Category: Bergman, Ingmar

Reel 53: Only Disconnect

Sean and I individually thought for a long time about what a good title for this episode might be. We’d informally called it “Personalities,” but that was too bland. We kicked around “Mind F**ks” but we like being family-friendly, mostly. There were a few others, and as publication time approached, I was afraid we weren’t going to come up with anything we liked.

I don’t know if I like “Only Disconnect,” to be honest, but it was simultaneously a little bit clever and tied in well with an upcoming episode, which is titled “Only Connect”. And I think it does work with this episode’s films.

We have a couple of films this time around wherein characters’ personalities change in surprising ways. And the way they ultimately behave as a result of those changes comes as a surprise (we think) in both films.

First, we examine Ingmar Bergman’s Persona from 1966. Persona stars Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann as a nurse and her patient. They find themselves isolated at a beach house for several weeks. It’s meant to be therapeutic, but what that means becomes murkier as the film progresses.

From there we go to 1970 and Performance, written by Donald Cammell and directed by Cammell and Nicolas Roeg. It stars James Fox and Mick Jagger in his film debut (though Ned Kelly was released first), along with Anita Pallenberg and Michèle Breton as a foursome who find themselves in a world of drugs and sex and shattered minds. I guarantee that you will not see the last 15 minutes of this film coming, so even more than usual we should warn you to see this one before listening to the episode, but beware: it’s not for the squeamish. And we should note that while we don’t use explicit language during this episode, we do discuss some rather mature themes throughout.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

In Episode 54 we go to France and review two movies that have crime at their center. From 1960, it’s Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, followed by Le Cercle Rouge, from 1970 and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. We spend perhaps more time than necessary musing on the ending to Breathless. Come join us in the confusion.

Reel 26: Life During Wartime

Oh, boy.

What we have this episode is a couple of films where you don’t know whom to root for. Why? Because everybody is either compromised or just plain reprehensible.

We start with Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend, from 1967. This film opens with a married couple that’s fallen so far out of love with one another that they’re each plotting to kill the other one, once their ship has come in (in the form of an inheritance). These are some truly terrible people in a film full of terrible people. But it’s a darkly comic journey through the French countryside.

From there we move on to 1968 and Ingmar Bergman’s Shame, wherein Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann are a married couple who learn the hard way that when you hide from the war, it comes and finds you anyway. And then it changes you, and forces you to accept the things you once found unacceptable.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

In Reel 27, we lighten up just a little bit as we take a look at a pair of films that feature the unlikely plot point of gangsters fighting against…Nazis? Yes, indeed. First we have All Through the Night, from 1942 (so, in the heart of the war). From there we jump to 1991 and The Rocketeer, which is actually set in pre-war California, but that’s okay: Nazis were already a thing by then.