Vers la joie

The "Joy" part, by the way, refers to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from the Ninth Symphony. It pops up twice, once near the beginning and the other time at the end. It's hard to figure out where this film is aiming. The leading man is unpleasant in every way. He is completely self-centered, self-involved and pessimistic. His wife on the other hand is everything good he is not. And yet the film doesn't necessarily follow through on her character. There are some big payoffs though. It's always a joy (pun intended) to see Victor Sjostrom on screen. He would appear later in Bergman's "Wild Strawberries", again as an old man. This time he's an orchestral conductor who gets to know the two young protagonists over the years. They are both musicians. The husband is chasing after fame on stage and the film makes his lack of real talent painfully obvious. The musical excerpts are quite extraordinary. What you see is actually what you hear! Hollywood could pick up on something here - big time. Again, Sjostrom's job as conductor is impeccable. A lot of work went into this. The symmetry is also wonderful with the last images matching the first. And after all, the "Ode to Joy" doesn't arrive until the end of Beethoven's last symphony

Curtis Stotlar