The Hour of the Wolf (original Swedish title: Vargtimmen) is Ingmar Bergman's spin on the demons that plague his fellow creative artists. Max von Sydow plays a painter who, while spending a summer in seclusion with his pregnant wife Liv Ullmann, is visited by bizarre and disturbing visions. Before long, Ullmann is also experiencing her husband's hallucinations; one of these, an old, faceless woman, advises Ullmann to read Von Sydow's diary. Doing so, Ullmann discovers that her husband has been
cheating on her with Ingrid Thulin. In the subsequent domestic squabble, Von Sydow shoots and wounds his wife. The artist's punishment for this behavior is to have his lover, now dead, spring back to life and humiliate him in full view of Ullmann. Hour of the Wolf has something to say about the dangers of artists becoming too self-centered and self-involved; one hopes that most artists are not as thoroughly punished (or punishable) as Max Von Sydow. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
If we allow the images to slip past the gates of logic and enter the deeper levels of our mind, and if we accept Bergman's horror story instead of questioning it, Hour of the Wolf works magnificently.
This 1967 effort is one of Bergman's most outlandish, with its pack of ghouls and its heavy suggestions of exhibitionism, necrophilia, and homosexuality -- a magnificent failure.
In Hour of the Wolf Bergman asserts the impossible nature of relationships, the ultimate inability of two people to live together without destroying one another.
Hour of the Wolf deals with the haunting of creatives and artists and the effect it has on others. Indeed, the film has a very haunting quality about it too which Bergman has opened up to the audience in a way that only a master film maker can do. Max von Sydow plays the aloof painter well but it's Liv Ullmann as his
suffering wife who really steals the show. Shot, like much of his work around this time, in the cold desolate coastline to great effect. Not my favourite Bergman film at all but a great horror film and a huge influence on the generation of film makers to come. I wonder if Rosemary's Baby was influenced by Hour of the Wolf?
as with many bergman films, i toiled for some time to find a worthwhile and redeemable interpretation, but thankfully, this one gained a slight amount of clarity by the end. not in line with bergman's more masterful works, but not as bad as his overdone floundering films either. some of the dialogue was interesting
and max von sydow was convincing as usual.
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