Sogni di donna

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.

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.

Dreams begins with a photography shoot. It is the land of Dreams. We meet Doris, the model. Soon we are drawn into her world. She is engaged. Trouble is, her beau is rather straight. She has big aspirations. She wants more out of life. But she is not the only one with dreams. The photographer, Susanne, is missing her ex lover. Trouble is, he broke the relationship off because he is married. She's not about to let that stop her.

To say more would be to ruin the plot, but we soon meet other characters who also have Dreams. It seems we all do, but more often than not, we are not allowed to achieve them. And perhaps that's not always a bad thing. We seem to spend most of our lives with desires, untapped and unreachable. Bergman knows this all too well, and tortures his characters with their yearnings, desires out of step with the mechanics of day to day living. It provides excellent drama. As always Bergman keeps the struggle between man and woman as tension filled lovers foremost in the frame. There is desire but it is fraught with problems.

It's not Bergman's best film. The characters can sometimes seem selfish, but this is the point. How do we exist in the world if we cannot have what we want? It's a heartbreaking realization.

Some say Bergman is the greatest Director the world has ever seen. I'm not sure about that. Tarkovsky was a visual genius, but Bergman is certainly more intimate, his stories personal and instantly identifiable. He achieves success again with Dreams.

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.