The Touch

Bergman apparently chose Bibi and Max as his Swedish stars because they were comfortable in English. Maybe he should have hired a script writer who was equally comfortable. The dialogue is often painful ("I was merely gay!"), Andersson and Gould have zero chemistry, the plot keeps forgetting itself, and then there's the ending or rather lack of it... the film just ends up blinking in confusion at its own existence.

(Swedish Restored Version) This film is generally unlikeable. The tone shifts violently, like a child throwing a tantrum. It's angry. It's frustrating. It has no focus, no structure, and no ending. It's probably like a real adulterous affair. Thing is, the film monumentally fails at specific moments, undercutting any kind of legitimate intimacy - which a film with this subject needs to survive. The result leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Why would anyone leave Max von Sydow for Elliott Gould?!

Lacking a little attention from her busy husband, a woman gets involved with a complicated guy but never shows any real intention of ending her marriage. The back and forth of motives and perspectives is kind of interesting, but the characterisation, the dialogue and the performances all have significant problems and the film has to be considered a failure. Gould seems uncomfortable, but Andersson, too, is only adequate: perhaps Ullmann would have helped things a little, but the flaws run deep.

Bergman hated this film, and it's not hard to see why. A bland, empty melodrama with only a few signs of the master's touch. Gould is clearly in way over his head. It's not all his fault; the script is stiff and lifeless, and seems to struggle with the language. I thought the symbolism of the Virgin Mary statue was WAY too blunt, but perhaps I missed some element of subtlety. The cinematography is serviceable but unremarkable. A generally unpleasant and mindless film, although not unbearable.

58.000

Not as bad as its reputation makes it out to be, but still an incredibly frustrating experience. The tone is so strange, varying wildly throughout the film that it just becomes off-putting. An extra 10 points for Elliott Gould's beard.

(Viewed on 6/12/13): Bergman apparently hated it. It bombed and got mostly bad reviews. It's easy to see why. Shot in English but filmed in Sweden, it's debatable whether Bergman was comfortable shooting in a language that wasn't his primary. The tone is completely tentative, and Gould was simply miscast in the role of a foreigner who has an affair with a married woman played by Andersson, who is usually great but not here. The symbolism is overwrought. It's watered down Bergman.

Mês especial do centenário de Ingmar Bergman filme #6. Esse é um filme bem diferente do Bergman, tão diferente que nem parece dele, por isso as pessoas tendem a desgostar dessa obra. O ponto que mais salta aos olhos é ter sido moldado sob a visão de um judeu neurótico norte-americano, o que torna o filme mais parecido com aqueles filmes que o Woody Allen homenageia o Bergman do que uma obra do próprio. De modo geral, é um grande retrato do relacionamento amoroso destrutivo. DVD Versát

A movie about the quest for real human contact: the need and desire for love, and the difficulty of giving, accepting and sustaining it. This is clearly partly lost in translation; the English dialogues fall flat, while the well written characters proof Bergman didn't lost his written skills suddenly. Those well-rounded characters are brought to live by outstanding acting, especially by Anderson. Bergman's directing is not flawless tho, scenes do go on too long.