Light in winter
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Light in winter |
| Original title | Nattvardsgästerna |
| Country of production | Sweden |
| original language | Swedish |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 81 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ingmar Bergman |
| script | Ingmar Bergman |
| production | Allan Ekelund |
| camera | Sven Nykvist |
| cut | Ulla Ryghe |
| occupation | |
| |
| synchronization | |
Winter Light (Original: Nattvardsgästerna ) is in black and white twisted Swedish film drama by Ingmar Bergman from the year 1962 .
action
Pastor Tomas Ericsson holds the service in the small Swedish town of Mittsund on a winter Sunday. After the service he is visited by parishioner Karin Persson with the request to have a pastoral conversation with her husband Jonas Persson, who is also present and who has been plagued by depression and vague fears about nuclear armament lately . Tomas persuades the hesitant Jonas Persson to come to him later for a one-on-one conversation, even though he is weakened by an emerging flu and fever.
After the Perssons left, his former lover, the teacher Märta Lundberg, asks him whether he has read her letter. He fends off her solicitude and promises to read the letter. After she leaves the room, he opens the letter and reads it. In the letter - which Lundberg reads as a monologue spoken into the camera - Märta asks that he come back to her, even though he has repeatedly been cold and negative towards her.
Jonas Persson, this time alone, appears again in the sacristy and tells of his fears about the nuclear armament of China and his dejection. After a few half-hearted attempts to give comfort to Tomas, it suddenly breaks out in him that he himself no longer believes in the existence of God. His faith was badly shaken by the atrocities he experienced in the Spanish Civil War and the death of his beloved wife. There could not be a God who would allow this. The disturbed Jonas Persson leaves the sacristy.
A little later, Tomas and Märta, who had been waiting in the church, learn that Persson shot himself with a rifle. Tomas drives to the site of Persson's suicide, covers his body with a blanket and waits for the hearse to arrive. Then he drives Märta to her home, where she wants to give him medicine for his flu. There he meets her caring with a humiliating tirade in which he expresses his contempt for her loquacity and suffering. Besides, he doesn't love her, he says he only loved his late wife.
Nevertheless, Märta accompanies him to Karin Persson to bring the news of her husband's suicide. You continue to the church service in the neighboring parish Frostnas. Apart from the organist Fredrik and the hunchbacked acolyte Algot, no attendants appeared there. While the organist tries to persuade Märta to leave Tomas and the area, Algot speaks to Tomas about the Passion of Christ. He was amazed that the sufferings of Christ were seen in the physical suffering on the cross. It is much more difficult that all the disciples had previously abandoned him and that God had not heard his calls. The altar boy added whether the mental suffering had not been much more cruel because of God's silence. Amazed, Tomas agrees with the man's profound statements. Tomas decides to hold the service only for those present.
background
Ingmar Bergman was inspired to make the film by a personal experience: In 1959 he met the pastor who had married him and his wife. He saw the pastor's wife talking to a schoolgirl. Bergman later learned that the student's father had recently committed suicide, although the pastor had previously had some fruitless discussions with the suicidal family man.
The film was shot between November 1961 and January 1962 in the Stockholm film studios Filmstaden and in the western Swedish municipality of Orsa . The interior of the church in Skattungbyn was not permitted to shoot, which is why Bergman and his film crew carefully recreated them in a film studio. Licht im Winter opened in Swedish cinemas on February 11, 1963 and in German cinemas on February 15 of the same year .
The film is considered by many to be the second part of a trilogy (after Wie in a Spiegel and before Das Schweigen ) of Bergman films that deal with the “Silence of God” and the problem of theodicy . In 1969, Bergman stated in an interview that he had not originally planned the trilogy as such. Only after finishing the third film did he notice the uniformity of all three parts. Thus, the conclusion of Wie in a Spiegel that love is God and God in turn is love, is taken up again in a scene by the organist in light in winter and mocked by him. Bergman himself, who was otherwise often self-critical, valued the film very highly among his works. In an interview in 1972 he said that "everything is exactly as I wanted it to be, every second". Later he only gave similar praise to Fanny and Alexander .
criticism
The American film critic Roger Ebert took light in winter in 2007 in his leaderboard. The film is characterized by “rigorous simplicity”, so the cameraman Nykvist does not rely on any special camera movements, but only shows the events in its statics. The film is not only about the silence of God, but also about the silence of the pastor, who cannot convey anything edifying to himself or his fellow men. The film also shows the different types of faith, such as the contrast between the hunchbacked servant Algot, who is the only character who can draw positive conclusions from his faith, and the superficial church organist who eagerly awaits the end of the service.
“In the middle section of what he himself calls the 'Kammerspiel trilogy', Bergman reduces his engagement with the metaphysical and theological question of meaning to the radical core. Without any decorative accessories, the staging concentrates on the piercing self-reflection of the desperate individual. An eminently uncomfortable work that gives ample opportunity for (theological) discussion. "
Web links
- Winter Light in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Winter light on the Ingmar Bergman Foundation website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Cowie: Winter Light. Retrieved February 25, 2020 .
- ↑ Light in Winter in the Internet Movie Database .
- ↑ a b Light in Winter in the Lexicon of International Films .
- ↑ https://beyondrivalry.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/bergmanwinterlightbackground.pdf
- ^ Stig Björkman, Torsten Manns, Jonas Sima: Bergman on Bergman, Fischer, Frankfurt 1987, ISBN 3-596-24478-1 .
- ↑ Peter Cowie: Winter Light. Retrieved February 25, 2020 .
- ↑ https://beyondrivalry.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/bergmanwinterlightbackground.pdf
- ↑ Roger Ebert: Winter Light movie review & film summary (1962) | Roger Ebert. Retrieved February 25, 2020 .