Visage de femme

"A Woman's Face" starred Ingrid Bergman in Sweden; in the U.S. MGM gave the lead role to Joan Crawford when Greta Garbo turned it down.

It's the story of Anna Holm, a scarred woman, both physically and emotionally, who is in league with crooks and blackmailers. During a botched blackmail/robbery of a cheating wife, Anna falls, hurts her ankle, and comes under the care of the woman's husband, who reconstructed faces injured in World War I.

Well, it's Ingrid Bergman, and as rotten as she looks as the brittle, bitter disfigured woman, at 23 she was a goddess once her face was repaired. She takes a job as a governess to a little boy in a wealthy family, a position originally arranged by her team - and the orders she is given by them are nefarious.

"A Woman's Face" is the story of a woman changed by being able to love and accept love. The MGM version and the Swedish version are both dramatic, exciting, and hold one's interest.

Both films are very good, with the supporting cast at MGM superior to the Swedish one. After all, you can't beat Conrad Veidt when he's evil. Bergman and Crawford have different takes on the role, as you can imagine. Bergman is more pathetic - she is made to look dreadful, and she's more subtle and vulnerable in the role. Crawford has the MGM treatment so her deformity is less; she has the bitterness and strength of the character down in a more overt performance. I enjoyed both actresses.

The sound was off in the Swedish version, which gave me a headache. I couldn't figure out if the dialogue was five minutes behind the action, or if there were sections with no sound and lips moving. A little of both, I think. Nevertheless, it was well worth watching.

Before I write this review, I must confess that I watched the Hollywood version of this film (with Joan Crawford) before I took a look at this one. Personally like to watch the remake before the original, to see how well it stands on its own as a film.

A Woman's Face stood damn fine on its own as a film- true, I am a fan of Crawford and not a //huge// fan of Bergman (I liked her in some roles, i.e. Cactus Flower and Gaslight, but wouldn't consider her a favourite), but the Hollywood A Woman's Face definitely is not a bad film. And neither is this one. I enjoyed both immensely. They were both wonderful- comparing the acting styles of Bergman and Crawford is like comparing a fish to an apple. They're definitely not the same.

There are some differences between En kvinnas ansikte and A Woman's Face (well, der, one's in Swedish and one's in English) other than the performances of the respective leads in their respective films: En kvinnas ansikte is much less lushly produced, but the dialogue oddly seems much more stilted in places.

There is no romantic attachment between the doctor and the character of Anna Holm in this version, but there was in the remake (minor spoiler). The sleigh ride where Tornsten Barring tries to kill Lars-Erik is much more disastrous in this version as well- in the remake, Crawford gets to wield her revolver. As well, this story is told all in a straight line, whereas the remake is faintly film-noiresque in that it starts in a courtroom and the story is told through flashbacks. Neither film has an outright happy ending.

Bergman is much better in the second half of this film than she is in the first. True, her scar makeup was more grotesque than Crawford's, but at the same time it looked more artifical. She looked like Gollum on one side and Ingrid Bergman on the other.

I also don't buy Ingrid Bergman as embittered or menacing, so her transition was a relief, because she actually got to do some acting. I bought Anna Paulsson the newly moraled governess more than I did Anna Holm the bitter gangster when Bergman was playing them. She is given a lot of lush closeups and flattering camera angles (think there was some soft focus in there).

One flaw the film does have is that some of the supporting actors are rather hammy (watch the film and you'll see which ones I mean). As well, while the cinematography is excellent, the editing isn't. Those are very minor things. I also did feel that there was a bit of a lull in the film about halfway through, but now I'm nitpicking.

Overall, highly recommended. Watch the original and the remake back to back.

There were two reasons for seeing this Swedish version of 'A Woman's Face'. Absolutely love Ingrid Bergman, a beautiful woman and a very expressive actress that shows in so many of her performances. Another was to see how it would compare to the Joan Crawford film from three years later. Have also always loved and been fascinated by foreign films and there are so many great to masterpiece Swedish films, namely by one of cinema's greatest directors Ingmar Bergman.

Comparing the two versions of 'A Woman's Face', both of them are very good in their own way. Don't overall one version is better or worse than the other, even if one version does things better than the other version. The Crawford film had the better supporting cast (nobody here does acting equal to or better than Conrad Veidt), ending and direction. While Bergman's got going quicker and there is a slight personal preference for the more subtle while a touch more intense tone, her more brutal-looking disfigurement and the starker, which really worked for the atmosphere, production values (though the Crawford film looked wonderful still in its own way). Comparing Crawford and Bergman, they are completely different approaches but both embody their roles and are about equal again in their own way.

Excepting Anders Henrikksen and Tore Svennberg, who were both empathetic and gave all they got, for me the supporting cast didn't stand out really and that did hurt the film a bit. Do agree with another commentator that George Rydeberg was very bland and his character underdeveloped.

Felt that the film felt slightly too short perhaps too.

Loved though the comparitively stark but also atmospherically effective production values, the landscapes not as beautiful but just as foreboding. It suited the dark story very well. The film is strongly directed too, keeping things taut, the atmosphere tense enough and not letting the film get too melodramatic. The pace isn't too leisurely at the beginning and the story stays compelling up to the ending, which is one that is hard to forget, and nails the atmosphere, which is dark and subtly tense yet with an emotional core. The script provokes thought and felt very honest, liked too that it doesn't ramble or feel over-literal.

As with Crawford's version, the lead character is initially reprehensible with her embittered personality, yet with the change of heart it is hard to not feel a degree of empathy. Her disfigurement is brutal and disturbing, more so in my opinion than Crawford's. The portrayal of anger and self-pity was handled very honestly and with great candour, something that will be relatable today, this was handled better in this version. 'A Woman's Face' however is Bergman's film, twenty three years old and the intensity, embittered self-pity, pathos, honesty and nuance she brings to her role is suggestive of her having acted for years before.

In conclusion, very good film with an awful lot to recommend. 8/10

They say this version is not very different from the American remake three years later, but it's not true. Only the basic structure and skeleton are the same. This is an entirely different story of an entirely different character, and Ingrid Bergman is entirely different from Joan Crawford. Actually these two different versions of the same story compliment each other just by their differences, and both have advantages to the other version. George Cukor's direction is more efficient and professional, while this Swedish version is more formal and almost documentary in its straight story-telling. There is no murder trial here and no murder, as there is no villain like Conrad Veidt, and the villain here (Georg Rydeberg) is rather an amateur whose schemes fail by sheer bad luck. The American version is more striking in its grandiose dramaturgy, it is a better written script, while this Swedish version more carefully follows the original French novel. Most would prefer Ingrid Bergman in this role though to the more imposing Joan Crawford. Bergman gives a very special touch to her character by her total conversion from a cold-blooded ruthless gangster spitfire to a very soft motherly heart of great sensitivity. This could be criticized as hardly convincing, but it is the core of the drama: a woman changes character by acquiring a face for the first time in her life after earlier having been doomed as a monster by her disfigurement. The role of the doctor is also more interesting here (Anders Ek) who is perhaps the most interesting character of all, finally setting out for mission work with the Red Cross in China, giving the film a completely different end than the Hollywood version. In brief, both versions are of supreme lasting interest, both for the sake of Joan Crawford and Ingrid Bergman and for their very different twists of the tale.

What a wonderful film to discover on TCM Imports. A textured and powerful performance by a very young Ingrid Bergman, and sterling work by a great cast. Everyone plays their part perfectly and the writing is stellar. The details of the story are not important. It's the amazing acting by Bergman that will stay with me long after seeing this film. I've rated the film a 9, but Ingrid's performance is a solid 10. Highly recommended for lovers of good film.