Skammen (1968)

Director:

Ingmar Bergman

Writer:

Ingmar Bergman (writer)

Release Date:

23 December 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Ingmar Bergman's psychological study of how humans react in a situation of war. The film takes place on Gotland, where invasion forces arrives.

Plot Keywords:

Musician | Island | Farm | Fictional War | Military

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 8 wins

Cast

Liv Ullmann	...	Eva Rosenberg
Max von Sydow	...	Jan Rosenberg
Sigge Fürst	...	Filip
Gunnar Björnstrand	...	Col. Jacobi
Birgitta Valberg	...	Mrs. Jacobi
Hans Alfredson	...	Lobelius
Ingvar Kjellson	...	Oswald
Frank Sundström	...	Chief interrogator
Ulf Johansson	...	The doctor
Vilgot Sjöman	...	The interviewer
Bengt Eklund	...	Guard
Gösta Prüzelius	...	The vicar
Willy Peters	...	Elder officer
Barbro Hiort af Ornäs	...	Woman in the boat
Agda Helin	...	Merchant's wife

Also Known As:

Shame (USA)

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 (video rating) (2004) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Fårö, Gotlands län, Sweden

Company:

Cinematograph AB

Goofs:

Continuity: Eva is not wearing any socks when Jacobi arrives but several times during his visit she can be seen wearing a couple of black socks and no socks at all again.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in En passion (1969)

one of the great war films (for the art-house)

Shame is rather unique as a war film (or rather quite the anti-war film) in that it not only doesn't focus on the soldiers or politics involved (there is politics but not how you'd think it'd be shown), it deals with its two main subjects as the only two beings that can possibly be cared about at all in this brutal, decaying society they inhabit. Ingmar Bergman, in the midst of his prime, and following two other heavily psychological films, Persona and Hour of the Wolf, is far more interested in seeing what the effect of war has on usually civilized beings, that it brings out the worst in them, and also in a cathartic way is a reminder of what is truly crucial in living. His two key actors are frequent collaborators and friends Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman (as the Rosenbergs oddly enough), who are musicians living on a farm on an island (not too dissimilar from 'Wolf' when one thinks about it).

They see the tanks roll by, and a couple of old friends already getting worn down, but they try not to put it too much to heart; there's a sweet scene where the couple just talk, rather frankly but with heart (all one shot, as is repeated through the film is to perhaps create a sense of being provoked)...Then comes the trouble, including a fake film of propaganda made at gunpoint with the Rosenbergs, the psychological turmoil in being prisoners of war, and the terror involved with a 'friend' in the military (one of Gunnar Bjornstrand's most subtle works with Bergman). Needless to say this is not one of the easier films to go through in terms of Bergman's filmography, however for some it may be one of his more accessible works. His religious themes this time is kept very low key, even as the idea of keeping a sort of faith pervades the film's atmosphere. When there is war action it's shot in unconventional, quick ways (via great amigo Sven Nykvist).

And the deconstruction of the relationship between Jan and Eva is corresponded successfully with the backdrop of a chaotic kind of war-ground where the lines are never too surely drawn. In a way this film, shot right at the height of the worst times in Vietnam, is even more relevant for today; I couldn't help but see chilling, uncompromising coincidences between Iraq and elsewhere with some of Jan and Eva's scenes with the fighters, or those 'in charge'. The very last scene, by the way, is one of Bergman's very best, all around (acting, directing, lighting). It's not the kind of war picture (or, again, anti-war, I find little of the John Wayne spirit in this Svensk production) that I would recommend right off the bat to my friends all into Saving Private Ryan- it has a little more in kinship with Paths of Glory, looking at the effects of the hypocrisy of war. But in reality, like any of Bergman's "genre" films, it stands alone, however one that packs a wallop for the art-house crowd.