My least favourite of the twelve Ingmar Bergman films that I have watched so far, this is nevertheless an okay film in itself. I could not bring myself to care for any of the characters, and the plot is rather awkward, to say the least. Interestingly, this Bergman film has the unusual quality of not been written by the Swedish great himself, so Bergman cannot receive much blame for the storyline, which consists of different events with different characters in different time periods, all put together in an unclear fashion. The story is hard to decipher, but what I could work out, I did not find very exciting at that. Even so, this is satisfactory viewing, as the camera follows around the characters very well and Bergman shows some skill for setting up shots, even if not as greatly as in some of his later efforts. And, if not much else, the music choices are fitting. I am not sure whether I would recommend this to other Bergman fans, but I would definitely advise non-fans to proceed with caution.
