HOUR OF THE WOLF / VARGTIMMEN (1968)

Ingmar Bergman’s ‘other’ film from 1968, and something of an opaque puzzle next to the universal themes of war & death in SHAME.  Using visual references & obsessions framed in what even then was becoming unfashionably Freudian, we get a cartload of hard to crack, self-indulgent dreams from inside the mind of Max von Sydow’s stalled artist (alter-ego for you know who) at his island retreat with second wife Liv Ullman.  Unable to work and intellectually cannibalized by those decadent dilettantes on the far side of the island, their  offers of dinner, entertainment & rude intimacy a mixed blessing plagued by his fantastic mental revels.  It proves too much for our inhibited protagonist, nearing a breakdown.  Yet as indeciferable as this often is (movement in and out of dreams sometimes keyed to lenser Sven Nykvist upping film contrast/sometimes undetectable), it’s also uncommonly watchable under Bergman’s confident hand.  Alas, his earlier, more Jungian viewpoint, seen in films like THE SEVENTH SEAL/’57; THE MAGICIAN/’58; THE VIRGIN SPRING/’60, now firmly overtaken by Freudian emotional eruptions & finger-pointing.*

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: This link leads to all things Bergmanian on this site, along with a couple of ringers where he’s tangentially mentioned.  (Do the same for any favorite by typing any name into the little SEARCH Box at the Top Left Corner on the Full Site.) https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/search?q=ingmar+bergman

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *This excludes one-off late Bergman masterworks like FANNY AND ALEXANDER/’82 and Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE/’75.