Visage de femme

This film, which was the original 1938 Swedish version of A WOMAN'S FACE (1941) later popularized by Joan Crawford at MGM. This original version made its US TV debut on Turner Classic Movies this past Friday night. Ingrid Bergman, before she came to America, is the lead as Anna Holm, a scarred black mailer who undergoes plastic surgery that changes her path and outlook on life. It's kind of hard to know if the acting is brilliant or not since it is all in Swedish with English subtitles, but the film holds your interest. It is different in many ways than the 1941 version, but also similar in others. Bergman's performance is comparable to Crawford's, but Bergman's disfigurement is more brutally realistic as are the stark atmosphere and settings in this version; MGM gave their version the usual glamour treatment. Overall, the film deserves 3 out of 4 stars and it's wonderful to finally see this on American TV.

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.

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.

I first caught this on TCM, then had to get the VHS tape. I was impressed by the role as Bergman as a tough who dominated a band of blackmailers. She was impressive in her bitterness, and, even though I don't understand Swedish her anger and self-pity came through very well.

The characteristic of people (anger+self-pity) is so common I appreciated how this was dealt with openly by the film and conveyed by Bergman. The doctor let her know that many warriors suffered as much or more without the woe-is-me attitude.

Something about her self-conscious placement of her hand over her face was very touching. From the doctor's analytic view he wasn't repulsed, but when he could see her facial scars were a source of her bitterness he resolved to change her appearance. The doctor didn't pull any punches though with a private challenge to her before the bandages came off.

And Bergman showed her ability to convey the fight against self pity when she harangued her little charge with a nasty rant of how she never got toys as a child. The boy's unaffected love, and need for love, was a sweet challenge and impetus to our struggling lady's emerging ability to turn outward.

To me, this portrayal of human growth and overcoming of life obstacles was nicely done. You will either feel for the disfigured woman or you will not. But her plight is universal.

"A Woman's Face" starred Ingrid Bergman in Sweden; in the U.S. MGM gave the lead role to Joan Crawford when Greta Garbo turned it down.

It's the story of Anna Holm, a scarred woman, both physically and emotionally, who is in league with crooks and blackmailers. During a botched blackmail/robbery of a cheating wife, Anna falls, hurts her ankle, and comes under the care of the woman's husband, who reconstructed faces injured in World War I.

Well, it's Ingrid Bergman, and as rotten as she looks as the brittle, bitter disfigured woman, at 23 she was a goddess once her face was repaired. She takes a job as a governess to a little boy in a wealthy family, a position originally arranged by her team - and the orders she is given by them are nefarious.

"A Woman's Face" is the story of a woman changed by being able to love and accept love. The MGM version and the Swedish version are both dramatic, exciting, and hold one's interest.

Both films are very good, with the supporting cast at MGM superior to the Swedish one. After all, you can't beat Conrad Veidt when he's evil. Bergman and Crawford have different takes on the role, as you can imagine. Bergman is more pathetic - she is made to look dreadful, and she's more subtle and vulnerable in the role. Crawford has the MGM treatment so her deformity is less; she has the bitterness and strength of the character down in a more overt performance. I enjoyed both actresses.

The sound was off in the Swedish version, which gave me a headache. I couldn't figure out if the dialogue was five minutes behind the action, or if there were sections with no sound and lips moving. A little of both, I think. Nevertheless, it was well worth watching.