This is perhaps the most obscure of Ingmar Bergman's films, allegedly recognized by himself who, dissatisfied with the result, successively opposed its exhibition and edition on video or DVD.
Myths aside, this is certainly an atypical film by the Swedish master. Halfway between a film noir and a Hitchcockian spy thriller, it still fails to captivate the viewer.
The plot is complex and confusing. It seems like a veiled allusion to the Soviet Union and the occupation of the Baltic countries. Are these the metaphorical small country that wanted peace and that was swallowed by the giant dictatorship? Probably. But the film is not clear. Denmark was also swallowed up by the Nazi giant, without offering a fight. Sweden itself was dragged into a humiliating neutrality, semi-collaborating with Nazi Germany, fearful of the Soviets. Only the Norwegians fought, eventually successfully, against the Nazis and the Finns withstood the Soviet offensive, before Moscow was forced to contain the Nazi invasion, abandoning the Finnish war, but holding the occupied territories in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
In this entire political context, in the aftermath of World War II, to whom was Bergman's criticism directed? To Denmark? To his own guiltyly neutral Sweden? To the occupied Baltic countries? Most likely to all, mainly because they were not able to recover the independence of the occupied Baltic states after the end of the war.
But everything is assumptions. The film is purposely dark and disguised as a simple American thriller, with more form than content.
A minor work, in the very rich universe of Bergman's cinema.
Myths aside, this is certainly an atypical film by the Swedish master. Halfway between a film noir and a Hitchcockian spy thriller, it still fails to captivate the viewer.
The plot is complex and confusing. It seems like a veiled allusion to the Soviet Union and the occupation of the Baltic countries. Are these the metaphorical small country that wanted peace and that was swallowed by the giant dictatorship? Probably. But the film is not clear. Denmark was also swallowed up by the Nazi giant, without offering a fight. Sweden itself was dragged into a humiliating neutrality, semi-collaborating with Nazi Germany, fearful of the Soviets. Only the Norwegians fought, eventually successfully, against the Nazis and the Finns withstood the Soviet offensive, before Moscow was forced to contain the Nazi invasion, abandoning the Finnish war, but holding the occupied territories in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
In this entire political context, in the aftermath of World War II, to whom was Bergman's criticism directed? To Denmark? To his own guiltyly neutral Sweden? To the occupied Baltic countries? Most likely to all, mainly because they were not able to recover the independence of the occupied Baltic states after the end of the war.
But everything is assumptions. The film is purposely dark and disguised as a simple American thriller, with more form than content.
A minor work, in the very rich universe of Bergman's cinema.