Ett drömspel

Bergman's television production of August Strindberg's stage play 'A Dream Play'. A surreal film that follows a dream logic - characters, locations and situations change with the blink of an eye. Agnes (Ingrid Thulin), daughter of Vedic god Indra descends to Earth to experience all sorts of human sufferings like poverty, cruelty, drudgery of everyday life. She meets all sorts of characters from who are clearly symbolical. Acting is over the top theatrical and the drawn set pieces add another level of dreaminess to the film. Thanks to the quickly changing locations and characters, the black and white photography, and heavy-handed weighty subject the film could become hard for the viewer after some time.

If one haven't seen the play on stage, it might be hard to imagine how the scene transitions might look on the stage, but on screen, with editing it comes together nicely and have one clear flow. 'A Dream Play' seems to be more suited for the screen than on the stage.

Hard to find Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece with great cinematic (although it was TV production) value.