Rêve de femmes

Ingmar Bergman making a film with characters in a daze as to what to make of their indiscretions in their affairs with men, what a surprise! Maybe there's too much sarcasm in that sentence, and perhaps for the period Bergman was working in (pre Seventh Seal) it's a little too close to a target to make. Bergman was the best at it, so it's not a knock: Dreams is another in one of his probing examinations, however in a manner that almost suggests he wasn't putting as much time and effort into the script as usual (in an interview he said he didn't consider it very highly in his oeuvre, and had some bad memories of his time with Harriet Andersson with their personal relationship, coincidentally her character has a rough break-up early in the picture). But saying that Bergman wasn't putting *as much* time and effort is suffice to say that he still makes it very intriguing, very entertaining (in that suffocating-dramatic Bergman sense where you can feel all humanity sucking out of the room and back in again with every beat in some scenes), and with a take on the sexes that allows for some probing hard to see in other movies.

We're given two women who work in the fashion photography profession, one a model (Andersson) and the other a producer/director type (Eva Dahlbeck). At the start we get right into a claustrophobic sense of unease for these girls set right by the tone of a man in the room- a fat man tapping his fingers while waiting for a shot to set up, and then once again on another one. Tension spills out in the dressing room, the engagement off between Andersson and her fiancée. Meanwhile, Dahlbeck calls her lover who can't come to the phone for long. After this Bergman starts to play a sort of trick on the viewer: what happens to these women with their respective men, is it dream or reality? Andersson's situation is that she's looking at dresses through the outside windows, and an old man (Gunnar Bjornstrand, with a nice old-man beard that isn't too shabby) offers to buy her the dress, jewelry, whatever she wants. To display the generational gap she asks for chocolate with whipped cream and- as something I thought I'd never see in a Bergman film- a rollicking trip to the amusement park to ride rollercoasters and shift through a haunted house.

This all seems to be leading to a note that suddenly becomes all the more clear, and I wondered "what gives?" if this was Bergman presenting dreams. Perhaps he means in the more fragmentary sense of "well, these women have dreams of some men, but... these aren't them". This leads to Dahlbeck's scenes which are a good, sharp contrast to Andersson's. With the latter there's some blocks where the two don't talk (she puts on a record that spins some cool jazz as the two dance a little and have a silent-movie repore with champagne), and for the former it's what some fans of the late Swedish filmmaker love more than anything: characters in personal agony over not realizing a personal connection, through lots and lots of dialog. What's impressive here isn't so much the performances per-say, which are a little cold, but how much restraint Bergman has with the camera as this situation with Dahlbeck's cold professional (she fires Andersson at one point for being late with the old man) turns into a fool-hearty tug-of-war of emotions between an equally cold wife of Dahlbeck's lover. If there is any one juicy section in Dreams, and not counting specific scenes like when Dahlbeck has her head out the window of the train (which is very beautifully executed), it's this one.

Somehow Bergman pulls out a semi-happy ending, if not without a bit of a coda as to what may happen with these still emotionally entangled souls. If only the structure somehow was worked out a little better (I'm not sure how I could criticize it more than that- even a flaw from a genius is still a genius move, if that make sense) it would be a great film. As it stands there's a lot of greatness in the film, only to feel very slightly like an excellent minor work. Still, stay tuned for little winks to the audience, like a rare Hitchcock type cameo (strange considering Bergman's opinion of the director), or a mention of the last time Bjornstrand's lonely rich old man saw a movie- 1918- which is Bergman's year of birth. 8.5/10

I really liked this lesser-known Bergman film. More properly translated as The Dreams of Women, the film stars Eva Dahlbeck and Harriet Andersson as a photographer and her model. The two travel to a location shoot, and the story splits in two as each has their own romantic misadventure. Andersson is admired by an older, rich man (Gunnar Bjornstrand), who buys her all kinds of nice things. Eventually, she follows him back to his home where she learns of his troubles. Dahlbeck contacts a married man with whom she was having an affair (Ulf Palme), and when the two meet Palme's wife shows up to disrupt the assignation. The Dahlbeck segment is pretty typical Bergman, but, of course, it's beautifully done with some fantastic acting by Dahlbeck. I thought the Andresson/Bjornstrand segment was just wonderful. I think this might be Bjornstrand's best performance. Certainly very high up there. I also really loved Kerstin Hedeby, who plays Bjornstrand's daughter. This may feel like a small film in Bergman's career, but it's an excellent small one. The laid-back style, especially the long, wordless sequences, reminds me more of the Italian films of the period than of Bergman. This certainly would be better regarded if it were directed by Visconti or Antonioni. 9/10. YES.

This film explores the emotions of love affairs that are ultimately doomed, hopeless dreams if you will, in a pair of interwoven stories. In one, the owner of a modeling agency (Eva Dahlbeck) has been dumped by the married man she's had an affair with for a year, but finds she can't give him up and keeps pursuing him. In the other, one of her models (Harriet Andersson), freshly after having broken things off with her boyfriend, is approached by a man old enough to be her father (Gunnar Björnstrand), who begins showering her with presents. There is something very sad in the characters of Dahlbeck and Björnstrand - she's a strong woman who is reduced to practically begging for crumbs of affection from a man who's decided to stay with his wife, and he's an affluent man who deludes himself into thinking he's young enough to start a relationship with a young woman. They are both touching and yet pathetic, and they begin to realize this through the eyes of others who confront them - in Dahlbeck's case, the man's wife, and in Björnstrand's, his estranged daughter.

Ingmar Bergman was 37 when he made this film, on his third marriage and just transitioning from an affair with Harriet Andersson to one with Bibi Andersson. Just as in the films that sandwich it, A Lesson in Love (1954) and Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), it deals with themes of love, marriage, and longing. It seems likely that he drew on his own experiences, and while the confrontation with the wife in this film seems staged, the dialogue and emotions of these characters is incredibly honest and authentic. Dahlbeck and Andersson are both terrific, perfectly capturing their characters, and they lead a strong cast. Dahlbeck's scene on the train, where she opens up the window and puts her head out into the rain, stands out, and I liked the playfulness of seeing Andersson on the rides at the amusement park. Andersson played a variety of roles for Bergman, e.g. young lover, tomboy, bombshell, schizophrenic, model, and maid all come to mind, and I love how she seems to effortlessly slip into all of them, while at the same time, projecting a certain spark and great screen presence. Bergman balances the playfulness and magnetism with weighty themes of pathos, and it's a combination I find irresistible.

A very minor Bergman work, the film has traces of his style, especially in the first few scenes with quick edits and close-ups to draw attention to detail, as well as a well-filmed roller coaster ride. However, the screenplay does not match the quality of the directing, with basically two stories that do not gel all that well together. What the film is meant to be a study of is never clearly focused, with themes of desire as well as women's liberation both present. The middle section of the film dragged a little too, but still it is interesting to see such an early piece of work from Bergman. It is not much compared to what would later come in his career, but the film has enough interesting elements to certainly make it worth a look.

Ingmar Bergman's early film Dreams (1955), beautiful but sadly underrated and little known, presents the stories about two dissimilar women and their loves, and touches on all the timeless and tough realities of torment, longing, loneliness, and aging in a simple and sublime way. Everyone who ever was madly and desperately in love and for some reasons could not be with the object of their longing should appreciate this film. Speaking of making Dreams, Ingmar Bergman comments, "By this time Harriet (Andersson) and I had terminated our relationship, and we were both feeling quite sad. Our sadness weighs down the film". Bergman regulars Harriet Andersson and Eva Dahlbeck (both will play in the same year's Smiles of a Summer Night, a very successful and sparkling Bergman's comedy) portray two women, the owner of a model agency, Doris (Dahlbeck) and her top model, Susanne (Andersson). A major figure in Ingmar Bergman's films of the 1950s, Eva Dahlbeck was stunning - an elegant, poised, sophisticated classical blonde beauty with high intelligence and the talents in acting and writing.

Harriet Andersson was discovered at the age of 20 by Ingmar Bergman who made especially for her screen debut the film "Summer with Monica". Extraordinary and versatile as an actress, her roles ranged from the naive young girls with erotic charisma to the young woman losing her grip with reality in Through a glass darkly (1962) to the fearless breakthrough performance as a dying woman in Cries and Whispers. In Dreams, she is absolutely charming. Camera loved her - sexy, sweet, and innocent, she lit the screen in her every scene.