Shame (1968)

Just perfect...

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

While deciding whether or not to make a film covering the Algerian War, Francois Truffaut, the French master of cinema, eventually decided not to take on the task because he felt as though "to show something is to ennoble it". Truffaut further claims in a publication in 1960, that an anti-war film is a contradiction in terms, a sentiment which I tend to agree with. Shame, directed by Ingmar Bergman in 1968, challenges that idea. Depicting a couple who attempt to shield themselves from the war being waged around them, Shame is a powerful statement proving there is no winning on either side of a war. As a civil war has engulfed the area in which they live, Jan Rosenberg (Max von Sydow) and Eva Rosenberg (Liv Ullmann) an apolitical couple who used to earn their living as musicians, grasp at the remnants of what used to be their lives. The war has encroached upon their relationship, as well as their livelihood. Jan is weepy and constantly dealing with the emotional disturbance over the chaos and killing the war has caused. Meanwhile, Eva desperately wants to have children, but her husband can't imagine bringing a child into the anxiety-ridden life they now share. When the war reaches their town, rebels attack killing many of Jan and Eva's neighbors. The couple is continuously harassed and their home eventually destroyed when the two are arrested as collaborators. No matter how far they run, there is no escaping the conflict that has taken over their lives.Shame shows two people who purposefully don't take either side in a war, yet that very silence and unwillingness to take sides results in their being assumed collaborators. Bergman seems to go to great lengths through this film to not only show the necessity of remaining neutral in times of military conflict but also to expose how dangerous it is to hold such a position. Shame is powerful because it exposes the difficulty in actually living a situation where people are not shielded by the side they chose in a battle because they didn't choose a side at all. The couple only has each other and with a host of marital problems to deal with on their own, their lives are further complicated when life or death problems penetrate their existence. We get a glimpse of the security the two used to share before the horrors of war tore them apart outwardly. Inwardly, however, the two were experiencing difficulties which left their own marriage clouded in as much uncertainty as the world around them. In my viewing of Shame, the neutrality was the most interesting aspect as the audience is able to see clearly that the two had not chosen a dominant side for the future of their marriage, just as they hadn't shown a side to adhere to in the war. Using his trademark humanism, Bergman delves deep into a marriage and reveals that no matter how far we delve into the lives of others, we may still be none the wiser to what will happen to them.

Ingmar Bergman's psychological study of how humans react in a situation of war. The film takes place on Gotland, where invasion forces arrive.Pauline Kael reviewed the film in December 1968, writing, "Shame is a masterpiece, – a vision of the effect of war on two people, – but – it has many characters and incidents – in many ways, (it is) Bergman's equivalent of Godard's Week End – also an account of what people do to survive – Liv Ullmann is superb in the demanding central role, – Gunnar Björnstrand is beautifully restrained as an aging man clinging to the wreckage of his life. The subject is our responses to death, but a work of art is a true sign of life." Bergman is always great, at least in the black and white era. I'm less a fan of his color films. But when you have that crisp, bleak back and white cinematography and Max von Sydow, you can do no wrong.

It took me a long time to get a copy of this film. I am glad I finally got to see it. I am by nature a happy person, but I still enjoy the masterful brush strokes of Ingmar Bergman. This is a top three for me. It is the story of a couple of concert musicians who live on a dull, bleak island and torment each other. It isn't that they do anything that dramatic; it's just that they seem to inject perpetual happiness into the landscape. Liv Ullman and Max Von Sydow seem an odd match. He is a whiner with a propensity for inaction; she would like to have family and he avoids the topic. In his mind, it's as if he is thinking, "Wait long enough and this will go away." He is lazy and not very well. There is a kind of civil war going on (we never know where or why it is being fought) and Jan (Van Sydow) is convinced that because of their innocuous presence, they will be left alone. Eventually, they are tossed in the maelstrom. At one point it seems as though they will die but the powers that be (and they are hard to figure out) send them back to their home. Once again, there is a sense of safety. Out of the blue, a colonel who helped get them back to "safety" comes to call. He is in trouble, and yet it is hard to know why, other than those he worked for see him as traitorous. He offers every cent (kroner) he has to be mothered by the young woman. He ends up having sex with her and Jan is beside himself. He takes the money and puts it in a pocket. When the colonel needs it back to buy his way out of this mess, Jan acts as though he doesn't have it. Jan is given the task of executing the colonel. What happens from this point on is so heavy and bleak. As is always the case with Bergman and Sven Nyquist, the images are fraught with emotion and symbolist. A film worth watching numerous times. A real trip to Hades.

As a matter of fact, I also call it one of Ingmar Bergman's best, along with The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander, Wild Strawberries, Cries and Whispers, Persona and The Passion of Anna. Not everybody perhaps is going to like it, whether you are familiar with Bergman or not, due to how bleak and lacking in optimism it is. But I don't consider this a bad thing in the slightest, seeing as this bleakness and nightmarish feel is very realistic and in a remarkably compelling way. As you'd expect from a Bergman film, his direction is superb and the quality of the production values are very high especially in the atmospheric cinematography. The lack of any music adds to the suspense and unrelenting power of the story, while the dialogue provokes thought and the story really hit me hard, not because of the subject matter's bleakness but more how realistically everything was portrayed. The characters are not characters that you like all at once or immediately relate to, nor are you intended to, Eva is the most sympathetic somewhat though I imagine that there will be those turned off by Jan's selfishness and treacherousness. These character traits are reflected perfectly in the performances. Three of the most prolific actors in Bergman's resume, and three of the best as well. With her ever expressive eyes and helped by Bergman's trademark handling of his female roles, Liv Ullmann is movingly tender while bringing a certain determination to her character. Max Von Sydow brings a magnetic quality to every performance he gives, and his performance in Shame is no exception, his face speaks volumes in particular. Gunnar Bjornstrand evokes chills as the Colonel, making you thoroughly believe in the corrupt nature of his character. All in all, Shame is a brilliant film, not one that everybody will love but not to the extent that it becomes polarising. 10/10 Bethany Cox