Saturday, February 26, 2011

How Long For An Enema To Work

The face (Ansiktet, 1958) by Ingmar Bergman.


Sweden, mid-nineteenth century. Dr. Vogler (Max von Sydow) and his company of "magnetic stage" consists of his wife (Ingrid Thulin), who serves as an old witch (Naima Wifstrand) and the representative of the show (Ake Fridell), through the forest carriage to go to a small town where they have been invited into the house of Consul Egerman (Erland Josephson) for a private function. There also awaits Dr. Vergerus (Gunnar Björnstrand), which aims to analyze the methods of operation of the mysterious Dr. Vogler.

Bright

mirrors game that Bergman presents us 's face, a film in which the author of The Seventh Seal again reflect on common themes in his work as the truth, death, social masks or the relationship between the sexes.

With a gloomy atmosphere which refers to German Expressionism, the film alternates moments near the gothic story with others who enters without any shame in lewd comedy. His flirtation with the fantastic (the relationship between the earthly world and the hereafter) relate it to The Phantom Carriage ( Körkarlen , 1921) by Victor Sjöström, one of the masterpieces of the silent era that celebrates the visually at times.

The plot revolves around establishing the confrontation between reason / science and illusion / belief among the explainable and the inexplicable, the visible and invisible. Opposing positions that are illustrated in the characters of Dr. Vergerus and Dr. Vogler respectively.

Vogler and his troupe were invited to the mansion to suffer the humiliation of men of science in a vain example of how modernity is destroying any remnant of primitive superstition. Despite his triumph will be only partial, as reflected in the shocking (for close to terror) sequence that takes place in the attic near the end of the film.

Bergman also delves into the importance of acquiring the masks, in a metaphorical sense, as a means for the artist to be taken seriously by the public as lacking the same, it loses its aura of notoriety becoming a simple more mortal, whose sole purpose is subsistence.

addition to the foregoing, the wise management of the staging and the excellent work of the entire cast make Ansiktet a remarkable job in the extensive filmography of the Swedish master.

Rating: very good .