This is a "La ronde"-type drama in that each scene is linked to the last by carrying over one character we've just met while introducing a new one (or two), passing the baton so to speak. It's a well-crafted but somewhat heavy-handed series of dour vignettes in which most often characters that have just been seen victimized in one way or another turn out to be neurotic, predatory, controlling, corrupt etc. in their interactions with an inferior. As one says about life in general, it's a forest of creatures who exist to consume each other. At the end, the characters all gather to argue with their supposed case analyst (played by Max Von Sydow) about their unflattering portrayals. Yet in their hypocritical outrage they only reinforce our prior impressions.
Despite that final section of playful irony, the air of bitter philosophical disillusionment and psychological sadism now feels like yesteryear's somewhat dated, blunt form of dramatic "seriousness"-even though playwright Olle Hedberg was pretty expert at such things. As far as an Ingmar Bergman work goes, this TV play gives an opportunity to sample the kind of stage material he was attracted to, and his excellent handling of well-trained actors, several of whom (notably Von Sydow, Bibi Andersson and Gunnel Lindblom of course) are familiar from his movies. Anyway, it's an interesting curiosity, particularly due to the talent involved, but at the same time a somewhat dreary immersion in old-school Swedish miserabilism.
