Sawdust and Tinsel

Harriet Anderson is a peach in this. IB totally put me in the wet muck and dirt of circus life here, especially when they were in transit during downpours.

Traveling circus? Themes of abandonment and adultery? Performers brawling? Did Fellini misplace a script? Superficial similarities aside, this is unmistakably a Bergman, and a fairly good one for an early.

Legitmately great in every way, Sawdust and Tinsel has an interesting environment and good characters that keep this otherwise standard Bergman movie at a high standard. Without a doubt, this isn't among Bergman's best work, but that doesn't mean it isn't one of the best movies that deals with this sort of content. I strongly recommend it to fans of Bergman but don't think it's a must-see in general. It's beautifully shot and technically impressive, but it's not going to blow you away.

A different type of Bergman movie, but no less of a masterpiece than his later work. It has a slightly lighter tone and isn't quite as dense as his best work. It's still clearly Bergman, with wonderful shot composition, melancholy characters and penetrating insight into humanity. This, along with pretty good performances and a pretty satisfying story arc make it well worth watching.

Life as circus, jest and hall of mirrors. Here is Sven Jan Hanson’s opinion, published 15 September 1953: “I am of the opinion that one should not defecate in public even if one has a lot to get rid of.” Strange, given that the film thematises public humiliation. While not quite perfect, there are many fine scenes in this exploration of the depths of jealousy and shame, and the sublimation of those feelings. Harriet Andersson is luminous in this, as she was in SUMMER WITH MONIKA, also from 1953.

This is pretty standard fare for Ingmar: people trembling under the weight of bitterness, regret and impotence (with the potential for violence always bubbling just under the surface), and ultimately picking up the pieces of their shattered lives and carrying on the best they can. The use of sound, especially during the opening story of Frost and Alma, is masterful.

The rather basic infidelity plot is fine. All the circus stuff is not.

Andersson is stunning. Wonderfully visualized. Didn't care for the emotional journey as much.

A truly carnivalesque (in the Bakhtin sense) film. The itinerant life and the life of solitude are not easy. Life is a circus, a performance, and our co-stars are more often than not insufferable (as we are to ourselves). We're trapped with each other and ourselves; hell really is (other) people. One of those rare films for which it seems true to say that it needed to be longer in run time; it felt rushed and underdeveloped. Harriet Andersson as Anne is genuinely stunning.

So much raw emotion.

Viewed November 10, 2019.

# 472

This movie cries.

Andersson is luminous, and Bergman was really beginning to carve out his own unique territory, bothy aesthetically and thematically, but it inevitably falls short of greatness, doomed to the same fate as all of his pre-Smiles Of A Summer Night work, though it's clearly a notch or two above anything he made before 1951. There is plenty to admire here, if not love, but Bergman was an intermediate player morphing slowly into a seasoned pro.

Did not enjoy at all. Noisy, annoying, slow to get going, no likeable characters. Plot far too simplistic ultimately.

A great film. Beautiful shots following the great performances and the bitter and heatbreaking, yet straight forward story of human kind, and our violent nature.

515

29.08.2016 Leu

Star Rating: ★★★★

88.50

88.000

Some of the framing shots are just amazing here, and so is the oddly-disjointed music. The movie itself explores a lot of juxtapositions: the happiness a circus usually brings compared to the despondent characters who perform for us, societal strata (even that between theatre actors and circus performers), and traditional male/female roles. It's not quite as brooding as later Bergman films even though it touches a lot of the concepts he'd reuse.

Mês especial do centenário de Ingmar Bergman filme #7 Apesar de seu tom extremamente pessimista em relação à humanidade (que eu adoro), não falou tão alto aos meus ouvidos quanto outras obras-primas bergmanianas daquela década. Coleção Versátil Ingmar Bergman Volume 2

Excellent old fashioned story telling.

Begman & Sven Nykvist always impress. Andersson is dynamic & gorgeous.

586

One of the most powerful experiences I've ever had.

A bit up and down but good and mostly entertaining. Outstanding performances, especially out of Ake Gronberg and Harriet Andersson. It felt a bit disorganized at times and takes a while to get more interesting, though the memory sequence about the clown early on is fantastic, maybe the best scene in the movie. Very raw at times. Some very interesting choices with the music, with some of it very playful and other parts percussively dramatic. A very good watch.

Neither the first nor the last time that Bergman uses the stage as a metaphor; wanting to be honest by telling lies. The story has a few unpainted joints showing, but Grönberg and Andersson are excellent and both the imagery and the sound design are stunning. There's almost a Western feel to it, the drifter who has to move on and leave civilisation behind to find new paths...

#634

Incessant symbolism discovers a truth, but I still would rather it had been a completely different film. Frost provides greatly required prominence in an otherwise unmemorable menagerie. Yeah, I said menagerie.