Michael Garvey

FORL 3160 – Summer II

Class Minutes – July 13, 2004

I.                    Discussion of Through a Glass Darkly

a.       What elements do you find in a “Bergmanesque” style film?

                                                   i.      Characters go on personal journeys / searches (example here is the Father)

                                                 ii.      Films are demanding & thought-provoking

                                                iii.      Mood and style that are somber, dark, mournful, bleak and depressing

                                               iv.      Deals with philosophical and metaphysical matters (though no answers given)

                                                 v.      Deals with isolation / alienation / separation

                                               vi.      Implied emotion – subtlety, hidden problems (examples here are Karin’s enigmatic problem and the father character’s emotional detachment)

                                              vii.      Mise-en-scene:  very uncluttered, consisting only of characters and simple, symbolic settings & objects that comment back on the characters

b.      What themes do we see in this film?

                                                   i.      Relationships; God & love

                                                 ii.      Madness, schizophrenia, mental disintegration

                                                iii.      Isolation (strong in this film, started in Bergman’s earlier films and peaked in the 1960s during a depressing cycle of dark film); Bergman’s take on this being that we seek to find meaning in the empty void that surrounds us

                                               iv.      Familial relationships (marital, parental, sibling) that explore the human condition

                                                 v.      Longing & desire

c.       What is the mise-en-scene of this film?

                                                   i.      Austere, bare, stripped – a simple, gray appearance

                                                 ii.      Visual harmony created within the isolationism by using four characters

1.      An even number allows for mixing and pairing (example here is the scene at the picnic table where each character’s deliberate placement says something about their relationships with the other three)

2.      At the end, the four are positioned on the stairs in such a way as to show that Karin is surrounded by the men in her life – protected, in one sense, but also trapped (how does this comment on the woman’s role in this family and in a larger sense?)

3.      Often, we see them in geometric positioning – symbolizes connections, but more along the lines of problems than solutions

                                                iii.      Use of doors and windows – Bergman draws on his theatrical background here to use structure as a way to frame things and separate characters

                                               iv.      Karin’s face is often purposefully lighted, in contrast to her character’s battle against the light (she wants to leave this world and escape to the darkness behind the wall or in the belly of the ship, etc.)

                                                 v.      Bergman uses the contrast of interior and exterior scenes to help convey themes (example:  original ending called for scene between Minus and his father to be performed outside the house, but Bergman relocated it inside)

                                               vi.      Numerous shots of water expanses around the island to reinforce isolation

d.      How could we best describe / characterize the four family members?

                                                   i.      Martin (a doctor):                           unselfish but ineffective; he frames their issues with his evenness and balance as the picture of sanity among the four

                                                 ii.      Father (an artist / writer):                 selfish and aloof; he protects himself from ever feeling pain again by closing himself and hiding his emotions; he relates better to subject matter than to people

                                                iii.      Minus (an artist / teen):                    sensitive, typical teenager; he is at first young and impressionable, but spends the latter part of the film coming-of-age and learning the difference between childhood and adulthood

                                               iv.      Karin (wife, sister, daughter):          mentally ill and emotionally unstable; she is often childlike in her behavior, and is treated by the others as if she is a small child that needs constant care and attention

e.       How does Bergman use the elements of film to support these characterizations?

                                                   i.      An eerie cello concerto used sparingly in a minor key creates the dark, bleak mood and has more impact because of its infrequent use

                                                 ii.      The contrast of light and dark are used to help establish the mood (example here is when Karin wears a bright white nightgown in a dark, empty room)

                                                iii.      Many of the shots contain a tremendous amount of empty space in the frame

f.        What is the tone of the film’s ending?

                                                   i.      Sad, but optimistically hopeful (example:  Minus begins to connect with his father and they start a journey of reconciliation)

                                                 ii.      Realistic ending – not a neatly packaged, happy ending

                                                iii.      A subtle openness that denies a clean resolution and works to almost deflate the audience

g.       What makes this film European?

                                                   i.      The ending – we know this film will end in the “gray zone,” as opposed to Hollywood films that almost always end in concrete happiness or sadness (but never in the middle)

                                                 ii.      The themes and message of Existentialism

                                                iii.      Bergman’s implied portrayal of an incestuous relationship between Karin and Minus (not something Hollywood was dealing with at this time)

                                               iv.      An absence of clear divisions between good and bad – again, the “gray zone”

                                                 v.      The subject matter and material are not spoon-fed to the audience; we have to create our own backstory and assess for ourselves what this all means

                                               vi.      Nothing is taboo and no issues are dodged or intentionally avoided

II.                 Other Bergman films (clips)

a.       The Seventh Seal

                                                   i.      A 13^th century knight returns to Sweden from the Crusades to find the plague killing everyone across the land.  Death (characterized and played by an actor) comes for him and the knight challenges him to a chess match to win his life, or at least the lives of others. 

                                                 ii.      Again, this film is bleak – no matter who the knight asks for answers to life’s questions, he only gets one reply:  “There is no meaning.  There is only void.”

                                                iii.      Ultimately, the knight’s wife is the one who recognizes that faith is the only answer (creating a premise that makes this, possibly, Bergman’s most religious film)

                                               iv.      Bergman brings his theatrical background into the film by including a scene in which a crowd gathers to watch a play being performed (bolstering his belief that in the artificiality of theater, one can find true meaning)

                                                 v.      Two primary medieval themes are at work in this film:  “Momento Mori” (Remember death) and “Carpe Diem” (Seize the day) – you have to choose!

                                               vi.      Bergman offers the counter-position to this film’s bleakness that there is beauty in life that comes out of self-sacrifice, community and theater

b.      The Virgin Spring

                                                   i.      A young girl, the only daughter of a farming couple, goes to town for her parents and is raped and murdered along the way by a band of three brothers.  These same brothers later take up residence at her parents’ home without realizing it.  The girl’s father eventually figures out what has happened and who these men are, and decides to seek revenge.

                                                 ii.      In the “revenge” scene, Bergman uses very little dialog or music – there are only periods of silence followed by the sounds of violence and the desperate struggles of men fighting to kill or be killed. 

                                                iii.      After he kills the men, the father seeks forgiveness, and sees it granted by way of a miraculous spring coming from the ground where his daughter’s body was discovered – a rather hopeful ending for a Bergman film!

                                               iv.      Max von Sydow, acting as the father here, was lit and made-up in such a way as to have the appearance of being a wood sculpture to help convey the feeling of the medieval period.

                                                 v.      Bergman sticks again to a mise-en-scene that incorporates simple, pure symbols – fire, water, etc.

III.               Other Films (clips)

a.       Monte Python’s The Meaning of Life

                                                   i.      Contrast to Bergman’s views on life and death, and how other filmmakers treat them a little more humorously

b.      Elvira Madigan (Directed by Bo Widerberg; Swedish film)

                                                   i.      Popular art house film from 1967 that enjoyed a revival several years later

                                                 ii.      At the opening, the film switches back and forth between showing a young couple picnicking and the military hunting the man, who has deserted.  The impressionistic style gives the visual sensation of looking at a painting (completed by the inclusion of concerto music), and the ideas of surviving on love, throwing the government / military off your back and ignoring money aligned with popular 1960s ideals. 

                                                iii.      At the film’s end, the couple are hungry, still on the run, out of money and pregnant.  Their carefree joy is gone, and to emphasize the gravity of their situation, Widerberg removes all but the last portion of the concerto music, and plays it very sparingly.  At her request, the man kills the woman and Widerberg closes the film with a freeze frame of her smiling face as we hear two loud, violent gunshots echo off camera.