The Serpent's Egg

Never less than compelling Bergman is an odd outlier in his filmography, that becomes more and more odd the more familiar you are with “typical” Bergman. Resembles a more literal and grim take on material covered by CABARET (and it’s unthinkable that this wasn’t at least inspired by Fosse’s film), with Bergman’s evocation of pre-WWII Berlin a dystopic hell-scape, with some uncomfortable parallels to the political landscape of 2025 making this resonate more than it would have even 10 years ago. Carradine would have always been an unlikely choice as a Bergman protagonist, but taking that into account he is effective enough, though struggles during moments of heightened anguish; it’s left to Ullmann to steal the film on a performance front, adapting the usual intensity of her performance to suit the more literally situated state of the world Bergman creates here. Less existential musing this time, with the exception of Whitmore’s priest offering some half-hearted pablum (should this have been a von Sydow cameo?), but overall a fine and fascinating entry into the Bergman canon.