This has to be the most generic title Bergman ever used. I kept forgetting what the movie was called as I got ready to put in the disc.
Anyway, here's a fairly solid late entry into the Bergman oeuvre. It could have been better, especially in its final third, but it's anchored by a fantastic performance from Bibi Andersson and the first two thirds are quite interesting.
Karin is a happy housewife to Andreas in a small Swedish town, and they have two children. The movie actually begins with Karin arriving just too late to the hospital to see her mother alive for the last time. The sight of her mother's wedding rings sends her into a crying fit and, hiding away in a closet, she encounters David for the first time. David is an American-Jewish archaeologist visiting the area for work on a church. He's invited to Karin and Andreas' house where he quite boldly announces to Karin, just out of earshot of Andreas, that he's in love with her. She doesn't know what to do with such a protestation. Everything we've seen about her live indicates that she's actually quite happy, but we can sense a certain void sexually. After David goes home, Andreas and Karin are entering bed where Andreas says that he was going to seduce Karin but he's just too darned tired.
She meets him at the church he's working where he shows her a remarkable sight. Behind one of the walls is a perfectly preserved statue of the Virgin Mary (this has very strong metaphorical properties which really come out late in the film). Karin then, for reasons she can't explain to herself, decides to meet David at his apartment (a run down little domicile in direct contrast to the bright white and clean state of Karin's home with Andreas), and begin an affair with him. David, though, is obviously psychologically off-center. He even slaps Karin at one point, who reacts in, first, shock and then in a motherly laugh as though her child had just thrown a meaningless tantrum. That's something that really jumped out at me, Karin's treatment of David is less like an impassioned lover and more like a mother treating a child. She even calls him childish at one point. She's not looking for physical love (perhaps that's how it started), but she stays because David needs her.
Andreas doesn't need her. He's a very busy man as a doctor. Her children don't really need her either. They've entered their teens and are largely self-sufficient (the daughter, the older child, even cooks the meal at the beginning of the film). There's quite a bit here to chew on, and it's as strong as anything in Bergman's later career.
The third act, though, is a bit more on point than the typical Bergman. We learn that David's family was almost completely wiped out in the Holocaust. We also learn that there's a muscular issue that runs in his family from a late visit with his sister in London. But when Karin receives her ultimatum from Andreas to either stay in Sweden with him or go to find the recently disappeared David in London, I sensed something was missing. I wanted more from Andreas. I wanted to get into his head as much as we did Karin and David. The movie suddenly felt like a three-legged stool where the third leg is a few inches shorter than the other two.
Still, in the final moments as Karin rebuffs David to end their relationship one final time, I was engaged. She's pregnant with (most likely) David's child, and she can't have anything to do with David anymore. Is it because she finally sees him as the destructive personality he's always been? Or is it because she's finally got someone who will rely on her fully again (the baby)? In fact, from the time I started this review to this moment, I've actually grown in appreciation of the film. I still think that Andreas should have been fleshed out more, but Karin's journey has grown in my estimation as I thought it over.
Anyway, here's a fairly solid late entry into the Bergman oeuvre. It could have been better, especially in its final third, but it's anchored by a fantastic performance from Bibi Andersson and the first two thirds are quite interesting.
Karin is a happy housewife to Andreas in a small Swedish town, and they have two children. The movie actually begins with Karin arriving just too late to the hospital to see her mother alive for the last time. The sight of her mother's wedding rings sends her into a crying fit and, hiding away in a closet, she encounters David for the first time. David is an American-Jewish archaeologist visiting the area for work on a church. He's invited to Karin and Andreas' house where he quite boldly announces to Karin, just out of earshot of Andreas, that he's in love with her. She doesn't know what to do with such a protestation. Everything we've seen about her live indicates that she's actually quite happy, but we can sense a certain void sexually. After David goes home, Andreas and Karin are entering bed where Andreas says that he was going to seduce Karin but he's just too darned tired.
She meets him at the church he's working where he shows her a remarkable sight. Behind one of the walls is a perfectly preserved statue of the Virgin Mary (this has very strong metaphorical properties which really come out late in the film). Karin then, for reasons she can't explain to herself, decides to meet David at his apartment (a run down little domicile in direct contrast to the bright white and clean state of Karin's home with Andreas), and begin an affair with him. David, though, is obviously psychologically off-center. He even slaps Karin at one point, who reacts in, first, shock and then in a motherly laugh as though her child had just thrown a meaningless tantrum. That's something that really jumped out at me, Karin's treatment of David is less like an impassioned lover and more like a mother treating a child. She even calls him childish at one point. She's not looking for physical love (perhaps that's how it started), but she stays because David needs her.
Andreas doesn't need her. He's a very busy man as a doctor. Her children don't really need her either. They've entered their teens and are largely self-sufficient (the daughter, the older child, even cooks the meal at the beginning of the film). There's quite a bit here to chew on, and it's as strong as anything in Bergman's later career.
The third act, though, is a bit more on point than the typical Bergman. We learn that David's family was almost completely wiped out in the Holocaust. We also learn that there's a muscular issue that runs in his family from a late visit with his sister in London. But when Karin receives her ultimatum from Andreas to either stay in Sweden with him or go to find the recently disappeared David in London, I sensed something was missing. I wanted more from Andreas. I wanted to get into his head as much as we did Karin and David. The movie suddenly felt like a three-legged stool where the third leg is a few inches shorter than the other two.
Still, in the final moments as Karin rebuffs David to end their relationship one final time, I was engaged. She's pregnant with (most likely) David's child, and she can't have anything to do with David anymore. Is it because she finally sees him as the destructive personality he's always been? Or is it because she's finally got someone who will rely on her fully again (the baby)? In fact, from the time I started this review to this moment, I've actually grown in appreciation of the film. I still think that Andreas should have been fleshed out more, but Karin's journey has grown in my estimation as I thought it over.