Every Summer Under the Stars (I’m pretty sure) TCM dedicates one day to a foreign star to give more of an, I don’t know, exotic flair to their programming, I guess. To my delight this year’s choice was Liv Ullmann herself! An absolutely incredible artist that I adore. Since I’ve loved her a long time, I have already seen a fair chunk of her filmography. But that gave me an excuse to tackle those films I always avoided for some reason. And that was a choice…
Skammen (1968)
This is our Ingmar Bergman for today. After many days of happy musicals and romantic comedies we venture into the dark night of the soul. It’s quite a striking difference, really, even the war dramas I have been watching lately were more of the tearjerker/inspiring kind rather than the full-of-despair kind. And the first time we see Liv Ullmann – she is topless! We are moving into a new cinematic world!
The story is: two musicians, a husband and a wife, live on a remote island where they are safe from the raging war. Their life seems pretty lovely, to be honest, especially when we get a glimpse into „the outside world”. Max von Sydow (the man) doesn’t even want to know much about how the war is going.
But their world changes completely when a pilot crashes on the island and soon the soldiers appear. Soon Liv and Max are imprisoned and tortured in various ways.
There are things about Skammen that seem to me pretty straightforward for Bergman which makes me think that maybe he did not mean for them to be read like that. But isn’t it kind of showing us that we may ignore problems of the world thinking they do not concern us but at one point they will? Seems very relevant if I’m being honest. And it’s about the effect of politics on personal relationships. There is a heartbreaking moment when Liv, who dreamed about being a mother, says that she doesn’t want to have children anymore.
It’s a film full of terror and anxiety and people being hurt and I can absolutely see all of the things (yes) we see on the screen playing out in the real world now.
Utvandrarna (1971)
I’ll be honest right off the bat – I was exhausted. This film is over three hours long and I had another one almost as long waiting for me. So I won’t write much about The Emigrants. I don’t think there is a point in me writing a lot about this particular film since it’s so much more than I could ever express in words.
It is a story of immigration, of hardships people put themselves through on a search of a better life, of the promised land. And again I am reminded about the current state of the world and my heart is breaking.
No one should have to suffer for trying to find hope.
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Liv Ullmann’s Day could not have come at a worst time for me in my personal life because today has been tough and all the films of hers I had on my to-watch-list were way too long. And A Bridge Too Far is not a good film to watch alongside literally anything else. I feel that to actually appreciate this film you need to sit in a dark cinema and watch it fully prepared to immerse oneself into the scary world of war.
The film does feel dragged on too long and also a bit dated – I could see it being made twenty eyars earlier and not being seen as revolutionary. It is impressive at times because it truly is a big spectacle with a cast of almost-thousand and multiple battle sequences. But at one point you want to say – we get it. Not the greatest emotion to feel while watching a war film.
Liv Ullmann as a Dutch woman caught in the middle of this madness with other civilians was, as one might have expected, good.
Trolösa (2000)
This killed me but I guess it was an appropriate finish to this difficult day.
Trolösa is something completely new in our Summer Under the Stars because it does not star our… star but it is directed by her. Yes, Liv Ullmann directed Trolösa which makes it only the second (after I Like It Like That with Rita Moreno) film directed by a woman this month. Also, it’s technically our second Bergman of the day because he wrote the screenplay.
And boy, did he really let himself get dark and raw in this one.
So we have an actress, and a director, and a relationship, and fighting, and violence, and all of that presented as a psychological drama that drains you completely. It’s a fantastically acted and true reflection on human psyche which is Bergman’s forte.
I feel very bad that I did not do Liv Ullmann justice and I did not write insightful things about those amazing films but I am so exhausted after today. Give me an MGM musical.
Swingin' at the Seance 