Action! - of God and Man: Bergman and the Hopelessness Kind

Set in a hospital, mostly a maternity center, the film sees Bergman directing not one, two, but four Cannes’ Best Actress award-winning powerhouse performances, with the director taking the Best Director award, rightfully so. Again, this is set in one setting, and it’s a film that relies heavily on its acting and everyone delivering all these nuanced performances, making the best whenever the spotlight is pointing at them. Each of them represents one type of woman soon to become a mother, whether it is that who awaits with joy, that who wishes to abort for reasons, or that who seems incapable of “reaching to the finish line.” Dahlbeck once…

Bergman’s craft is becoming increasingly sharp and undeniable. Moving away from the heavy symbolism of Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal, he shifts here into a raw, documentary-style drama that feels startlingly modern. This is largely due to the influence of author Ulla Isaksson, who adapted the script from two of her own short stories from the collection Aunt of Death. It was the first time since 1952 that Bergman directed a script he didn't write himself. Isaksson's writing brings a grounded, authentically female perspective that avoids sentimentality, capturing the experience of pregnancy with a bluntness that feels revolutionary.

The cinematography by Max Wilén is prime Bergman: harsh, intimate, and clinical. There is no musical score here. The environment is…

Brink of Life is a lesser known Ingmar Bergman film. The screenplay was not written by Bergman but adapted of a book by Ulla Isaksson. The movie takes place over 24 hours and centers around three women who are admitted to a hospital because of complications with their pregnancy. The movie is very austere. It takes place mostly in a sterile hospital room that the women are confined to.  Ingrid Thulin plays a woman who has miscarried, a traumatic event that makes her reevaluate her marriage. Bibi Andersson plays an expectant mother who is not married. The father of the child won’t have anything to do with her so she tried to induce an abortion without success, landing her in…

☆"Its father didn't want it, and its mother wasn't strong enough to love it on her own."☆

My Journey into the Films of Ingmar Bergman -- Part 18 of 62

Three leading ladies star in the Bergman picture Nära livet ["Brink of Life"] -- Eva Dahlbeck, Bibi Andersson, and Ingrid Thulin in one of her earlier Bergman roles -- which once again brings a heavy focus to female stories and "controversial" plotlines such as childbirth and independent femininity. Issues which the Swedish director mined in the early 1950s with dramas like Waiting Women are given an even more nuanced portrayal as the filmmaker continued to push boundaries in the second stage of his career. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised…

A letter and a poem of love and sorrow in one chamber drama film. I can't believe the fact that this film was written and directed by a man. Bergman really understands women's feelings without ever doing mansplain at all, doesn't he? It feels like it was written by a woman. The intensity of women's feelings in this film really made me as a woman can relate even though I'm not a mother. Unpopular opinion from me: I can say that this film is one of the most important feminist films but still rarely touched. In fact, this can be used as a study for feminism which is still very relevant today. Motherhood, womanhood, sisterhood, and the choice of women…

'Brink of Life' (or 'So Close to Life' as my DVD was labelled) is a strong example of the early work of Ingmar Bergman. I'm a huge fan of Bergman (he's probably my 2nd favourite director) and 'Brink of Life' is another great film by him. The story is basically that 3 women meet in a maternity ward and become friends as they deal with the issues of miscarriages, abortion, marital strife and parental love. It's as well constructed as one expects from Bergman and a couple of moments did make me shed a few tears.

However, the reason I'm posting this review is because I've noticed recently how great Ingmar Bergman films are at dealing with female characters. His…

This is a rarity for me. I thought I had seen every Ingmar Bergman film, but nothing in Brink of Life was familiar to me.

It's a powerful film about three pregnant women in a sterile maternity ward, each dealing with a crisis. They're all admitted to the hospital because of problems with their pregnancies.

Cecilia (Ingrid Thulin) is brought in bleeding and has a miscarriage. She is in a loveless marriage and believes the miscarriage occurred because her husband didn't want a baby.

Hjördis (Bibi Andersson), the youngest woman in the ward, is there because she doesn't want her child, has tried to cause a miscarriage, the father doesn't care and she is concerned about how her parents will…