De Düva: The Dove

I saw this when it came out in '68, and like everyone else in the theater I initially assumed it was a legitimate Bergman film. The look and feel of the picture was perfect, down to the lingering silences, pregnant with meaning. Or so we thought. About two minutes into it, I began to hear a few people giggling, then a few more as slowly it dawned on the audience that this wasn't the Master Himself after all. Soon everyone was roaring, and by the time it was over most of us were ruined for the feature film (No, I have no idea what it was). You don't have to be familiar with Bergman to enjoy this, but it helps. This is an inspired masterpiece that I rate up there with such untouchable classics as "Bambi Meets Godzilla". When is someone going to put these old shorts on video or DVD? The world could use the laughter these days.

Seen in the fall of 1969 at a downtown Pittsburgh theater, it continues to be the funniest movie short I ever saw. Like the writer in the post above, no one knew what to expect. I had read a review of the film prior to attending. Having a hint of what to expect my friends and I began laughing early in the run, to the bemused confusion of the audience. Soon others began to understanding snippets of the fake Swedish dialog, causing trickles of laughter. By the end of the film the entire audience was howling.

I do remember the film that followed "Last Summer" with Barbara Hershey but it didn't come close to De Duva for entertainment.

The last time I checked,about 20 years ago, the University of Pittsburgh library had a copy. I'm not sure if its still there but would very much like to buy a reasonably priced CD or VHS copy.

I saw this movie almost thirty years ago, and the fact that I've been looking for a copy ever since attests to my enthusiastic recommendation. If you are in to foreign films, especially the heavily symbolic Swedish films of the late 50's (Bergman's "Wild Strawberries" for example), you will enjoy every one of the fifteen minutes running time and wish for more. The film is a small masterpiece of satire, spoofing in a kind of macaronic English-Swedish the overt symbolism characteristic of the time and genre. Finding a tape anywhere of this film is to search for the proverbial needle, but I urge you to make every effort to find it and enjoy it. You will be well rewarded for you

This film first smashed its way into film goers mass consciousness in the late Sixties when it was tagged unannounced into art houses all over the country. I caught it at the Art Theatre in Akron, Ohio, as a prelude to the main feature, Putney Swope(also recommended for anyone who liked this). Or maybe it preceded Greetings, same location with direction by Brian De Palma and starring Robert Deniro in their first movie, another highly recommended film of frivolous fun. At any rate, it had to be one of the two back in those Ripple years. The Dove even has a young Madaline Kahn and set the stage for the advent of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen to entertain us with feature length nonsense that makes a sabered point. If you think Bill and Ted's wrestling with Death was original and funny, here, in fact, is where the entire battle gestated from. No point outlining the plot and purpose, others have done so very well here, but I do have to urge anyone and everyone to catch this under whatever opportunities they have. Beyond Classic.

Years ago, long before DVD's, video tapes, cable TV, etc. the only was to see films like "The Dove" except at an art house movie theater was to rent a 16 mm print of it, a projector, a screen and get a large room to set up. We used to do this at college and held screenings once a month. There were companies that

supplied the college circuit with independent and underground films. It was a good way for new filmmakers to have their works seen. Most films were

forgettable but not this one. I remember it as the most enjoyable and funniest too.

Years later when I was working with Sven Nykvist on "Only You" I mentioned to him that I had seen "The Dove" and asked him if he had. He smiled and told me that he had and that Ingmar Bergman had seen it too and loved it!