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Eclipse Series 46: Ingrid Bergman's Swedish Years



Ingrid Bergman appeared in ten films in her native Sweden before the age of twenty-five, and while that work tends to be overshadowed by her time in Hollywood, it showcases the actor summoning an impressive depth of emotion to deliver astute, passionate performances. Under the guidance of filmmakers including the prolific studio director Gustaf Molander, Bergman embraced a range of roles and worked with some of the most celebrated actors in the Swedish film industry, including Gösta Ekman, Karin Swanström, Victor Sjöström, and Lars Hanson. Comedies, romances, and thrillers, the six fascinating films collected here—including Intermezzo, the movie that brought Bergman to America—exhibit the precociously assured talent of a young artist with an illustrious international career ahead of her.

The Count of the Old Town



Ingrid Bergman's first speaking role was in this hugely charming knockabout comedy, filmed on location in the Monk's Bridge district of Stockholm. Bergman plays an amiable young chambermaid being wooed by a handsome stranger, who may or may not be a jewel thief. Enlivened by cheeky humor and a cast of neighborhood eccentrics, The Count of the Old Town offered Bergman a chance to warm up her all-too-rarely displayed comedy skills.

Walpurgis Night



Lena (Ingrid Bergman) is in love with her married boss, Johan, in this romantic drama that takes Sweden's declining birth rate as a backdrop and stirred up controversy with its depiction of abortion. While Lena dreams of marriage and motherhood, Johan's wife is fiercely unmaternal. Johan and Lena have a chance to be together, but their happiness is threatened by blackmail and murder. The great Victor Sjöström plays Lena's fiercely protective father, a newspaper editor convinced that the population problem will be solved by love, not legislation.

Intermezzo



This gorgeous romantic confection, which catalogs a doomed love affair between a married violin virtuoso and a young pianist, is graced by a leading performance by Ingrid Bergman (her first), in a role created especially for her; a costarring turn by the legendary Swedish actor Gösta Ekman; and beautiful direction by Gustaf Molander. It was a defining part for Bergman, as it made her a star in Sweden and caught the eye of American producer David O. Selznick, who offered the young actor a Hollywood contract and the chance to remake Intermezzo in English with Leslie Howard.

Dollar



Ingrid Bergman excels as the frustrated spouse of a busy industrialist with conservative views about how his wife should behave in public, in this sparkling Swedish take on screwball comedy that touches on dark themes, directed by Gustaf Molander. Three couples retire to a ski lodge, where they quarrel and flirt. The arrival of an American investor stirs the waters and forces revelations, as Bergman's character, who initially appeared to be catty and faithless, is revealed as sweet, sympathetic, and heartbroken.

A Woman's Face



In this dramatic thriller, Ingrid Bergman takes on an uncharacteristically vicious role as Anna, a bitter, nefarious blackmailer with a disfigured face. Gustaf Molander directs, meticulously hiding and revealing Bergman's features as necessary. After Anna is given an operation to restore her looks, she embarks on a scheme that requires her to go undercover as a nanny to a rich family, but as her personality softens and she discovers maternal instincts she never knew she had, her latest plot is put in jeopardy. Joan Crawford would star in the Hollywood remake.

June Night



This noirish romance stars Ingrid Bergman as a shy young woman who is shot by her lover. Following his trial, she begins a new life in Stockholm under an assumed identity, working at a pharmacy and making new friends at the rooming house where she takes up residence. Both a grim exposé of sexual politics and a sensual romance, June Night features a remarkably intense performance from Bergman as a woman weighed down by a secret, symbolized by a scar near her heart, who learns to fall in love again.

If memory serves this leaves the Kino set entirely redundant. I wonder what the reason for not having the other films was?

The Kinos looked pretty bad, too, so upgrades on those titles should be significant.

One nice bonus is that it is ten dollars cheaper than the Malle set, the only other six disc eclipse set.

knives wrote:If memory serves this leaves the Kino set entirely redundant. I wonder what the reason for not having the other films was?

https://www.amazon.com/Intermezzo-aka-L ... intermezzo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you mean this Intermezzo, it's not the same film but the American remake.


edit: Oh, you mean this KINO set. You're right. Entirely redundant. My mistake.

https://www.amazon.com/Ingrid-Bergman-3 ... rgman+kino" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I assume he was referring to this.

They could have thrown her German one in, too ...

I own and have watched the Ingrid Bergman Kino set and I didn't think the transfers were bad. I also have a Swedish Region 2 set from discshop.se (they won't ship outside of Europe so I had to send it to a friend visiting Germany, who later brought it to me), with English subtitles, titled Ingrid Bergman Volym 2 (their spelling). There is also a Volym 1 - with four films on four discs in each set, so eight films total over the two sets. The Swedish sets have the six films in the forthcoming Eclipse set, plus Swedenhielms Family (1935) and Only One Night (1939). Most, if not all, of these titles were released in the U.S. on VHS in the 1980s. The two films missing from both the Eclipse and the Swedish sets sets are The Surf (1935) and På solsidan (1936). I recently watched her German film The Four Companions (Die vier Gesellen, 1938) and enjoyed it very much.

So, only two films from the swedish DVD sets are missing: "Swedenhielms" (1935), "En enda natt" (1939)
And another two films from "swedish period" are not presented here: "Bränningar" (1935), "På solsidan" (1936)
Also, short film "Katt över vägen" (1937) is another omission.

The other short film missing is The Jewelry" directed by Gustaf Molander (from the anthology film Simulantia, 1967), which is included as a an extra in Volym 2 of the Swedish DVD set. Her only German film, The Four Companions (Die vier Gesellen, 1938), Only One Night (En enda natt,1939), and Fear (1954), a film not included in the Criterion Rossellini-Bergman set, can be found on dvd-r disc here:
http://classicmoviesdvd.com/index.php?r ... %20bergman
Fear (1954) is also available on a fine Region 2 DVD from BFI which includes as an extra, Rossellini's feature film The Machine That Kills Bad People (1952) - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WQT3KF

Those last two are also included on BFI's Rossellini/Bergman BD set.

Is anyone else having difficulty getting Walpurgis Night to play? I have tried it in three different players and it plays in none of them. When I place it inside my computer, it doesn't even register that a disc is present. Not certain if I should send it back to amazon where I purchased the set or contact Criterion and see if a replacement of this disc is possible.

Contacted Jon Mulvaney and let him know my problem with Walpurgis Night. I tried that disc on five different players (two being the disc drive in computers) and it wouldn't load on any of them. I sent the disc to Mulvaney and he'll ship me a new disc. Naturally, Criterion is reliable to swap the bad disc for a good disc. I've not encountered this problem before (although in 1991 I bought a copy of Julian Cope's Peggy Suicide and it wouldn't play on any of my disc players yet it played perfectly on the store's players).

Just wanted to post an update about my mysterious non-loading Walpurgis Night. I mailed the disc and a letter to Criterion explaining my problem and yesterday I received a replacement disc. The new disc works perfectly and the problem has been solved. That's another reason why Criterion gets my money, their customer service always seems to fix these types of problems.

I’m a bit surprised that Dollar has had such a negative response over on Letterboxd because it’s a pretty fun fusion of different Hollywood modes, specifically ensemble farces and Stahl type melodrama. While it results in a weaker outing for Molander, who might be my favorite Swedish director, it’s always at least a little amusing especially when a parody of Hollywood types comes in spouting off nonsense like America’s forced polygamy laws which makes sense only if Hollywood is your sole source for American knowledge.