The Serpent's Egg (1977)
Average Rating: 4.5/10
Reviews Counted: 13
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 10
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 3/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 2,442
Movie Info
The Serpent's Egg, or Das Schlangenei is director Ingmar Bergman's second English language production (The Touch was his first). It is, however, his first completely non-Swedish production, made after his voluntary self-exile from Sweden over taxation issues. Set in Berlin in the early 1920s, it explores the fear and despair the city evokes in Manuela and Abel Rosenberg (Liv Ullmann and David Carradine), two Jewish trapeze artists. The suicide of Manuela's husband (Abel's brother), has stranded
Feb 15, 1978 Wide
Feb 10, 2004
Cast
-
Liv Ullmann
Manuela Rosenberg -
David Carradine
Abel Rosenberg -
Gert Fröbe
Inspector Bauer -
Heinz Bennent
Dr. Hans Vergerus -
James Whitmore
The Priest -
Isolde Barth
Girl in guard uniform -
Paul Barks
Cabaret Comedian -
Toni Berger
Mr. Rosenberg -
Paula Braend
Mrs. Hemse -
Ema Brunell
Mrs. Rosenberg -
Gaby Dohm
Woman with baby -
Hans Eichler
Max Rosenberg -
-
George Hartmann
Hollinger -
Edith Heerdegen
Mrs. Holle -
Rosemarie Heinikel
Girl in guard uniform -
Grischa Huber
Stella -
Harry Kalenberg
Couil's Doctor -
Andrea L'Arronge
Girl in guard uniform -
Lisi Mangold
Mikaela -
Beverly McNeely
Girl in guard uniform -
-
Kyra Mladeck
Miss Dorst -
Hans Quest
Dr. Silbermann -
Charles Regnier
Doctor -
Walter Schmidinger
Solomon -
Fritz Strassner
Dr. Soltermann -
Glynn Thomas
Monroe -
Glynn E. Turman
Monroe -
Hertha von Walther
Woman in street -
Wolfgang Weiser
Civil servant -
-
Heino Hallhuber
"Bride" -
Gunther Malzacher
Husband -
Paul Burian
Experiment person -
Emil Feist
Cupid -
Ellen Umlauf
Hostess -
Christian Berkel
Student -
Renate Grosser
Prostitute -
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All Critics (13) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (10) | DVD (4)
The Serpent's Egg lacks both the strength and depth of Bergman's major work. By going outwardly international, the master becomes perilously close to becoming shallow as well.
Bergman's paranoia runs dementedly and tediously out of control.
A melodrama that never quite makes any connection to the characters within it.
The movie is a cry of pain and protest, a loud and jarring assault, but it is not a statement and it is certainly not a whole and organic work of art.
Ingmar Bergman comes very close to camp in this 1977 study of life (or lack thereof) in the decaying Berlin of the 20s.
Bergman's magic lantern now documents horrific experiments
It's an awkward, damp and barren film with miscast stars and filled with pretentious dialogue.
The Serpent's Egg (1977) was Bergman's only English-language film, and it's also one of his most bitterly depressing and impenetrable.
A heavy film, but lacking the insight of much of Bergman's other work.
By now ripe for rediscovery and reappraisal as an intensely personal work unlike anything else in Bergman's filmography.
A rare Bergman misfire.
In spite of the film's obvious differences from Bergman's earlier work, it nonetheless explores many of his favorite themes, particularly from the "island" films.
Audience Reviews for The Serpent's Egg
Super Reviewer
On the one hand we have what would appear to be a straight, historical melodrama documenting the brutal decadence and oppression of the pre-Second World War Weimar Republic, and the struggle within this world of rising power, industry and an ever-changing political climate of the tortured artist attempting to make ends meet. With this angle, the film also attempts to chart the lingering air of violence and conflict left over from the First World War, whilst also prefiguring and foreshadowing the violence, guilt, hate, deceit and paranoia that would eventually follow with the inevitable rise of the Nazis. This aspect of the film is perhaps less in keeping with the kind of work that Bergman was producing during this era, with the generic, historical aspect obviously showing through; taking the emphasis away from the characters and the duplicitous games that they play with one another when rendered in a claustrophobic, purely psychological state. This idea has defined the majority of Bergman's best work, with the simplicity of the story and the unpretentious presentation of two people simply existing within the same limited emotional space, which is too often lacking from the presentation of the film in question. With The Serpent's Egg, Bergman attempts to open up his world, creating a fully functioning universe of characters and locations that jars against the (ultimately) personal scope of the narrative.
Through punctuated by a couple of scenes of incredible violence, the earlier scenes of the film could be taken as a fairly dutiful stab at an almost Hollywood-like historical film, before adding this whole other (narrative) layer in the second act that seems to conspire to pervert the story into a tortured, Kafka-like nightmare of fear, paranoia and dread. Here the film becomes interesting, because it gets to the root of Bergman's talent for exploring a path of personal despair and abject horror in a way that easy to appreciate on an emotional, psychological level. The film becomes more closed-in, as the locations are used more sparingly; the characters whittled down to the bare minimum, stressing the power games and confliction between the central couple and their seemingly perfunctory antagonist in a way that is reminiscent of a film like Shame (1966). As the story progresses further, we realise that the antagonist character is far from the token, mechanical villain, as Bergman introduces themes that tip the film into the realms of science-fiction, and yet, stories of this nature and urban legends are abundant when looking at the period leading up to the tyranny of Third Reich, and in particular the "work" of people like Josef Mengele and Horst Schumann amongst others.
This second half of the film ties the themes together in such a way as to overcome the central flaws of the film, which are numerous and seem to be the result of Bergman working towards the American market and in language that wasn't his own. There are some incredibly effective sequences, but too often, the script falls flat or the performances are allowed to wander. Many also attribute the lead performance of David Carradine as a reason why the film doesn't quite work, and although I'm a fan of Carradine and his slow, laconic persona that was put to such great use in a film like Kill Bill (2003), he does seem woefully miscast and at odds with the kind of expressionistic examinations that Bergman's work required (I can't image the original choice of Dustin Hoffman working much better either). Ideally, the film would have definitely benefited from the appearance of, say, Max Von Sydow, but it's not like Carradine is terrible. His heart and spirit are in the right place, and his continual appearance of pained confusion and eventual desperation seem to fit the continual stylistic juxtapositions of the script and are used well by Bergman, as both the character and the actor become puppet-like caricatures in a way that makes sense within the drama.
Although The Serpent's Egg is, without question, a flawed work, it is not without merits. The period detail of the production and costume design and the atmosphere that Bergman evokes is fantastic throughout, while the second half of the film, with its lurid desperation and escalating sense fear and obsession makes sense within the context of Bergman's career as a whole. Some of the images have the power and the potency to remains with the viewer long after the film has ended; while the significant horror of the film, and the roots with both pre and post war German history are, as far as I know, unique in contemporary cinema. Often a rather ugly, brutal and depressing film, The Serpent's Egg is still required viewing for Bergman fans, even if it does pale in comparison to his far greater works.
Super Reviewer
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Foreign Titles
- The Serpent's Egg - Das Schlangenei (DE)
- The Serpent's Egg (Das schlangenei) (UK)


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