife y la de la represntacion de la Flauta Magica y el discurso del artista, verdadera joya...
ramosbarajas
29Jan12
No other Bergman film has left me so perplexed. I watched the film, and I may have even liked it, but while watching, I could not help but think that there was something missing. The next major film following Persona, it feels different from all his films up to that point. Maybe I need a second view or maybe I didn't understand it, but for the moment, it is not one of my favorite Bergman films.
kaminix likes this
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kaminix
20Feb12
Vargtimmen (Hour of the Wolf) was actually written before Persona but since Bergman was hospitalized he didn't get around to releasing it until after making Persona. The two films are very connected and from the advice of Mikael Timm who recently wrote a biography on Bergman I'd advice to see them in conjunction and consider Vargtimmen to be "the dark side of Persona". Both are about two people fundamentally connected, in Vargtimmen it's a man and his wife and in Persona it's the nurse and her patient. Persona takes the concept a lot further and in my mind there's no doubt which is overall the best film. Vargtimmen on the other hand feels much more autobiographic than Persona as Bergman would frequently write in his diaries about ¯his demons¯ (both are artists fighting their own demons). The part where the husband tells his wife about the closet demon is something Bergman told Mikael Timm about his own childhood in an interview too. Indeed it would seem completely autobiographic, but one should never trust what Bergman says on the topic of himself so be cautious. :-) Hope this helps in understanding the film. :-)
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ramosbarajas
21Feb12
I have been thinking a lot about it recently and I feel that the 4 films he made are in the late 60s are deeply connected. Persona, Vargtimmen Skammen, and En passion... They all deal with similar themes, especially post modernist ones and self reference... the most interesting one being a scene cut from skammen appears in en passion. I ought to rewatch all of them consequently. I also feel persona is the best. I also picked up on the biographical references... he does that a lot.
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kaminix
21Feb12
I've actually yet to see both Skammen and En passion myself, but I've got some vague recollection about reading of these connections (at least for Skammen I'm certain to have read something, En Passion I think too but not 100% sure). Have you seen The Rite? It came before En Passion and I think you might found a lot stronger connections between that and Skammen. (though I'm only speaking from what I've read here, I haven't actually seen any of these yet) - thanks for the heads up though. I'll definitely keep this in mind when I watch them!
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ramosbarajas
22Feb12
No I haven't seen The Rite... It's rather hard to find the 'lesser' Bergman films. But yeah, I have heard that Skammen is the strongest of the four, after Persona. There are some articles dealing with the deconstructionism and post modernism present in the film... I think they help a lot with understanding the films....
dkarikomi
12Jan12
This is a honest, and I hope responsible question: Why didn't Johan leave the island if he was tortured by these "demons"? This questions is applicable to most Bergman films, I guess.
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kaminix
20Feb12
I don't think the island is very important. The thing with an artist being haunted by demons is much applicable to Bergman's own life (at least from what he wanted to show, he was by and large an in life). In his diaries he often talks about these demons and sometimes even used to write that he's "fasten the demons in front of the carriage" (crappy translation by me) as a means of being productive. The times in his diaries when he claims to be happy and unplagued by his demons are indeed the least productive times in his life.
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dkarikomi
27Feb12
I think the island is important. The simple questions--how and in what context did the couple arrive at the island?--are importnat to consider after the film. The film starts after the 'events' of the film have passed, so it makes you wonder what kind of events transpired before the couples arrival at the island. The island is the setting for many of Bergman's films--and Bergman himself had a strong connection with Faro, an island he spent much time on. Whether the island in 'Hour of the Wolf' is a metaphor for the artist's isolation from reality or something else, I don't think it was presented as prominently or profoundly as in 'Persona'. There is a subliminal understanding as to why the protagonist in 'Persona' cannot leave the island, and not necessarily as a result of her mental health. So, I still pose the question: Why didn't John leave the island? I'm not saying this question is not dealt with in the film, I just did not think it was handled with much investigation.
schiele
5Nov11
I wish this wasn't Bergman's only horror film, because, although with its slight flaws, I truly love it , and I always thought his cinematic style would work greatly with the genre.
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spectrelight
29Sep11
"The infection is constant -- worse, faster or slower towards the end. The resistance of the heart decides the outcome."
.AGNES.
30Aug11
"It is the hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are more real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fear, when ghosts and demons are most powerful. The Hour of the Wolf is also the hour when most children are born". This movie went deep into my psyche.
cauana likes this
Catarina Gomes
24Jul11
Bergman always makes you think and it's a welcome challenge to everyone who seeks a deeper meaning in things. This makes you think inescapably about love and how it's intensity or lack of it can arm. Loving less someone can protect him and you, but not loving enough may let us to live in constant dissatisfaction. In the end, one of them must be? Anywho, always a good cinematic experience if you enjoy to be confused.
João Pedro likes this
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Bijoux Alexanderplatz
5Feb11
Decidedly Bergman, yet with echoes of Bunuel and a precursor to Lynch. How could I not love it?
WhatsUpWill
28Jan11
Whether it was my mood at the time or the constant disorientation of the film, I felt very disengaged watching this one. Excellent imagery though and the biting scene is one of the best scenes Bergman has filmed.
Kyle Chiba
20Oct10
This messed with my emotions alot, the use of music and sound, the biting scene, the haunting atmosphere, I will definitely revisit this one.
allbutbrokenbones
27Aug10
Andreas Nilsson is creating a stage adaptation of this classic. Karin Dreijer Andersson (Knife, Fever Ray) is backing the play with a new score. Should be interesting. I expect them to take it in a new interesting direction. They certainly have a masterpiece to work with.
