The film I selected to watch second during #SeptemBergman was Sawdust and Tinsel. Just as Summer with Monika, Sawdust and Tinsel was released in 1953, and was the second Ingmar Bergman film Woody Allen was exposed to, so I've taken the lead from him as far as beginning this project. I did not enjoy Sawdust and Tinsel nearly as much as Woody Allen did. This is going to be an entry in Ingmar Bergman's filmography that I appreciate, rather than enjoy.
On an overcast and grim morning, the circus rolls into the town where the ringmaster's family lives. The ringmaster, Albert Johansson (Åke Grönberg) hasn't seen his wife or two sons in three years. Albert gives off the impression that he loves the nomadic life the circus offers whereas his wife, who hated that life, decided to stay behind and establish roots. Albert has since taken a mistress, Anne (Harriet Andersson) who is desperately against the idea of Albert visiting his estranged wife and sons, as she believes he will use the reunion as a way of getting out of the circus. Jealous, hurt, and looking for a way out, Anne visits another traveling group in the same town and is seduced by an actor who promises her a rich life because he is in possession of an expensive necklace. While Albert visits his wife and learns he is not welcome to return to his family, Anne finds out the necklace is worthless. Both are stuck in the same position as when the audience first meets them, broken and dejected, stuck with the circus and with each other.
Several times in Sawdust and Tinsel, Bergman uses silent film techniques which so alter the tone of the film, I struggled to get back into the narrative each time we returned to the plot advancement. Typically, I enjoy methods like this, but they didn't work in Sawdust and Tinsel. The circus metaphor--where the emotions and deepest feelings of human beings are revealed was striking. Bergman's camera got increasingly closer to each subject as more of their desires were exposed. The film is a tough watch, full of humiliation and despair where we continue to see characters humiliated and broken in a worse manner than the previous character was humiliated and broken. The symbolism was nice, and Bergman, being the talented director he was, layers the film in subtlety never losing faith in his audience.
On an overcast and grim morning, the circus rolls into the town where the ringmaster's family lives. The ringmaster, Albert Johansson (Åke Grönberg) hasn't seen his wife or two sons in three years. Albert gives off the impression that he loves the nomadic life the circus offers whereas his wife, who hated that life, decided to stay behind and establish roots. Albert has since taken a mistress, Anne (Harriet Andersson) who is desperately against the idea of Albert visiting his estranged wife and sons, as she believes he will use the reunion as a way of getting out of the circus. Jealous, hurt, and looking for a way out, Anne visits another traveling group in the same town and is seduced by an actor who promises her a rich life because he is in possession of an expensive necklace. While Albert visits his wife and learns he is not welcome to return to his family, Anne finds out the necklace is worthless. Both are stuck in the same position as when the audience first meets them, broken and dejected, stuck with the circus and with each other.
Several times in Sawdust and Tinsel, Bergman uses silent film techniques which so alter the tone of the film, I struggled to get back into the narrative each time we returned to the plot advancement. Typically, I enjoy methods like this, but they didn't work in Sawdust and Tinsel. The circus metaphor--where the emotions and deepest feelings of human beings are revealed was striking. Bergman's camera got increasingly closer to each subject as more of their desires were exposed. The film is a tough watch, full of humiliation and despair where we continue to see characters humiliated and broken in a worse manner than the previous character was humiliated and broken. The symbolism was nice, and Bergman, being the talented director he was, layers the film in subtlety never losing faith in his audience.