The Bergman

I have seen about 5 of his movies. It's like a train wreck. I can't look away. Seeing someone spill it all out there (a la Elliott Smith).

Kurosawa wasn't crap either, but he didn't make me go out in search of what critics see in him (time after time). It's pretty universal, Speilbergian stuff. Bergman has many different facets -- some very true, others more contrived.

Autumn Sonata was the first one I saw. NOT a recommended date movie. My future wife and I watched that one to pretty disastrous effect. Everything just sank (a la Requiem for a Dream). But he accomplishes it all with dialogue. (He didn't need Aronosfky's crazy music and overt freakouts.) This was 4 years ago, and I'm still thinking about it.

Winter Light was the best so far. Sharp dialogue and not a wasted closeup in the whole show. Makes me want to be a cinematographer.

Through A Glass Darkly is such a great example of a film that can be engrossing with just a four-person cast and one location, but he could also make a great epic like 7th Seal, with god and chess and death and the whole gamut.

he can be a bit heavy-handed and overwrought...

but he's not crap.

One of the most versatile and stylish directors I can think of. Despite his films containing many similiar, universal themes he was very ecletic and mixed genres.

I highly recommend

Persona- Great psychological drama and very surreal. It plays out like a beautiful nightmare.

Smiles of a Summer Night- a witty comedy of manners in the best tradition of Oscar Wilde

Fanny & Alexander- one of Bergman's best and most accessible, like a cross between ETA Hoffmann and Charles Dickens.

as a film fan i'm embarassed to admit it, but i've only seen the seventh seal and persona. both were pretty NOT CRAP in my opinion though.

NOT CRAP in the least. I've been avoiding Fanny and Alexander, though.

placeholder wrote:NOT CRAP in the least. I've been avoiding Fanny and Alexander, though.

Not to be avoided. The TV version is fantastic and in my top 10 films of all time. It's perhaps my favorite Bergman and it's accessibility is not a drawback.

NOT CRAP!

Wild Strawberries was a great movie.

"Fanny and Alexander" is not among my favourite films,but maybe i should give It another chance.
Bergman is not crap.His work is sensible and meaningful.
Woody Allen always tried and failed miserably to imitate him.

i'm really, really, really fond of Winter Light. it's basically about a rural widower priest who totally hates his life -- like if Dairy of a Country Priest featured a much older priest no where nearly as sympathetic as Claude Laydu's character, but rather than erring in earnest he's been going through the motions for years on end.

Winter Light is quietly incredible and easily among the least "symbolist" of Bergman's significant films.

there's this part wherein the always top notch Von Sydow, who plays a simple fishman parishioner, comes to the priest seeking moral support. he's really torn up over the very real possibility of a nuclear holocast, now that china's got nuclear bombs and all. but the the priest -- and here's the funny part -- is so hopelessly absorbed in his own spiritual bankrupcy that he all but completely ignores the fisherman, causing the latter to blow his brains out in desperation soon after.

Bergman's best films are most defintiely not crap. even his mediocre work is worth watching.

242sumner wrote:"Fanny and Alexander" is not among my favourite films,but maybe i should give It another chance.
Bergman is not crap.His work is sensible and meaningful.
Woody Allen always tried and failed miserably to imitate him.

i have never seen an entire Woody Allen film in all my life. also, to my knowledge, i have never eaten steak.