Eva

A somewhat dated, and quite angsty, but very thought-provoking coming-of-age story. But instead of focusing on how a young man succeeds in the world, the story is mostly about his internal struggle to come to terms with death. While it starts off as a rather old-fashioned melodrama, a succession of monologues provide the existential impact that Bergman fans will appreciate. The honest yet ominous portrayal of sex, the island setting, the background of war, and of course the search for meaning are familiar themes. Certainly this isn't like the exquisite later works, the acting of the leading man and of course the cinematography fall short, but it has the advantage of simplicity, though that might be not entirely satisfying for some.

Ingmar Bergman wrote this subject under the title ¨The trumpet player and Our Lord.¨ In Eva, he thus introduced his recurrent theme of death and resurrection. Temptation is also present, (actually the film's international title was ¨Eva, the woman and the temptation¨) but the drama is really about expulsion from paradise. "The more I savored the world of my childhood, the more I lost the sense of life now," says narrator and protagonist Bo Fredriksson, a licensed soldier on the train, returning home. The atmosphere, the mood and the extravagance were courtesy of the more experienced, elderly director Gustav Molander, who fully met the task of putting order and discipline into the passion, the inspiration and the chaos.

I hope this film is not as forgotten as it seems. Ingmar Bergman wrote the screenplay and Gustaf Molander directed. I do not know the latter's films at all, and only know that it was a later film in his life and as a director. ' Eva ' is a fine film if not quite a great one. It is a film that struggles with the eternal problem of why we are born to know happiness, to be worn down also by experience and for death to be the outcome. The film shows an example of a peaceful death ( these scenes alone are sublime and it is a great section of the total scenario ) and other scenes are nightmarish in their depiction of human and ultimate suffering. One is a dream and it is truly horrific surrounded as it is by two people ( Eva Dahlbeck plays the woman ) living in squalor and moral depravity. The main protagonist is a man brilliantly acted by Birger Malmsten ( an actor not appreciated enough in my opinion for his work with Bergman ) who is haunted by the fear of death, having seen it closeup and partly caused by him. No spoilers. He meets Eva, a good woman and here I felt the film fell into too much of the expected in cinema, but its saving grace is that it leads to one of the most sublime endings in any film I have seen. To describe it I refuse to do, but life and death itself is shown literally as a necessary part of being, tragic or peaceful. For this ending and its combination of words and images I give this a 10. Find a copy if you can and mine has French subtitles, but it seems to be available in the UK. As a film it is not great, but the sublime scenes make it paradoxically one of the finest ever made. And I wonder how Bergman would have directed it. I have a hunch he could not have achieved Molander in the scenes that are so perfect, or the dreadful middle part where hell in life is all too well conveyed.

One can see Bergman getting his angst ridden feet on the ground in this early work. He tells the story of Bo, a young man home on leave, who is looking back on his childhood. He is the twelve year old son of a stationmaster, and he has knowledge of the local steam engine. He has driven it, but only with a young man who knows the ropes. He has turned into a full blown brat who feels that any limitations on his wishes are dealt with in anger. He expresses hatred toward his father who is basically doing what father's do. His mother is doting and allows this behavior. One day, after an argument with his father where he is incredibly disrespectful, he runs off. He meets a group of traveling musicians and the blind daughter of one of them. His hatred of adults continues and he talks the little girl into taking off with him. They get on the train engine and, without permission, he starts it and heads down the track. A group of railroad workers are repairing the track and the engine goes down an embankment. He is injured slightly, but the little girl is killed. He carries this with him. His father slaps him over and over and his mother comforts him.

He has become a very talented trumpet player. Upon his return to his home (where his family, including his father, show kindness toward him) he reconnects with Eva, a pretty young woman who has grown to up since he left. She lives with her Grandma and Grandpa, who is near death. The two watch as the old lady attends to her husband. Once again the mysteries of death are confronted. Bo feels again the overwhelming weight of the unknown. Eva is positive and is more down to earth. The two have a tryst and swear their love to one another. But he still carries the guilt of the childhood event and has trouble.

Cutting to the city where Bo is living with a fellow bad member and his loose girlfriend, he is propositioned by her. They use him as a plaything, even making it look like he murdered his friend. He escapes when Eva shows up.

This leads to a final scene where Bergman puts his characters to the test. It's a ragged, but captivating film.