Music in Darkness (1948)

A blind musician falls in love with a kindhearted girl. This love begin to confront with his disease and with his music.

Director:

Ingmar Bergman

Writers:

Dagmar Edqvist (novel), Dagmar Edqvist (screenplay)

Stars:

Mai Zetterling, Birger Malmsten, Olof Winnerstrand

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mai Zetterling	...	Ingrid
Birger Malmsten	...	Bengt Vyldeke
Olof Winnerstrand	...	The Vicar
Naima Wifstrand	...	Mrs. Schröder
Bibi Lindqvist	...	Agneta (as Bibi Skoglund)
Hilda Borgström	...	Lovisa
Douglas Håge	...	Kruge
Gunnar Björnstrand	...	Klasson
Bengt Eklund	...	Ebbe
Åke Claesson	...	Augustin Schröder
John Elfström	...	Otto Klemens
Rune Andréasson	...	Evert
Bengt Logardt	...	Einar Born
Marianne Gyllenhammar	...	Blanche
Sven Lindberg	...	Hedström

Storyline

In Sweden, the upper-class pianist Bengt Vyldeke suffers an accident in the military drill and becomes blind. He returns to the house of his aunt Beatrice Schröder and is initially supported by his sister Agneta since his fiancée Blanche has called off their engagement and his friends have abandoned him. When Agneta goes to the university, the young servant Ingrid helps Bengt in his daily life and falls in love with him. But she overhears a conversation between Bengt and Beatrice when his master belittles her calling Ingrid of "little maid". Bengt travels to play piano in the restaurant of a cunning manager and finds humiliation and loneliness. Years later he meets Ingrid, who has studied and is near to graduate and he falls in love with her. But Ingrid has a boyfriend Ebbe (Bengt Eklund), strong and handsome, and Bengt has to fight with his inferiority complex first to win the love of Ingrid.

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Plot Keywords:

pianist | blindness | musician | based on novel | 

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Taglines:

From the World's Master Film Maker Ingmar Bergman a startling journey into the darkness of the human soul!

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Release Date:

1 July 1963 (USA)

Also Known As:

Music in Darkness

Filming Locations:

Sandrewateljéerna, Lästmakargatan 18, Norrmalm, Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company Credits

Production Co:

Terrafilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Three Scenes with Ingmar Bergman (1975)

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Soundtracks

Serse. Ombra mai fù/Largo
Composed by Georg Friedrich Händel (1738)
Lyrics by Nicolò Minato and Silvio Stampiglia
Performed by Birger Malmsten

User Reviews

Light and Dark

'Music in Darkness' is early Bergman, his fourth as a director. Early Bergman is actually same expression like Early Kurosawa or Early Hitchcock - usually well made (far from being amateurish), but shallow in plot and void of depth in characters and dialogue. 'Music in Darkness' is exactly like that. Beautiful cinematography, but no other Bergman traits. If one wouldn't know it's a Bergman movie then they would think it's just OK melodrama about blind musician and his struggles with life and love. Pretty predictable and by the numbers drama that actually follows more classical Hollywood formulas than carries Bergman's voice (I guess that's the reason this is called Early Bergman). The subject of depression and human's inner fights are only touched on the surface. By far from being a bad movie, but nothing too memorable also. Competently directed little film.