Bergman 4: Thirst (1949)

Marriage as hell, but actually better than the other options. But that description of the "message" of Thirst makes it sound more banal than it otherwise would. Certain elements (e.g. a disappointed woman transformed into a rather predatory lesbian) haven't held up so well, and there aren't that many truly striking images. Most interesting, probably, is the narrative structure, which makes sense in retrospect but is unusual and unpredictable, interestingly subverting one's sense of who exactly is, or might be, the protagonists. This feels like a film that might change on second viewing, now I have a better sense of its shape. Oh, and I wasn't aware that Bergman was into cameos, but after the one in A Ship to India I spotted another one here, in a crowded train corridor, just before a doctor and a writer deliver some platitudes about the ways that conversation can ensure a successful marriage that the film is in the process of comprehensively demolishing.