To Joy

This is my favourite film. It is perceptive, gentle, full of deep human understanding. Inspirational, running the whole gamut of the human condition, leaving one sad, but also feeling and understanding what true joy really is. Sublime.

Although the plot of this film is rather simple - a man reflecting on the good and bad times that he had with his wife - it is handled well by Bergman, who gives the film an interesting audio and visual side, including creative editing changes, and at least one meaningful aerial shot early on the piece. The protagonist and his wife are concert musicians, and in the first few scenes, and in some later on, non-original music is used superbly to coincide with the action on screen. There are however a few concerts scenes that may have been better had they been trimmed in length, as seeing a whole concert performed is not necessary in the story. Although the film is mostly a series of memories, there is also one is ill-judged point in which a character other than the protagonist starts to narrate events, which is not possible in the way the story is told. Also, there is room to complain about the film being a bit too literal, but there is hardly reason to concentrate on the drawbacks of the film when it is such a delight to watch, and so well done where it is well done. Victor Sjöström, as the maestro, delivers fine support, and the film is an excellent example of great visual storytelling. In the years after this, Bergman would go on to direct more complex films that would require more skill on his behalf, but this early entry still stands up fairly well, even if not up to the standard of some of his latter work. The final sequence is especially well done, both in how it uses music, and in the contrast that it has to the first scene in which the man's son is seen.

When you set up shop and form a marriage, you need to acquire a rather large carriage, to shackle yourselves to, and fill it with you, just make sure you've got plenty of storage. Now your carriage will have many seals, but occasionally these become unpeeled, you'll both try and unpick, then resolutely re-stick, as you turn it into a big wheal. Far too often the damage is done, and the carriage just runs out of fun, so you fill it with distraction, which leads to inaction, the start of the end has begun. This all happened to Stig and to Marta, but they managed to find a big plaster, until one fateful day, something got in the way, with a carriage derailing disaster.

There are some things you can't foresee but they usually result because of a lack of vision.

Ingmar Bergman has rapidly become one of my favourite and most admired directors. He did go on to better things than To Joy and his other early films, but a lot of promise can be seen here. The characters are not as dimensional or compelling in their realism, like in the best of Bergman's films, Marta can be seen as too perfect and Stig is not an easy person to like at all. However, the acting is very good. Stig Olin and Maj-Brit Nilsson give strong performances but Victor Sjostrom gives the best performance. As ever with Bergman, To Joy is superbly directed, while the script is thoughtful and the film itself is beautifully shot. The story is intriguing and paced well, and there are some good themes that are well done they were written even more compellingly in Bergman's later films. The music is amazing and utilised beautifully. Overall, one of the better Bergman films if not among his better overall ones. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The "Joy" part, by the way, refers to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from the Ninth Symphony. It pops up twice, once near the beginning and the other time at the end. It's hard to figure out where this film is aiming. The leading man is unpleasant in every way. He is completely self-centered, self-involved and pessimistic. His wife on the other hand is everything good he is not. And yet the film doesn't necessarily follow through on her character. There are some big payoffs though. It's always a joy (pun intended) to see Victor Sjostrom on screen. He would appear later in Bergman's "Wild Strawberries", again as an old man. This time he's an orchestral conductor who gets to know the two young protagonists over the years. They are both musicians. The husband is chasing after fame on stage and the film makes his lack of real talent painfully obvious. The musical excerpts are quite extraordinary. What you see is actually what you hear! Hollywood could pick up on something here - big time. Again, Sjostrom's job as conductor is impeccable. A lot of work went into this. The symmetry is also wonderful with the last images matching the first. And after all, the "Ode to Joy" doesn't arrive until the end of Beethoven's last symphony

Curtis Stotlar