Die Hörige

Hugely enjoyable drama. The tension builds inexorably in Jan-Erik's battle with Caligula the dictatorial Latin master. One begins to swoon when the heat finally breaks and the storm rolls in. Watch for (now stock) lighting and shadow effects.

In contrast with his best friend at school, who cites Strindberg's and Nietzsche's cynical views on women, Jan-Erik Widgren considers himself an idealist, who believes there's a chaste woman out there for him. But the adolescent schoolboy's first love proves to be a loose girl he finds stumbling around drunk one night. They become lovers, even though she has another man in her life - a man she says bullies and torments her. Meanwhile, Jan-Erik is poised to fail at school, thanks to a sadistic schoolmaster - a browbeating teacher of Latin whom all the boys refer to as Caligula.

The title sequence promises a thriller, and there are sequences that seem prepared to fulfill that promise; but it never quite pans out. The story never quite pans out as satisfactory drama either, despite some acute observations by the wiser characters and good performances from everyone. Ingmar Bergman's script comes off like gleeful revenge against an actual schoolmaster he knew.

The best thing about the movie is the gorgeous black-and-white photography from Martin Bodin, under Alf Sjöberg's direction, filled with sinister shadows of domineering figures and clutching hands and low angle shots revealing shadow-strewn ceilings.

Torment, one of the first winners of the grand jury prize at Cannes, brings forth Ingmar Bergman's first screenplay to fruition (he was only in his mid twenties when he wrote it). Although it might not be apparent, as it is an early work and it would be another dozen or so years before his true cinematic high-watermark, it is the work of an already gifted writer, in tune with what drives drama. It's sometimes hard to make moving drama out of school-life, but Bergman gets it right in that he focuses it on three characters (with the occasional stern but really good-hearted older professor character). Our protagonist, filled with enough inner conflict and aimlessness, is Vindgren played with great ambivalence, fear, and subdued passion by Alf Kjellen. He gets mixed up in a romantic affair with a woman, Bertha (Mai Zetterling, seductive even as being vulnerable) who feels abused and need some compassion from him. But, as it goes with such a practically bleak and (dare I say) naturalistic story, things are not good for either one.

Bergman and the wonderful director Alf Sjoberg, get a terrifying performance (albeit if it is sometimes two-dimensional, or maybe not) by Stig Jarrell, who plays Vindgren's manipulative, "old-school" tormenting teacher, who also happens to be attached, so to speak, with Bertha. The link drives Vindregn into the kind of despair that makes the film, in the end, really work. There's also something very curious about how the script is so precise, so dark and occasionally shocking for a film from 1944 sometimes in the guise of a romantic melodrama. Bergman knows these characters, so much so that what occurs at the least stays true to what is known to be their characters. Change occurs slowly, if at all, and with the professor especially there is a great kind of push and pull that Jarrell does- at times he's like a little puppy trying to get sympathy for 'being sick', but it's all just a guise.

Torment, in the end, is an excellent, near-great film about what it's like for the "rotten apple" of the bunch. Vindgren isn't a bad kid, but the pressures from schoolwork (nearing graduation no less) on top of his seeming love-affair with a woman more scrambled up by her relationship with the professor, things boil over. The last twenty minutes are at times totally heart-wrenching, reaching the depths that Bergman would plunge even further to with his masterpieces in the 60's and 70's. But Sjoberg goes just at the limit, which is a plus and minus, as he tries to make it appealing for the period (with Hidling Rosenberg's musical score quite fitting at times), with some interesting, expressionistic lighting techniques that add that fine coat onto the subject matter. That Bergman/Sjoberg also make the regular school-scenes believable, and even put in some interesting bits with supporting characters (the nerdy kid has a couple of good scenes, though the scene stealer is the teacher-to-teacher talk where the good tries his best to face down the bad), is of equal merit.

In short, Torment, what first set off the little spark for Bergman's career (and likely provided Sjoberg with one of his best films) is worth looking for, if at the least for Bergman fans wanting to check out all of his films, but one may find it to be one of Bergman's most searing early works.

Considered as a legendary coming-of-age work for Swedish film-making, and I can clearly see why: Scripted by Ingmar Bergman, it's a psychologically intriguing drama of morals and authority abuse, with a thriller aura, that's effectively placed in a high school setting.

Two of its story- and directorial strengths are: 1. Not turning into a standard young-lovers-on-the-run melodrama as I feared along the way. The two harassed youngsters indicate romance, indeed, but are mainly portrayed as identity strugglers on the brink of adulthood. 2. Painting a believably two-dimensional portrait of the tormentor - is he sick... or just plain evil? We also get a captivating look at school & teaching methodology. Great scene in the map room!!

And by a 1944 standard, it holds a surprisingly fresh, naturally flowing dialog for my Swedish ears! Stark B&W photography that is reminiscent of Hitchcock, contributes to its emotional tension, as well. I think the old Master would have loved making this!

7 out of 10 from Ozjeppe.

While I believe the film to be a bit formulaic and is at the beginning of Bergman's career (of course he's the screenwriter here), this did captivate me for the most part. It has a level of intensity, mostly built by the psychotic Latin teacher. Any of us who have been in a class run by a tyrant, can feel our flesh crawl. The classroom scenes are really provocative and unsettling. When he shows that little smile, we know he is in much greater control than we realize. The biggest weakness for me was the whole thing with the shop girl. Why wouldn't she name her tormentor? How far had this relationship gone. We aren't privy to tender moments between the lovers, so we mostly see her as an unstable drunk, living in constant fear. What was the attraction. Was it strictly carnal. Was he sorry for her or taken with her in a kind of "Human Bondage" way. Anyway, I thought their relationship needed a great more. It is uplifting in its own way, however, and deserves a viewing. It really works pretty well.