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MOVIES / ON DVD / THE SERPENT'S EGG
The Serpent's Egg

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The Serpent's Egg (1978)

18%
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61%
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N/A
18 %
Reviews Counted: 11 Fresh: 2  Rotten:9 Average Rating: 4.3/10

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins

Synopsis: This unusual political drama by Ingmar Bergman was filmed at Bavaria Film Studios in Munich during the director's exile from Sweden after encountering problems with tax officials back home. THE SERPENT'S EGG, a big-budget German-American coproduction, was Bergman's second work in... This unusual political drama by Ingmar Bergman was filmed at Bavaria Film Studios in Munich during the director's exile from Sweden after encountering problems with tax officials back home. THE SERPENT'S EGG, a big-budget German-American coproduction, was Bergman's second work in English after THE TOUCH and is set in 1920s Berlin, shortly before Hitler's rise to power. Abel (David Carradine), a Jewish trapeze artist, and his late brother's wife, Manuela (Liv Ullmann), a cabaret performer and part-time prostitute, are forced to seek employment at a medical clinic run by Dr. Vergerus (Heinz Bennent), because other work is hard to come by in the poverty-stricken and inflation-prone city. But Abel and Manuela's financial problems are overshadowed by a gruesome discovery: the mad-scientist-like Vergerus is secretly conducting human experiments--foreshadowing the horrors of the concentration camps. Carradine was considered miscast by many critics who didn't know quite what to make of this film. Nightmarish and gripping, it depicts the political turmoil, ever-increasing Nazi brutality, and general moral decay of the time period in vivid, graphic images. Bergman has admitted to being a follower of Hitler's in his youth, and some have speculated that this film, deviating from the director's usual subject matter, represented an act of repentance of sorts. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Liv Ullmann, David Carradine, James Whitmore, Gert Frobe

Director: Ingmar Bergman

DVD Info

Release:

Feb 10, 2004

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen - 1.66

Audio:

  • Mono - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - 1. David Carradine - Star
  • Featurettes - 1. "Away From Home"
  • 2. "German Expressionism"

Text/Image Galleries:

  • Photo Gallery

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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1 - 12 (sorted by date)
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Ratings Image
C+

It's an awkward, damp and barren film with miscast stars and filled with pretentious dialogue.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/14/07
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
08/11/07
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
Ratings Image
N/A

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/07
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
2/4

A heavy film, but lacking the insight of much of Bergman's other work.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/29/06
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Ratings Image
4/5

By now ripe for rediscovery and reappraisal as an intensely personal work unlike anything else in Bergman's filmography.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/22/06
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
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N/A

Bergman's paranoia runs dementedly and tediously out of control.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/09/06
Derek Adams
Time Out
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1/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/04/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
2/5

A melodrama that never quite makes any connection to the characters within it.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/09/05
Vincent Canby
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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2/5

A rare Bergman misfire.

comment Comment
03/31/05
Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)
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1.5/4

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/23/04
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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Ratings Image
N/A

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/14/04
Leo Goldsmith
Not Coming to a Theater Near You
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N/A

Ingmar Bergman comes very close to camp in this 1977 study of life (or lack thereof) in the decaying Berlin of the 20s.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
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