Brink of Life

What makes this film special is that in 1958 it was examining the emotions and process of childbirth, openly talking about unwanted pregnancy and abortion, and showing it all from the perspective of three women in a hospital. The fact that it acknowledges what it does is in stark contrast to films coming out of America, where the most innocuous of things about a woman's body or even having a baby was suppressed. There is an interesting dynamic in trying to convince an unwed woman to have the child because of all of the support Sweden's public health system now provided, the guilt and turmoil of emotions each feel because of stressful situations or events, and the heartfelt support they show each other. It's a quiet movie for the most part, one that examines feelings and lets us know that coming into the world is not such a simple thing, but a truly gripping moment occurs when one woman is patronized by a male doctor and sedated against her will. I can't say it was one I would reach for and re-watch necessarily, but I'm impressed by the subject matter, and think at the time it would have felt truly groundbreaking.

I saw this film 50 years ago, and already then it impressed me as possibly Ingmar Bergman's best film. It's the closest he ever got to a documentary, and the whole film is shatteringly replenished with intimate close-ups of three mothers at the last stage of the most interesting condition for a woman, two of them giving births, the third being there after a failed abortion. There are other women as well, some nurses and two female visitors but very few men, four altogether, two of them being doctors and two husbands, a failed one and Max von Sydow. The finest acting is presented by Ingrid Thulin, who introduces the film with her passionate and shattering martyrdom and who stays the dominating element of the film although only resignedly from the background; but all these characters are given their own life and space and important part in this every day shattering drama of life, death and birth in totally organic realism.

Seeing it again after 50 years and on the centennial of Ingmar Bergman's birth. it roused an enormous interest in Bergman's other early films from the 50s, which used to be his best, but this is still for me number one.

Without too much variation (hardly any), or adjustment, modification, this incredible presentation would take very little contemporisation - and perhaps that's why its effect today is just as impactful as it must have been upon release, with three stellar female performances built around stories as believable and real, both in isolation and the way they're weaved together, to leave the viewer under no illusion of the heartache and pain they all endure.

Eva Dahlbeck, Ingrid Thulin and Bibi Andersson are immense as the three ladies in the maternity ward revealing their thoughts and their secrets.

Undervalued Bergman film whose themes are pregnancy and birth. I've never seen these subjects discussed in a film with such lucidity. Three women in various states of pregnancy are in a hospital room together. We are first introduced to Ingrid Thulin, who is only a few months pregnant. She has come to the hospital because she has had a hemorrhage. She loses the fetus, which gives her a new view on her relationship with her husband (Erland Josephson). One of her roommates, played by Eva Dahlbeck, is nearing the end of her pregnancy. She has a loving relationship with her husband, and they cannot wait to have their child. The third roommate is Bibi Andersson, a young, single woman who has had an abortion before. She doesn't want this baby, either, but neither does she want to have another abortion. Childbirth really is a frightening thing. Even if the woman has a man, she is alone within herself when the event happens. I think this may be one of Bergman's best films, although the poor quality of the video harmed its effect quite a bit. It had white subtitles, and, since the entire film takes place in a hospital, you could imagine that the white hospital gowns and sheets and such really block the subtitles a good amount of the time. There were certainly some major bits of dialogue that I had no chance of understanding. I eagerly await a proper DVD release, although I'm not going to hold my breath. The three actresses are absolutely brilliant, especially Bibi Andersson, who definitely gives one of her best performances.

This movie is fairly straight forward, with women in various situations facing childbirth.

What transforms this movie is the astonishing performances that Bergman is able to obtain from the actors. It's something that is so frequent in the first half of his career. There's something vibrant and remarkable, that transcends plot. You can see why he became so famous. Very few directors seem to be able to obtain such spontaneous performances from their actors.

Like so many of his early films, there's not much here that you might not see in the theatre. Yet it has such remarkable life to it.