Crise

In a small town in the countryside of Sweden, the piano teacher Ingeborg (Dagny Lind) has been raising her foster daughter Nelly (Inga Landgré) for eighteen years with a simple life, but full of love. Ingeborg's tenant Ulf (Allan Bohlin) is in love with Nelly, but the spoiled girl despises him since she considers Ulf too old for her. On the weekend of the local ball, Nelly's biological mother Jenny (Marianne Löfgren) arrives in town with the intention of bringing Nelly to the big city to work with her in her beauty shop. In the ball, the naive Nelly feels attracted by Jack (Stig Olin), but she does not guess that he is Jenny's lowlife lover. Nelly decides to travel with Jenny to improve her future where she learns how tough life can be.

"Kris" is certainly dated in 2010, but it is still a great directorial debut of Ingmar Bergman. The dark and melodramatic story has a confused message of ingratitude – Why couldn't Nelly travel to the big city to learn a profession and earn money and still write to her beloved Ingeborg and visit her every now and then? Or Why the thirty and something year-old Ulf would be the best husband for Nelly if she does not love him? But this is a 1946 movie made immediately after-war when the values of the society would be different from the present days. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Crise" ("Crisis")

Ingmar Bergman started off his productive career as film director with 'Kris', a fine little gem. As the comments on this film are rather mixed, let me explain how I came to like it.

Having seen already a few Bergman films, I decided to do a retrospective of his work as a film director. I gathered as many of his films as possible, and started now watching them in chronological order. This allows the viewer to observe the evolution in a director's style.

While being familiar with films such as 'The Magician' and 'Jungfrükällan', I picked out 'Kris' for take-off. The first film of a director is usually not the best - keeping this in mind is important when watching it. If you have seen some of the greatest movies of a director, it's unlikely that you will be equally impressed by his debut.

I enjoyed 'Kris' thoroughly because I tend to ignore the occasional mistakes or failures and seek for those indications that show us a (lurking) genius. Watching 'Kris' this way makes it simply joyful, as one can see clearly an upcoming talent. The theatrical dramatization gives us clear hints of Bergman's favorite subjects which he will continue to explore in many of his later movies, such as the doomed destiny of human desire, surrounded by existential pain.

'Kris' is categorized as a drama here on IMDb - the first half is full of cheerful comedy though. Bergman informs his audience about this at the start of the movie, in order to prepare them for what is to follow. That is also the way I recommend you to watch this movie, or as Bergman describes: "This is an everyday play, perhaps even a comedy."

Enjoy,

I'm not a big fan of Bergman's directorial style but his "Wild Strawberries" I adore with all my heart which was a good enough reason for me to get acquainted with his filmography more closely. After watching a couple of uninteresting and weird movies of his I was beginning to lose hope and that's when I decided to dive into his early stuff and start with his debut body of work. 1946's "Crisis" shows only a hint of a future genius of Ingmar as a great playwright and a director. And precisely his remarkable script makes you want to stick with the movie for a while. It tells a story of fallen angels with their demons inside and how just one person can influence so many lives, make them do the things they don't want to do, lie and deceive and remain a human being after all. "Crisis" is a dark and psychological drama where there isn't any character you can really relate to or sympathize with but the plot and its characters will lead you to the ending with your mouth open. This is a good movie that stood the test of time and even 70 years later looks fresh, a bit too theatrical at times but this is Bergman we are talking about.

Ingeborg (Dagny Lind) is a small-town piano teacher who raises her foster daughter, Nelly (Inga Landgré), into young adulthood. When Nelly is eighteen, she is shocked by the arrival of Jenny, her mother, whom she calls "Auntie." Jenny wants to take her to the big city and teach her to be a beautician in her salon. This is devastating news for Ingeborg, who is ill and does not expect to live long. Ulf, the stolid 30ish man in love with Nelly, begs her to stay; but she is not in love with him, considering him much too old. Instead, she is attracted to Jack, a new arrival in town. She doesn't guess that this strange young man with the striped suit and dashing mustache is her mother's lover as well.

Ingmar Bergman, making his directorial debut working with his own script adapted from a play by Leck Fischer, presents a lovely story that begins light and grows darker. Although he gets some beautifully composed shots from his cinematographer, Gösta Roosling, the movie is not put together in a particularly exciting or interesting way. His most impressive work is with his actors, who bring out all the shades of their multifaceted characters.

Those Shakespearean characterizations are what strike me the most. I don't know if they come from Fischer or Bergman. We see Jack (Stig Olin) as a dangerous lover, mischievous young man, laughable weakling, brooding intellectual and manipulative seducer. Jenny (Marianne Löfgren) appears as a selfish intruder, silly airhead, vain older woman and compassionate mother. 400 years after Shakespeare and over 60 years after this movie, we still don't often see characters like these.

Nelly is far too contained, metaphorically tethered and chained, until Jack makes connection, Jenny sets defection, breaking habits for which she's been trained (or brainwashed as most of us are during our formative years).

Jack's clearly a bit of a lad, a deceiver, a liar, a cad, sneaky opportunist, loves to arrange a tryst, perpetually out on the gad (a stereotypical chancer who's been around for as long as woman have accommodated such characters).

Jenny likes to be among others, solitude is a feeling she smothers, but Nelly's deserter, has come to reclaim her, from Ingeborg who loves and still mothers (she wants her legacy to continue now she has the means, and Jack's attraction is wearing thin).

Ingeborg's overcome with emotion, a lifetime of love and devotion, now she's all alone, since Nelly's left home, a boat cast adrift in the ocean (alas, all children fledge sooner or later) .

Ulf has been patient and slow, waiting for Nelly to grow, now he's been rejected, not what he expected, full of seed he's unable to sow (in modern parlance, a groomer, how times change).

If you were in Nelly's small shoes, what would you do, who would you choose? The one thing I'd say, appreciate today, in the past, as a woman, you lose (although far too many still lose out today but there are better options or choices available).