Bergman 7: Waiting Women (1952) [and ps on 1917]

The initial set-up (three sisters-in-law tell each other tales about their relationships with their husbands) is a little clunky and contrived, but as the film develops and the strands interweave it becomes more and more effective. Very fine performances all round, as usual, with this being the first Gunnar Björnstrand performance in a Bergman film I have seen (he is also in Torment, that Bergman wrote but did not direct, and It Rains on Our Love, and had apparently worked with Bergman in the theatre many years earlier). And very funny he is too, which is not what one might expect if Winter Light is one's main point of reference... I particularly liked the way the three main segments all play differently with putting their methods on the surface, as it were. The first sequence is the most familiarly Bergmanlike, with plenty of guilt, jealousy, and torment, but at its conclusion its protagonist Rakel (Anita Björk) describes the behaviour of everyone involved as "so melodramatic". In the second segment there are plenty of obvious metaphors - a sink overflowing; a man's face eerily distorted by some obscure glass; ominously tolling bells - that are rendered effective by the sense that the protagonist (Maj-Britt Nilsson's Marta) also perceives them as metaphors. And in the final segment there is plenty of play with the application of genre labels, asking the audience to think about whether or not we agree ("comic episode"; "this isn't a farce"). The overall result treats many familiar Bergman themes but with a wryness and lack of bitterness that is refreshing. Oh, and there is a cameo this time (see the image above).

P.S. Incidentally, speaking of things that are contrived (as I was at the beginning), I went to see Sam Mendes' 1917 yesterday, and even after aiming off for all the award-season hype I have to say I could find absolutely nothing in it to recommend it. The film is entirely contrived and wholly unconvincing (much of this is documented elsewhere online - the mission itself makes no sense, there are far too many idiotic computer-game based "tense" sequences, and don't get me started on that milk...). The script felt like it had been written on the back of an envelope in an afternoon without even a minimum of research. Not that all historical films should feel hamstrung by the demands of accuracy, by any means, but I didn't for a minute feel even remotely transported to the period. Dreadful.