Skammen

I don't recall a film which so deftly shows the emotional destruction of war, as mirrored in one single marital relationship. The focus of the film is the union between Ullman and Von Sydow--the two are in every scene. Through the course of the film, they experience a role reversal--one has the strength of survival and the other is reduced to emotional escapism through dreams. Both will lose a measure of humanity, but one to a greater degree than the other. The characters and the viewer go through periods of fluctuation in regards to closeness--the camera pulls out and away, sound disappears, words are lost, only for the camera to return to painterly closeups of its facially expressive stars. The confusion and fluctuation may make this film hard for some viewers, but this is all purposeful under the master hand of Bergman. I think the use of a "fake" war makes the film timeless, as relevant today as ever before, and by focusing on the human relationship through war, makes the film relevant to everyone. The pair could be anyone. The film is not grounded in place or time, but rather in emotion. A unique and effective war film, unlike any other. Bergman's films are virtuosic in presenting human relationships--that he would bring this to a war film is masterful.

"Shame" ("Skammen") (Swedish, 1968): Definitely one of Ingmar Bergman's masterworks, with cinematography by Sven Nyquist (who did most of Bergman's, and some of Woody Allen's films). "Shame" is less symbolic than some of Bergman's works, and, an intense, psychological study of a married couple, Jan and Eva, (Max von Sydow & Liv Ullmann) who have their personal problems like anyone else, but suddenly find their otherwise quiet Swedish island life completely upset by a civil war. Faced with increasing losses and degradations, we watch them struggle not only against circumstances, but their own psyches. The number of "shames" depicted is huge. This story may have influenced Lina Wertmuller's film "Swept Away". Just a guess. "Shame" is an ULTIMATE in gorgeous b/w photography, and ugly psychological horror.

It's anyone's guess how you would react, when the sky falls down and you're under an attack, with terror and torment knocking on the front door, once friends take up arms, aim their sights, waging war - experiences that should have been lost some years ago but seem to perpetuate more than ever these days.

Eva and Jan leave us under no illusion of how innocent people living ordinary lives the world over can change as they're drawn into the living nightmares of armed conflict. Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman once again present us with characters from the imagination of Ingmar Bergman that exist in a world few of us would like to share, but the world of cinema lets us come close enough to get a feel.

A gruelling watch, but one of Bergman's finest films. Interesting to compare this with The Hour of the Wolf, as both feature the same lead actors as artists (or an artist and his wife) who have taken sanctuary on an island. In the earlier film it's largely inner demons that lead to von Sydows disintegrating personality (at least that's how I read it) whereas here it's very much circumstances beyond his control.

Much has been written about the unsympathetic central characters, particularly von Sydow's. For me there are flashes of a good (if flawed) man early in the film, but one who copes badly with adversity. The flaws become all that is left as his humanity is gradually eroded by one horror after another.

I watched A Passion (Ullmann and von Sydow on their island again) soon after this, and was amazed to recognise many of the same locations. And then there's a dream sequence...

'Shame' as it is best known world wide, is probably most underrated Bergman movie at the moment. Or perhaps little seen is more correct term, as most people who have seen it consider 'Shame' to be among the Bergman's bests. And the film is too great for such unnoticed film.

Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow star as wife and husband getting caught in the horrors of war. Although the war is shown mostly without epic battle scenes, rather shown just by soldiers marching by and fighter jets flying over, the sound of imminent doom is in every frame. 'Shame' is wonderful character study and what war does to a peoples' psychology. Max von Sydow's Jan is intelligent, but somewhat cowardly man. Some can even call him weak, while Liv Ullmann's Eva is strong and independent woman, who really cares about her husband. The character descriptions seem simple at first - strong wife, weak husband - but there's much more hidden in these people. Although Jan is not your typical macho guy, his intelligence compensate lot of his cowardice. And Eva, although strong woman, is still in need of some support from her husband. While the war comes closer and closer we see their relationship starting to fall apart, and then getting stronger again, until they get right into the middle of war horrors, with both sides riding over their farm. They both grow cold and stay together just for habit. Jan becomes cruel and violent, while Eva becomes not exactly submissive, but rather distant.

Bergman has stated his dissatisfaction with the film in several occasions, and never considered it his best work, but 'Shame' is must see film.