A Mulher que Vendeu a Alma

They say this version is not very different from the American remake three years later, but it's not true. Only the basic structure and skeleton are the same. This is an entirely different story of an entirely different character, and Ingrid Bergman is entirely different from Joan Crawford. Actually these two different versions of the same story compliment each other just by their differences, and both have advantages to the other version. George Cukor's direction is more efficient and professional, while this Swedish version is more formal and almost documentary in its straight story-telling. There is no murder trial here and no murder, as there is no villain like Conrad Veidt, and the villain here (Georg Rydeberg) is rather an amateur whose schemes fail by sheer bad luck. The American version is more striking in its grandiose dramaturgy, it is a better written script, while this Swedish version more carefully follows the original French novel. Most would prefer Ingrid Bergman in this role though to the more imposing Joan Crawford. Bergman gives a very special touch to her character by her total conversion from a cold-blooded ruthless gangster spitfire to a very soft motherly heart of great sensitivity. This could be criticized as hardly convincing, but it is the core of the drama: a woman changes character by acquiring a face for the first time in her life after earlier having been doomed as a monster by her disfigurement. The role of the doctor is also more interesting here (Anders Ek) who is perhaps the most interesting character of all, finally setting out for mission work with the Red Cross in China, giving the film a completely different end than the Hollywood version. In brief, both versions are of supreme lasting interest, both for the sake of Joan Crawford and Ingrid Bergman and for their very different twists of the tale.

Disfigured Ingrid Bergman is a member of a blackmail ring. When getting the payoff of one of their "clients", she is caught by the woman's husband, a doctor, who performs plastic surgery on her and leaves her looking like.... well, like Ingrid Bergman. However, the ring's newest scam is on. The wastrel nephew of a rich man wants his own six-year-old nephew knocked off, and the gang agrees to do so for money down and a quarter of the inheritance. Miss Bergman takes the job, but with a new face comes a new her....

It's a bravura performance, just the sort that actors love, and Miss Bergman, only 23 years old, is up to the challenge, as she gradually changes. None of the other younger actors are up to her level; they all seem strident and melodramatic in comparison to her. Anders Henrikson, as the compassionate doctor, is the only actor who seems at her level, and their scenes together raise this from an improbable melodrama to high art.

It was her last film with Gustaf Molander, and by the following year, she was in Hollywood, remaking INTERMEZZO for Selznick. MGM would buy the rights to this story and remake it poorly with Joan Crawford in the lead role.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to see the two versions back to back on a big(ish) screen. It was a little film festival at Scandanvia House in NYC. They showed the original Swedish film first followed by the Hollywood monstrosity. There is just no comparison. Bergman is subtle and intense while Crawford is just Crawford. Don't get me wrong, JC was an amazing animal, but I would never call her a disciplined actor. She's all instinct and big, bold strokes. She's like an impressionist painting. You have to step back to see it. Up close it's just an ugly mess. Bergman, on the other hand, is like that Fragonard painting of the girl on the swing, with all the detail, depth and color. Each time you look at it, you see something different that you missed the last time.

There were two reasons for seeing this Swedish version of 'A Woman's Face'. Absolutely love Ingrid Bergman, a beautiful woman and a very expressive actress that shows in so many of her performances. Another was to see how it would compare to the Joan Crawford film from three years later. Have also always loved and been fascinated by foreign films and there are so many great to masterpiece Swedish films, namely by one of cinema's greatest directors Ingmar Bergman.

Comparing the two versions of 'A Woman's Face', both of them are very good in their own way. Don't overall one version is better or worse than the other, even if one version does things better than the other version. The Crawford film had the better supporting cast (nobody here does acting equal to or better than Conrad Veidt), ending and direction. While Bergman's got going quicker and there is a slight personal preference for the more subtle while a touch more intense tone, her more brutal-looking disfigurement and the starker, which really worked for the atmosphere, production values (though the Crawford film looked wonderful still in its own way). Comparing Crawford and Bergman, they are completely different approaches but both embody their roles and are about equal again in their own way.

Excepting Anders Henrikksen and Tore Svennberg, who were both empathetic and gave all they got, for me the supporting cast didn't stand out really and that did hurt the film a bit. Do agree with another commentator that George Rydeberg was very bland and his character underdeveloped.

Felt that the film felt slightly too short perhaps too.

Loved though the comparitively stark but also atmospherically effective production values, the landscapes not as beautiful but just as foreboding. It suited the dark story very well. The film is strongly directed too, keeping things taut, the atmosphere tense enough and not letting the film get too melodramatic. The pace isn't too leisurely at the beginning and the story stays compelling up to the ending, which is one that is hard to forget, and nails the atmosphere, which is dark and subtly tense yet with an emotional core. The script provokes thought and felt very honest, liked too that it doesn't ramble or feel over-literal.

As with Crawford's version, the lead character is initially reprehensible with her embittered personality, yet with the change of heart it is hard to not feel a degree of empathy. Her disfigurement is brutal and disturbing, more so in my opinion than Crawford's. The portrayal of anger and self-pity was handled very honestly and with great candour, something that will be relatable today, this was handled better in this version. 'A Woman's Face' however is Bergman's film, twenty three years old and the intensity, embittered self-pity, pathos, honesty and nuance she brings to her role is suggestive of her having acted for years before.

In conclusion, very good film with an awful lot to recommend. 8/10

Well, it has a European feel and does not hinge itself on a court-case melodrama like the Joan Crawford version which is molded in the shape of the weepies of the twenties, thirties and forties hollywood. Bergman is not very good in this, especially when her face is scarred. Her performance is a bit too bitter, too harsh, a little exaggerated. She is much better when her face has been reconstructed and gently turning heel and keel as the boy's nanny. An ending of doubt and uncertainty which marks this version is missing from the Hollywood version. I would say the hollywood version is much more perfect and rounded; and definitely, Joan Crawford's performance is better. You can only change the outside, it is only you that can change the inside, is the core/moral of both versions and in that way, both of the stories succeed. One is done with Hollywood cliches and the other with the Swedish/Nordic arty/ realist style of European cinema. Both are different by the look but at heart the same movie.