Secrets of Women (1952) User Reviews

Wilting Women...

[Xstal · 7/10 · 4 February 2023]

Sisters in law do reveal, why married life's so far from ideal, their journeys to (some) contentment, established often on resentment (from them or their partner or both), and how it's left a mark and how they feel. Rakel had an affair with her best friend, Marta caught a child and so was penned, Karin got a confession, Annette mild depression, and Maj, aims to become them in the end.

Rejoice that the worlds we live in today, in at least some parts of the planet, have holes in their nets big enough for the trapped to escape and forge futures for themselves, unburdened by tradition and past practices.

Both Poignant and Sad at Times

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 13 March 2015]

Four women await their husbands/lovers and tell stories of their early encounters with these men. I won't go through the plot but suffice it to say that there is selfishness, self- loathing, sacrifice, and even some empty headed joy. One story tells of a spiteful woman and her boring husband. A childhood lover comes while he is gone and has tryst with her. She tells her husband and this leads to some soul searching. The second is an encounter with an artist that leads to a child being born and his self-centered departure. The third is a couple, married for several years, trapped on an elevator, giving what they say is an honest view of one another. The fourth has arranged to run off with her boyfriend, leaving the family behind. This may sound a bit vapid, but it is done with a master's touch, with the artistry that is Bergman. Every bit of cinema is framed and filled with emotion.

very good early Bergman

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 6 January 2006]

While this movie was not exactly earth-shaking, it was a well-made film that held my attention. It's about 4 lady friends who are waiting for their husbands to meet them at their summer retreat. While waiting, they begin to tell their innermost secrets about their marriages--particularly the details of boredom or infidelity. The most memorable one of these is the final segment with the husband and wife stuck in the elevator, though they all were well acted and interesting. Those who are great fans of the later depressing work of Bergman may find this movie a bit of a letdown, it should appeal to those in the audience who want greater depth in the plot without the hopelessness that accompanies many later Bergman films.

An artist emerges

[romdal · 7/10 · 17 June 2007]

Early Bergman, and from the onset it is clear an artist is at work. The first conversation piece, with all 5 waiting women in the same room, is a long shot approaching 4 minutes, with various of the women talking. There are also already some typical Bergman postures, with one woman talking intensely and the one next to her staring vapidly past her downwards, seemingly lost in her own inner world. All that in well and good, but as soon as I heard the first monotonous monologue from the mother, her eyes turning to heaven, speaking of how she can not reach out to her husband", not even to scratch his eyes out, my Bergman-radar immediately hit the red zone. And surely enough, we are in for group therapy all the way, as each woman tells of one significant episode from their lives with their husbands. But it is a very elegant movie, and along the way you become quite sympathetic, even though all the stories describe infidelity and frigid bourgeous lives. My eye was caught by Eva Dahlbeck, who I also recently saw in Sommarnöje sökes. Here, at 32, she is sizzlingly hot. Overall it is a movie not to be missed by Bergman lovers, if mainly for historical reasons. His next movie was Monika, so this one can be said to commence his golden period. For the trivia-consumers: IMDb informs that Eva Dahlbeck has recently filed for divorce, after, ahem, 67 years of marriage. You go, girl!

A light and fun treat from Bergman

[davidmvining · 7/10 · 25 November 2019]

1952. Bergman was past his studio phase, but he hadn't quite hit the point in his career where he was "Bergman", art house darling. He was writing almost everything he directed at this point, but no one outside of Sweden knew he existed, and even in Sweden he wasn't that famous or even financially successful. It was in this period that he made Waiting Women, an interesting and mostly successful little movie about four women who are, well, waiting.

It's a summer day in Sweden and the wives of four brothers are at a summer cottage corralling their children to bed and finding a way to spend the final few hours before the brothers return from weeks away. They decide that in order to foster a certain type of sisterhood, they should share their experiences in love with each other. The first is Annette, the oldest of them, who insists that there's nothing to share about her relationship with her husband, Paul. The second is Rakel, wife to Eugen, who talks about how she had an affair with another man, admitted it to Eugen immediately afterwards and, in the throws of Eugen's depression that immediately hit, she changed her view of their relationship to one more matronly than it had been previously.

The third is Marta, the youngest of the four who tell the stories. Hers is the longest and most interesting structurally and narratively (even though I'm not sure it entirely works). We see her with an American serviceman in postwar Paris, but they have a fight and she ends up spending the night with her neighbor, a Swedish painter (and the third brother). They conceive a child, but she doesn't tell him before he goes back to Sweden for his father's funeral. She has her baby alone, and the extended scene (which is also a framing device around the time in Paris) focuses on her isolation and makes it palpable. However, I feel like there is simply too much confusion and too many questions left unaddressed, much less answered, in this portion to make it completely successful, even though it is, at a minimum, interesting.

The fourth is the lightest and easiest of the stories. Karin is married to Frederik, and they return from an event at the family company. Frederik is very smug about his position in life, considering himself the most successful of the four brothers. The pair get trapped in the elevator to their apartment and things devolve. First, visually through Frederik's top hot getting squashed, then through Karin's verbal trickery that gets Frederik to admit to a string of affairs. Karin doesn't seem to mind that much, though. The implication is that they've been married too long for it to matter, as long as they hold their home together.

Through all of these stories, there is a fifth woman, Maj, much younger and engaged to the fifth brother, Henrik. She scoffs at everyone's story, essentially telling them that they don't know love and that they love incorrectly. She's the picture of youth that way. Adding her in, and we see that Bergman has portrayed love in five different stages of maturity. From the earliest (Maj) that is concerned most with passion to the oldest (Annette) that feels like there's nothing to tell at all. There is a great shot early when we see all five women naturally sitting but perfectly framed with a great depth of field that suggests this even before anyone begins telling their stories.

It's an interesting and, at times, very fun little movie. I'm not sure it's entirely successful, but it works well enough.

Ingmar's First Comedy

[boblipton · 7/10 · 2 April 2019]

Four sisters-in-law sit around a table and tell each other stories of how they fell in love.

It's Ingmar Bergman's first comedy and that's probably why this particular film appealed to him, with its anthology structure. Bergman assembled his usual flawless cast and gave them roles they sink themselves into, with a gradually ascending level of hilarity in the four. Yet like all good comedies, like all good stories, it has a serious, if not particularly solemn statement to to make: love isn't one thing to all people. It's different for every human being.

Gunnar Fischer's black-and-white cinematography is lush and romantic. That's something modern audiences don't understand: black and white photography is more romantic than color, because it hides more; by reducing vivid life to mochmatic mages, it engages the viewer, forcing him or her to imagine, to invest effort into the viewing, and thus engage in the creative process. Bergman knew this, and with the help of his fine cameramen, brought this to life.

One of Bergman's most underrated

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 14 October 2012]

I am a great admirer of Ingmar Bergman, Sweden's greatest director, and his films. Waiting Women(or Secrets of Women) is not one of his very finest, but it is one of his most underrated. Perhaps it is a touch overlong and episodic, but compared to everything else on display they are entirely forgivable. Bergman's direction is polished and never detached, while the film looks beautiful and is photographed every bit as strikingly. The music is hauntingly understated, the right approach for the story Waiting Women is conveying, while the writing is splendid(as is the comic finale) especially in the elevator sequence. The three stories that form the film are done in a heart-warming yet sincere way, the first is a tad clichéd and probably the weakest of the three but still does its job well, while the second story was the one with the most heart and the third was the one with the most pleasantly funny moments. What really matters is that all three had subjects that anybody can identify with and dealt with them realistically. The characters weren't the most likable on the planet, nor were they intended to be. That said, I wasn't annoyed or frustrated by them. All six leads give deeply felt and believable performances, Eva Dahlbeck and Gunner Bjornstrand are particularly note-worthy. Overall, while not one of Bergman's best it is one of his more underrated films and is very well done. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Fine feminist feauture by Bergman

[gridoon2024 · 7/10 · 28 October 2019]

This early Bergman film comprises of three stories, told in flashback; the first and the third are short, sweet and to the point, but the middle one, although it has some striking visuals, goes on too long. Nonetheless, the film is interesting for its strong feminist overtones; Bergman was certainly way ahead of Hollywood films of the same period when it came to depicting women's issues and feelings. Beautifully made and acted. *** out of 4.

Gorgeous

[zetes · 9/10 · 17 September 2002]

A very beautiful film by master Ingmar Bergman. Four women, all sisters-in-law, await their husbands in a house on an island. They converse, and soon begin to tell each other the big stories of their lives. The first tells how she had an affair with her teenage sweetheart and how her husband reacts. The second tells of how she was seduced and became pregnant. And the third tells about how she once got her husband to admit his philandering when they were stuck in an elevator. Meanwhile, in the framing episode, a younger sister of one of the women has fallen in love with the fourth brother. The first and third stories are a little cliched, especially the elevator sequence, but they're still quite great. Being trapped in an elevator is a nice, easy, and overused way for two characters to solve problems, but the dialogue between Gunnar Bjornstrand and Eva Dahlbeck is so excellent that it works out wondefully. The heart of the film is in the second story. It's so simple and well-done, so utterly beautiful in its conception and execution. It is, of course, a flashback, like the other two stories, but the story itself is also told in flashbacks. It works far better than I would have ever guessed. Secrets of Women is an underrated Bergman film, a must-see for any fan. 9/10.

The tales are well enough told

[christopher-underwood · 7/10 · 13 February 2022]

It is told of four women talking about each other as they're waiting for their husbands to arrive. It is not really any thrilling than it appears but is okay. The first story tells of an affair of her teenage sweetheart and the second one seduced and had made pregnant, which is rather long. The third is almost amusing as the couple are stuck in a elevator. The tales are well enough told and the cinematography as good as usual but this rather looks as a film he didn't really have any great idea.

Great Gunnars.

[Slos · 10/10 · 31 July 1999]

I love this movie; although not amongst Bergman's best, it is very funny in parts and should not be shunned. Maybe slightly overlong - each time I watch it I wait impatiently for the lift-scene near the end of the film - but very much worthwhile. Indeed, the scene in the lift with Gunnar Bjornstrand (great actor) and Eva Dahlberg is fascinating, funny and frivolous - for the year it was made.

Seldom seen Bergman jewel

[Thea-4 · 8/10 · 22 November 2000]

See it. Lyrical, beautifully shot, quietly hilarious in spots, this film is seldom screened. Perhaps more than his better-known works, this film showcases Bergman's love of women. Bjork, Dahlbeck and especially Nilsson are adoringly photographed; this is passionate young Bergman. A delight.

Underrated gem

[gbill-74877 · 9/10 · 13 April 2019]

I love this period of Bergman's filmography, and find myself thinking efforts like this one are underrated. It's also a mystery to me how this is sometimes tagged as a comedy. There really aren't that many humorous moments in it, and while it may seem like a lighter effort, or a departure from the theme of Bergman's struggle with faith and meaning that is often a part of his films, it has a weight to it all its own. I see it as wrestling with a different kind of faith, that between men and women, how marriages and relationships change over time, and how people can be torn between ideal love and compromises in life.

Perhaps most of all, it's an uncompromising look at sex, which we see throughout these stories that three women (Anita Björk, Maj-Britt Nilsson, and Eva Dahlbeck) tell from their personal lives while sitting around and waiting for their husbands to show up. In the first, we see adultery in a bathhouse leading to a confession, in the second we see an affair leading to an unplanned pregnancy, and in the third, we see a married couple get passionate while trapped in an elevator. Unfettered by the American Production Code, Bergman is free to openly refer to the first woman getting sexual satisfaction and an orgasm from someone else, since her husband doesn't satisfy her. In the second story, he shows us topless cabaret dancing followed by a steamy seduction that is told almost completely non-verbally. In the last, there's a clear indication of the husband's (Gunnar Björnstrand) arousal during a leg massage highlighted by Dahlbeck's sly, knowing smile, and then after an evening together, the pair's clothes are disheveled when they're rescued in the morning. We don't really "see" a lot of sex, but it's all pretty steamy nonetheless.

With Bergman it's much more layered and not just sex of course, with intelligent dialog, beautiful cinematography, direct honesty, and the struggle between passion and restraint. The scene in elevator is much more erotic because of the couple's history together, her playfulness, and how they speak so openly to one another. There is such a connection there, and even it has frayed a little with time, the scene is so much more powerful as a result. The second story has some powerful moments as well, such as when the artist (Birger Malmsten) doesn't even listen to Nilsson's important news, and her eyes show her reaction to being bottled up. The visit to the doctor is well-told too, with a nice montage sequence while she's delivering, and a cameo from Bergman himself when she leaves (look for the guy in the beret who looks at her in the mirror as she studies herself).

I liked how the fourth woman at the table didn't have an interesting anecdote, and wondered if that was something to regret or to be happy about. I also liked the inclusion of the younger couple, which give us a glimpse into the pressures in life when becoming an adult, and facing inevitable compromise. As the young woman (Gerd Andersson, sister of Bibi) strokes his neck lovingly, the young man (Björn Bjelfvenstam) says "I told them I don't want to. (go to business school so he can ultimately join the family firm) 'Do you have a better suggestion?' said Uncle Fredrik, with that look on his face only he has. It didn't come out that I'd rather travel and see the world, so I said no and looked like an idiot." Later we'll see their youthful idealism, as after listening to all these stories and deciding to run away together, she hugs him tightly and says "Swear that you'll always love me as much as tonight. Swear that we'll never compromise, never stray, never lie, cheat or behave like everybody else. Because otherwise we might as well be dead." I thought it was quite sweet, and yet we know they are bound to perpetuate the cycle.

This is an interesting prelude to 'Summer with Monika' from the following year, and here Bergman provides commentary in the form of one of the men (Håkan Westergren) talking to Nilsson as they watch the young pair out on the water.

Westergren: Let them run away. Nilsson: What are you saying? Westergren: I'm saying let them run away. They'll be back in time. Nilsson: You think? Westergren: The main thing is that they do something they think is forbidden. Nilsson: Oh, Paul. Westergren: Let them have their summer. Soon enough, the hurt, the wisdom, and all that other stuff will come.

Great Bergman ?

[jromanbaker · 10/10 · 21 September 2023]

In my opinion this is one of Bergman's greatest films, and perhaps only beginning to be recognised as such. I have said before in my reviews on Bergman that I have a love/hate relationship with his work as I believe he was homophobic and not always as understanding about women as he may have thought he was. In this film, ' Waiting Women ' he explores several women's lives and here he has in my opinion pinpointed one essential observation; that men become childlike in their relationships with women. And that women endure their childish moods, rages and unfaithfulness, and above all their crying when they childishly get hurt. Three of the stories show this, and out of the three told in depth I like best the first two. The first shows a woman torn between two men; a childhood love and a petty husband who prefers his antique furniture. No spoilers about who she chooses. The second story is a masterpiece in itself; a young woman in Paris seduced by a man and conceives a child by him. A banal story ? Not in Bergman's hands. Paris is the city where this takes place and it has never been portrayed in such a surreal way, and can can dancers will never look the same in other too often cliched films. The imagery itself is astonishingly filmed and bizarre in a brilliant way, including her seduction. The last story is set in a lift and it is witty and wise, and Eva Dahlbeck is superb as a wife with a dubiously faithful husband. To sum up I believe Bergman's work was at its finest before ' The Seventh Seal ' made him a world wide ' great ' director. Open to debate. X certificated in the UK with cuts in 1959 the film actually was made in 1952!!! Would it have survived the censor before 1959 even with cuts ? Again open to debate, especially if we could know what the reasons would have been.

1.5.2024

[EasonVonn · 8/10 · 4 January 2024]

This is simply one of Bergman's early, most overlapping reminiscences. Multiple women's memories, memories over memories, and I believe that this technique not only allows the audience to feel the delicate flow of emotions from the characters, but also allows Bergman himself to find a point of self style.

I really appreciate the elevator scene, Bergman's own directorial strength of stage play, perfect play dramatic conflict full. Just the only regret CC's bad Chinese subtitles. But the only place worthy of criticism that is that strong flavor of the father, that traditional marital relations of the stench, perhaps this is why my professor once told me that "can not understand the Bergman are not up to age" also to the old age, perhaps the ambiguity of this tradition is the most touching, on the basis of which can not be made a big deal, after all, Bergman's women! After all, Bergman's women are still portrayed quite accurately and vividly. This is reflected in most of the narratives unfolding from a female perspective, and the hysterical performances of men.

I was planning to watch this hypnosis did not realize that the more I watched, the more excited, each memory unfolds like a novel-like chapters marked the story, which in the early Bergman is considered to be a moving work, the first few Summer Chronicles and Thirst here again was a tribute to the order of watching down the feeling is very good.

Marital crises that strengthen the relationship

[frankde-jong · 8/10 · 28 July 2023]

"Secrets of women" or "Waiting women" is a film in which three women tell stories about their marriages or relationships. The women are in a summercottage and waiting for their men to arrive. Their men are all brothers of each other.

"Secrets of women" was a commercial succes at the time of release, but never became a Bergman classic.

From the three stories the third is the most successful. Coincidence or not, in this episode the characters are played by the regular Bergman actors Gunnar Björnstrand (as Fredrik Lobelius) and Eva Dahlbeck (as Karin).

The power of the movie does however not reside in the stories themselves, but in the ending that puts them together.

With this I do not mean that the stories are incomprehensible without the ending, the ending providing the crucial final twist that puts everything in place. I do mean however that the ending is crucial in interpreting the three stories. It provides the common moral of the stories .

All three stories are about an incident or a crisis in the marriage or relationship. In all three stories however the relationship emerges stronger. This is symbolised by the ending in which the men finally arrive. Despite all that has happened in the past, in the evening the couples are having a good time together.

At the end of the film a younger sister of a wife of one of the Lobelius brothers is planning to run away with her lover. Her elder sister wanted to stop them but is told to let them go. The hidden message is clear to me. Give them the chance to make the same muistakes we made, their relationship will only become better.

Thirty years after "Secrets of women" Bergman would make "Fanny and Alexander". This complicated family story has many themes, but the joyful Ekdahl family has some similarities with the Lobelius family in "Secrets of women". Also in "Fanny and Alexander" the members of the Ekdahl family are well aware of each others weaknesses, but this doesn't harm family-ties at all.

One of Bergman's best for sure

[martinpersson97 · 9/10 · 6 December 2023]

Ingmar Bergman needs no introduction at all, being one of the, if not the best, director of all time. His filmography is ever impressive, ever memorable and ever revolutionary.

The 50 is indeed the decade Bergman is said to have been most productive, and arguably at his peak - though this gem is sometimes overlooked, which is a bit of a shame. It is indeed one of his best features, I would certainly say.

The actors all do an incredible job, as one would expect from such great names, and it is truly a career defining affair. The script accompining it is incredible, a good mix of drama, and some very clever humour, some darker shade to it as well. All around exquisitly well written and acted.

The cinematography, cutting and editing is stellar, in true Bergman fashion. The master always does wonders, as one would know. Truly amazing indeed. Very beautifully put together.

Overall, as always with Bermgan, indeed a very recommended film!