Crisis (1946 film)

Last updated
Crisis
Crisis (1946 film).jpg
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Screenplay byIngmar Bergman
Based onModerhjertet
by Leck Fischer
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyGösta Roosling
Edited by Oscar Rosander
Music by Erland von Koch
Distributed by Svensk Filmindustri (SF)
Release date
  • 25 February 1946 (1946-02-25)
Running time
93 minutes
CountrySweden
LanguageSwedish

Crisis (Swedish : Kris) is a 1946 Swedish film directed and written by Ingmar Bergman. The film was Bergman's first feature as director and he also wrote the screenplay, which is based on the Danish radio play Moderhjertet (translated as The Mother Animal, A Mother's Heart, The Mother Creature, and The Maternal Instinct) by Leck Fischer. [1]

Contents

Plot

The story follows a young girl living a quiet life in a small town with her foster mother. Nelly is an innocent 18-year-old becoming increasingly aware of the effect that her beauty has on the men of her little Swedish village. Ingeborg is a respectably dour woman who teaches piano to village youth and runs a rooming house, and has undoubtedly sacrificed much for the sake of her foster daughter. With Nelly on the verge of womanhood and Ingeborg in failing health, Nelly's biological mother, Miss Jenny, returns in her fancy hat, painted nails and trampy air of sophistication to take her long-abandoned daughter away to sample the indulgent fruits of urban life.

Jenny has had a rough past, involving prostitution and other scandals, but now owns a beauty salon which affords her a few comforts in life, material and otherwise. Among them is a dapper mustachioed gentleman acquaintance named Jack, who follows Jenny to the village as an uninvited guest. Jenny's purpose in coming was to meet up with Nelly at a charity ball, and when Jack learns about the event he's more than happy to inject more liveliness into the affair than the village elders had in mind. Nelly and Jack leave the ball, which has descended into chaos due to Jack's antics, and kiss passionately at the lakeside at night. Nelly's admirer, Ulf, who rents a room from Ingeborg, catches the two together, whereupon he humiliates Jack and tosses him off a dock into the lake.

Nelly, conflicted about leaving Ingeborg (her beloved "Mutti"), decides after the scandal to leave with Jenny and Jack to go to the city. There, she works in her mother's salon, where she acquires her own air of urban sophistication as well as numerous friends in the city. Ingeborg and Ulf are saddened, but Ingeborg tells him they must wait while Nelly goes through the experience. While in the city, Jack seduces Nelly by telling her that he previously murdered his pregnant wife and child while they slept, by turning up the gas then claiming it was an accident. Nelly's heart is softened by the story and agrees to accompany him to the police station, but first they fall into each other's arms, and indulge in romantic embrace. Jenny catches the two of them in bed, and reveals that Jack never murdered his family – it is a story he tells to entice women. Jack angrily leaves and shortly after shoots himself off-screen. Nelly, shocked and disillusioned by city life, returns to her hometown and reunites with Ingeborg and Ulf. At the film's close, village life has returned to the calm normalcy of the opening scenes, though now with a relationship between Nelly and Ulf beginning to develop.

Cast

(in alphabetical order)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingmar Bergman</span> Swedish filmmaker (1918–2007)

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoundly personal meditations into the myriad struggles facing the psyche and the soul". Some of his most acclaimed works include The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), Persona (1966) and Fanny and Alexander (1982), which were included in the 2012 edition of Sight & Sound's Greatest Films of All Time. He was also ranked No. 8 on the magazine's 2002 "Greatest Directors of All Time" list.

<i>Cries and Whispers</i> 1972 Swedish drama film by Ingmar Bergman

Cries and Whispers is a 1972 Swedish period drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann. The film, set in a mansion at the end of the 19th century, is about three sisters and a servant who struggle with the terminal cancer of one of the sisters (Andersson). The servant (Sylwan) is close to her, while the other two sisters confront their emotional distance from each other.

<i>The Seventh Seal</i> 1957 film by Ingmar Bergman

The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish historical fantasy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in Denmark during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death, who has come to take his life. Bergman developed the film from his own play Wood Painting. The title refers to a passage from the Book of Revelation, used both at the very start of the film and again towards the end, beginning with the words "And when the Lamb had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." Here, the motif of silence refers to the "silence of God," which is a major theme of the film.

<i>Autumn Sonata</i> 1978 drama film by Ingmar Bergman

Autumn Sonata is a 1978 drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann and Lena Nyman. Its plot follows a celebrated classical pianist and her neglected daughter who meet for the first time in years, and chronicles their painful discussions of how they have hurt each other. It was the first and only collaboration by Ingrid Bergman and Ingmar Bergman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingrid Thulin</span> Swedish actress (1926–2004)

Ingrid Lilian Thulin was a Swedish actress and director who collaborated with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She was often cast as harrowing and desperate characters, and earned acclaim from both Swedish and international critics. She won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her performance in Brink of Life (1958) and the inaugural Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Silence (1963), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for Cries and Whispers (1972).

<i>Fanny and Alexander</i> 1982 Swedish drama film by Ingmar Bergman

Fanny and Alexander is a 1982 period drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. The plot focuses on two siblings and their large family in Uppsala, Sweden during the first decade of the twentieth century. Following the death of the children's father, their mother remarries a prominent bishop who becomes abusive towards Alexander for his vivid imagination.

<i>Persona</i> (1966 film) 1966 Swedish avant-garde psychological drama film by Ingmar Bergman

Persona is a 1966 Swedish avant-garde psychological drama film written, directed, and produced by Ingmar Bergman and starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann. The story revolves around a young nurse named Alma (Andersson) and her patient, well-known stage actress Elisabet Vogler (Ullmann), who has suddenly stopped speaking. They move to a cottage, where Alma cares for Elisabet, confides in her, and begins having trouble distinguishing herself from her patient.

<i>Face to Face</i> (1976 film) 1976 film

Face to Face is a 1976 Swedish psychological drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It tells the story of a psychiatrist who is suffering from a mental illness. It stars Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson.

<i>The Virgin Spring</i> 1960 Swedish drama film by Ingmar Bergman

The Virgin Spring is a 1960 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in medieval Sweden, it is a tale about a father's merciless response to the rape and murder of his young daughter. The story was adapted by screenwriter Ulla Isaksson from a 13th-century Swedish ballad, "Töres döttrar i Wänge". Bergman researched the legend of Per Töre with an eye to an adaptation, considering an opera before deciding on a film version. Given criticism of the historical accuracy of his 1957 film The Seventh Seal, he also invited Isaksson to write the screenplay. Other influences included the 1950 Japanese film Rashomon. Max von Sydow played Töre.

<i>From the Life of the Marionettes</i> 1980 West German film by Ingmar Bergman

From the Life of the Marionettes is a 1980 television film directed by Ingmar Bergman. The film was produced in West Germany with a German-language screenplay and soundtrack while Bergman was in "tax exile" from his native Sweden. It is filmed in black and white apart from two colour sequences at the beginning and end of the film.

<i>The Touch</i> (1971 film) 1971 film

The Touch is a 1971 Swedish romantic drama film directed and written by Ingmar Bergman and starring Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Elliott Gould, and Sheila Reid. The film tells the story of an affair between a married woman and an impetuous foreigner. It contains references to the Virgin Mary and the Holocaust.

<i>Through a Glass Darkly</i> (film) 1961 film

Through a Glass Darkly is a 1961 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow and Lars Passgård. The film tells the story of a schizophrenic young woman (Andersson) vacationing on a remote island with her husband, novelist father (Björnstrand), and frustrated younger brother (Passgård).

Friedel Pia Lindström is a Swedish television journalist, and the first child of actress Ingrid Bergman.

<i>Winter Light</i> 1963 film

Winter Light is a 1963 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring his regulars, Gunnar Björnstrand, Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow. It follows Tomas Ericsson (Björnstrand), pastor of a small rural Swedish church, as he deals with an existential crisis and his Christianity.

<i>Shame</i> (1968 film) 1968 Swedish drama film

Shame is a 1968 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow. Ullmann and von Sydow play Eva and Jan, former violinists, a politically uninvolved couple whose home comes under threat by civil war. They are accused by one side of sympathy for the enemy, and their marriage deteriorates while the couple flees. The story explores themes of shame, moral decline, self-loathing and violence.

<i>The Best Intentions</i> 1992 film directed by Bille August

The Best Intentions is a 1991 Swedish television drama film directed by Bille August and written by Ingmar Bergman. It is semi-autobiographical, telling the story of the complex relationship between Bergman's parents, Erik Bergman and Karin Åkerblom, who are renamed Henrik and Anna in the film but retain their true surnames. The film documents the courtship and the difficult early years of their marriage, until the point when Anna becomes pregnant with their second son, who corresponds to Ingmar himself. Samuel Fröler and Pernilla August played Henrik and Anna, respectively.

<i>The Silence</i> (1963 film) 1963 Swedish film

The Silence is a 1963 Swedish drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Ingrid Thulin and Gunnel Lindblom. The plot focuses on two sisters, the younger a sensuous woman with a young son, the elder more intellectually oriented and seriously ill, and their tense relationship as they travel toward home through a fictional Central European country on the brink of war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eva Dahlbeck</span> Swedish actress

Eva Elisabet Dahlbeck was a Swedish stage, film, and television actress. She received a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film Brink of Life (1958). Dahlbeck retired from acting in 1970 and became an author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erik Bergman (Lutheran minister)</span> Swedish parish minister

Erik Henrik Fredrik Bergman was a Swedish parish minister of the Lutheran Church and the father of diplomat Dag Bergman, novelist Margareta Bergman, and film director Ingmar Bergman.

Ingeborg Holm is a 1913 Swedish social drama film directed by Victor Sjöström, based on a 1906 play by Nils Krok. It caused great debate in Sweden about social security, which led to changes in the poorhouse laws. It is said to be based on a true story.

References

  1. Vermilye, Jerry (2002). Ingmar Bergman: His Life and Films. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. pp. 51–53. ISBN   0786429593.