Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Synopsis: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY won Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for the second year in a row. (It was preceded by THE VIRGIN SPRING, which won in 1960.) The picture represents Bergman's first experiment with what he referred to as the chamber play, featuring... THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY won Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for the second year in a row. (It was preceded by THE VIRGIN SPRING, which won in 1960.) The picture represents Bergman's first experiment with what he referred to as the chamber play, featuring only four characters whose configuration resembles that of a string quartet. Karin (Harriet Andersson), a young woman recently released from a mental institution, is on holiday on a secluded island with her father, David (Gunnar Björnstrand), a writer; her husband, Martin (Max von Sydow); and her younger brother, Minus (Lars Passgård). The presence of her family, who are caught up in their own problems and unable to offer her the love and emotional support she requires, proves detrimental to Karin's mental condition instead of bringing about her recovery. Soon she is undergoing an emotional crisis, culminating in the memorable hallucinogenic episode in which she envisions God as a spider. This was the first film of Bergman's trilogy of faith--which also includes WINTER LIGHT and THE SILENCE--though this is a concept discredited later on by Bergman himself, who ultimately saw few thematic links among the three movies. [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Harriet Andersson, Max Von Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Lars Passgard
DVD Info
Release:
Jun 29, 1994
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
A film in search of profound truths that it can only hint at having caught glimmerings of, and it's a truly remarkable experience.
The first of Ingmar Bergman's bleak but outstanding films from his trilogy of chamber plays about faith, alienation and the emptiness of life.
[Features] The usual fine performances from Bergman's regulars combined with a script that is not as ponderous as much of the director's other works.
Preserving a strict unity of time and place, this stark tale of a young woman's decline into insanity is set in a summer home on a holiday island.
Mr. Bergman has laid out the materials upon a narrow and forbidding plateau and has got some magnificent performers to give light and shadow to it.
A truly thoughtful and moving film about human nature and (of course) man's struggle with a higher power.
Despite its flaws, the film is enjoyable, intelligently constructed and technically remarkable.
News
posted by Sara Schieron July 30, 2007
Ingmar Bergman, the "poet with a camera," died in his sleep at his home in Faro, Sweden Monday at the age of 89. The...


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