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IMDbPro

The Rite

Original title: Riten
  • TV Movie
  • 19691969
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 12m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
3K
YOUR RATING
Gunnar Björnstrand, Anders Ek, Erik Hell, and Ingrid Thulin in The Rite (1969)
Drama
A theatre troupe is called to court because of obscene performance material and an interrogation ensues, which causes them to expose their neuroses and inner psychological torments.A theatre troupe is called to court because of obscene performance material and an interrogation ensues, which causes them to expose their neuroses and inner psychological torments.A theatre troupe is called to court because of obscene performance material and an interrogation ensues, which causes them to expose their neuroses and inner psychological torments.
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
3K
YOUR RATING
    • Ingmar Bergman
    • Ingmar Bergman
  • Stars
    • Ingrid Thulin
    • Anders Ek
    • Gunnar Björnstrand
    • Ingmar Bergman
    • Ingmar Bergman
  • Stars
    • Ingrid Thulin
    • Anders Ek
    • Gunnar Björnstrand
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 18User reviews
    • 16Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos58

    Ingmar Bergman and Ingrid Thulin in The Rite (1969)
    Gunnar Björnstrand, Anders Ek, and Ingrid Thulin in The Rite (1969)
    Ingrid Thulin in The Rite (1969)
    Gunnar Björnstrand in The Rite (1969)
    Ingrid Thulin in The Rite (1969)
    Ingrid Thulin in The Rite (1969)
    Gunnar Björnstrand and Ingrid Thulin in The Rite (1969)
    Anders Ek in The Rite (1969)
    Erik Hell in The Rite (1969)
    Ingrid Thulin in The Rite (1969)
    Anders Ek and Ingrid Thulin in The Rite (1969)
    The Rite (1969)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ingrid Thulin
    Ingrid Thulin
    • Thea Winkelmann
    Anders Ek
    Anders Ek
    • Sebastian Fisher
    Gunnar Björnstrand
    Gunnar Björnstrand
    • Hans Winkelmann
    Erik Hell
    Erik Hell
    • Judge Dr. Abrahamson
    Ingmar Bergman
    Ingmar Bergman
    • Priest
      • Ingmar Bergman
      • Ingmar Bergman
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      French certificate: 13 (theatrical release).
    • Quotes

      Hans Winkelmann: Isn't it better to have insecurity with small artificial islands of security? It agrees better with the real state of affairs than the other way round.

    User reviews18

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    a collection of taut mind-games and gripping and revealing dialog...and then there's the last scene!
    I'm one of those: Ingmar Bergman is a true artist, a great filmmaker who's connection with the brightness and deepest darkness of human nature, of faults with religion, with close relationships, horrors of the mind, dreams, was so strong that it's hard to believe that he made so much and didn't succumb sooner to his most dogged troubles- death. In the case of the Rite, it's basically an experiment. He has ten scenes, four actors (not counting himself in an uproarious cameo appearance/in-joke on the Seventh Seal as a priest), and a lot of sado-masochistic psychology to work with. There aren't quite as many monologues as in Persona, and not the same depth of a relationship ala Scenes From a Marriage. But for the most part, the Rite works well as another exploration of Bergman's into the frayed mindset of actors, the discombobulated circumstances they get themselves into personally that mucks them up in the real world. Only the theater is their strange refuge, might be the message here, if there is one.

    One thing's for certain, among the many performances that Bergman stock-company members Bjornstrand and Thullin have given in past films (Winter Light maybe their best pairing), the Rite provides them some of their best work. It might be almost too easy considering the material- a married couple that is completely miserable, full of the kind of bile that is found in the worst boils- and brought to a more succinct point by the actor Anders Ek (who has also been in a couple other Bergman flicks, notably Seventh Seal as the Monk), who might be the most exhaustedly p-o'd actor one's ever seen. They're all on trial for some Kafkaesque reason by a judge (Erik Hell) who is making their nerves totally on edge with his insistence on all the 'facts' coming in. The scenes particularly with him and Thulin are explosive, and even shocking to a point, where as before there's been subtlety and insinuation.

    As it stands, approximately 9/10ths of The Rite is close to vintage Bergman as one could hope for, coming out of a period in the 60s where he plunged into a deconstructionist approach that found him working at full-steam (Persona, Shame, and Hour of the Wolf are some of the most daring 'art-house' films ever conceived and executed), and considering this as just an exercise is nothing to sneeze at...That being said, there is that final scene in the office I can't get out of my head, and unlike other times with Bergman I'm not sure it's such a good thing. It's a turning-the-tables scene where the actors come in costumes and masks ala Eyes Wide Shut and freak the f*** out of the judge, and Hell (no pun intended) goes into a rant about how wrong he was and how he sees that he's just a lawyer who didn't want to do this and that and so on. And it just doesn't feel the same as the rest of the material in the film, an 'off' quality, despite (or in spite) of the fact that on its own it's a truly outrageous thing to see: the costumes are sado-masochism incarnate, with a certain appendage that is ridiculous, and a bowl of wine that is obvious symbolically.

    Maybe someday if I re-watch the Rite I'll come to admire or find something else about the scene that works better, but for now it's the only thing that is really a bugger about what is otherwise an exemplary work of cinematic theater. If you can find it somewhere in your local video store (emphasis on 'video', it's not available on DVD), and are already head-deep in the master of Scandinavian motion pictures, it's worth it.
    helpful•7
    3
    • Quinoa1984
    • Oct 1, 2007

    Details

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    • Release date
      • September 18, 1969 (United States)
      • Sweden
      • Swedish
    • Also known as
      • Svensk Filmindustri, Filmstaden, Råsunda, Stockholms län, Sweden
    • Production companies
      • Cinematograph AB
      • Personafilm
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 12 minutes
      • Black and White
      • Mono

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