In Ingmar Bergman's Gycklarnas afton (Sawdust and Tinsel) there's a great scene where travelling circus owner Albert and troupe arrive at the town where Albert's estranged wife and mother of his children Agda lives, after an absence of many years, and asks to be taken back. Agda meanwhile has learnt the value of peace and quiet, there's a wonderful pause where the conversation stops and she absorbs the chiming of the carriage clock on the mantelpiece in pure stillness. In Bo Widerberg's movie Raven's End you have a similarly telling moment where The Mother (her name is never revealed) mentions aloud her daydream of being able to go out to the forest on her own on a sunny day and daysleep. What the movie does really well is to capture the members of a family, and in general, members of a working class community with great simplicity.
The only child of the family Anders has become a young man, and undergoes many of the metanoiac thoughts young men do, becoming aware of truths about their mum and dad's relationship, reflecting back on poignant moments of their own ungratefulness, of the gap between their own opinion of their potential and concrete achievement, suddenly becoming aware, often too late, of their own set of vanities, intellectual and otherwise. The Father is a frighteningly despondent and fatalistic charlatan, who foreshadows the coming cynicism of National Socialism and consumerism.
However it is all too easy to focus on the miseries of a film. In truth there is a degree of charm to the area "Raven's End", with it's community spirit, quietness, and aspidistra-filled domesticity, where the football players are still members of the local community. There's also small bursts of joy, such as a visit to see the new-fangled escalator in the local department store.
The ultimate message I suppose is to respond to your summer, to respond to the voice of hope in your mind, whatever the cost.
