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dshrinet
Reviews
Smultronstället (1957)
Loneliness and memories from the past
What I feel about Ingmar Bergman, after the screening of his two films at the Suchitra Film society, Bangalore, he is a very complex film maker under his simple narrative style. He is a creator of complex characters. In his most acclaimed film Wild Strawberries, on the surface of narration you can't find anything special here. But you can easily find out a 'meaning' is there. Hope you can understand that I'm not using the word 'meaning' in a typical term.
Bergman is capable to make a feel of his 'meaning' in his film from beginning to end. In this film you can find two existential element parallel in whole narrative is loneliness and the memories from the past. Here unlike other existential movies the pathos runs into the generations.
Wild Strawberries in like an old poem. No wonder that Bergman tells us a story about old people or about those are growing to be old. Some youth are also in this plot but they creates a contrast and the darkness around the main character. It is very difficult to make a simple decision about Bergman and this is truth about all great filmmakers... isn't it?
Sommaren med Monika (1953)
The eyes of Monica
Summer with Monica is an extraordinary creation by Bergman. This is one of his earliest movies. In many ways this is a remarkable film of a great director.
Here we can find a key to understand the narrative style of Bergman. On the main surface of the story you can not find the meaning of the cinema. But this meaning is hidden behind the whole experience of the film.
The story begins with the beautiful days of summer in a coffee house. A boy meets girl and soon they fall in love with each other. Though they depressed with their present life but hopeful for the future. And one day they decide that this world is not enough for them and they go away by a motorboat.
And we find a beautiful series of images. The sky, the clouds, the sea, the shore and the sparkling laugh of youth. We can feel everything with this young couple, the sensuality, the laughter and the fear. One day we find that the things go on the wrong way. And they decide to go back their home.
Now the girl Monica is pregnant and after a series of events, where they get married and boy find a job, we find they become a parent of nice baby. This film has two remarkable close-ups in the history of cinema and one is there when the saw his baby first time. We didn't see in that scene instead-of his face. In this long, single-shot close-up you can understand that now everything is going to change.
And soon we find that Monica has no interest in her baby. She is not happy with his married life. She always lives in fantasies and hates the realities and responsibilities of the life. And one day she find her old boy friend and spends her days with with him.
Here we find one more extraordinary close-up. This is the close-up of Monica and she is seeing direct to camera mens we can feel the expression of her eyes and their a cloud of suspicion and uncertainty. After that in one more scene the couple quarreled with each-other and she left her home. In the last scene we find our hero again in front of a mirror in a coffee house like the first scene of the movie.
Kitaab (1977)
Kitaab was a special kind of movie
Years back, Kitaab was a special kind of movie directed by Gulzar. This is a gloomy and dark story of a boy, who is growing up and he try to understand the world around him. This is a journey of a boy in whole movie... not only the outside but also the inside of a child's psyche. I can't forget the presentation of very famous song in this film by RD Burmun, "Dhanno..." At that time, means 1977 there was a debate everywhere about the parenting and child psychology. This is a very different way that Gulzar presents in his movie. His point of view is entirely different from that concepts that was the the topic of debate in that time. In whole movie director thinks like a child. So you can understand how a child observes the world. A remarkable creation by Gulzar.