IMDb RATING
6.7/10
2.2K
YOUR RATING
A film director tries to create the best film in history, but finds out that human abilities have their limits.A film director tries to create the best film in history, but finds out that human abilities have their limits.A film director tries to create the best film in history, but finds out that human abilities have their limits.
Birgit Lindkvist
- Anna
- (as Bibi Lindkvist)
John W. Björling
- Man in Birgitta's Dream
- (uncredited)
Sven Björling
- Filmworker at Film Studio
- (uncredited)
Anita Blom
- Anna
- (uncredited)
Britta Brunius
- Lasse's Mother
- (uncredited)
Åke Engfeldt
- Police Officer
- (uncredited)
Gösta Ericsson
- Police Officer
- (uncredited)
Kenne Fant
- Arne
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIngmar Bergman's first film based on his own original screenplay.
- Crazy creditsThere are no opening titles in this film. An unseen narrator (Hasse Ekman) reads the credits, as well as the title, out loud approximately ten minutes in to the movie. The sole title card is the standard "Slut" (Swedish for "End") that closes the picture.
- ConnectionsEdited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Une histoire seule (1989)
- SoundtracksDrömmen
Composed by Erland von Koch (1949)
Featured review
Bergman's first film where he wrote his own script, and had real artistic control (in exchange for a tiny budget.).
An aging film professor, just released from a mental asylum, visits an old student, now a successful director, and challenges him to make a film showing that the devil really rules the earth. While dismissive in the moment, the director is haunted by the idea, and a journalist friend suggests the film could take off from his experience interviewing a very young prostitute.
We then enter the prostitute's story, and it's (intentionally) never fully clear if what we're seeing is the film that arose from the concept, or the truth of the girl's life.
Beautifully photographed, and full of inventive touches (the main credits are spoken, not seen, over a long tracking shot of a dark cobblestone street), I was also surprised that it contained more of a dark sense of humor, about itself and the world, then most critics acknowledge. In turn, that keeps the film's occasional youthful over-obsession with despair from ever feeling unbearably sophomoric.
I will admit it lost steam for me in the last third, some of the performers aren't quite up to the heavy burdens of the script, and a few sequences are awkward and bespeak Bergman's comparative youth. But the next morning I found myself haunted by images and moments even if the whole only felt partly successful.
An aging film professor, just released from a mental asylum, visits an old student, now a successful director, and challenges him to make a film showing that the devil really rules the earth. While dismissive in the moment, the director is haunted by the idea, and a journalist friend suggests the film could take off from his experience interviewing a very young prostitute.
We then enter the prostitute's story, and it's (intentionally) never fully clear if what we're seeing is the film that arose from the concept, or the truth of the girl's life.
Beautifully photographed, and full of inventive touches (the main credits are spoken, not seen, over a long tracking shot of a dark cobblestone street), I was also surprised that it contained more of a dark sense of humor, about itself and the world, then most critics acknowledge. In turn, that keeps the film's occasional youthful over-obsession with despair from ever feeling unbearably sophomoric.
I will admit it lost steam for me in the last third, some of the performers aren't quite up to the heavy burdens of the script, and a few sequences are awkward and bespeak Bergman's comparative youth. But the next morning I found myself haunted by images and moments even if the whole only felt partly successful.
- runamokprods
- Apr 6, 2012
- Permalink
- How long is Prison?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- SEK 240,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 19 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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