Ett drömspel (1963 TV Movie) User Reviews

A Dream Play

[hrkepler · 8/10 · 7 June 2018]

Bergman's television production of August Strindberg's stage play 'A Dream Play'. A surreal film that follows a dream logic - characters, locations and situations change with the blink of an eye. Agnes (Ingrid Thulin), daughter of Vedic god Indra descends to Earth to experience all sorts of human sufferings like poverty, cruelty, drudgery of everyday life. She meets all sorts of characters from who are clearly symbolical. Acting is over the top theatrical and the drawn set pieces add another level of dreaminess to the film. Thanks to the quickly changing locations and characters, the black and white photography, and heavy-handed weighty subject the film could become hard for the viewer after some time.

If one haven't seen the play on stage, it might be hard to imagine how the scene transitions might look on the stage, but on screen, with editing it comes together nicely and have one clear flow. 'A Dream Play' seems to be more suited for the screen than on the stage.

Hard to find Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece with great cinematic (although it was TV production) value.

Worth watching 2*2=9/10

[fthllhkrtz · 9/10 · 12 September 2023]

An adaptation to play by Strindberg. Firstly it is in the original form of the play, in Swedish language, which is an advantage for me.

What I really like most is the dialogue that stays loyal to the source which is almost perfect already.

Actors and actresses, directing, cinematography make additional factors which definitely increase quality.

With frequent changing scenes and intricate dialogues it is hard to get bored.

I like omission of the first part of the play otherwise it would be too direct.

It makes you question your basic life problems, thought processess, illogical perspectives, human beings' simple sides.

Maybe it is a little bit pessimistic however I find content of the dialogue is more important than the emotional aspect. You can choose to accept pitfalls of being a human and make a peace and learn to live with it.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds...

[Xstal · 4/10 · 5 February 2023]

Agnes is to pay the world a call, she wants to understand, what makes us squall, why there's misery and hate, pilling up on every plate, all the factors that prevent us standing tall.

But it's hard work keeping conscious for the next 110 minutes as nonsensical, dull, disengaging and dated characters bore the pants off you talking gibberish and dated gobbledygook about things that are hard to align with a world you live in today and even more so as it's built around a concept of faith that has been disappearing quicker than the worlds glaciers (thank goodness). Ingrid Thulin does at least fill the role of Agnes well, but she always was a great actor.

are you a Bergman fan?

[alejandromj25 · 5/10 · 20 December 2022]

If you're looking for your first Bergman movie, run away from this one. Go watch Persona instead.

About the movie: it has a complicated start, plain boring. People talk too much instead of showing and in essence it's theatre being filmed and nothing else. Actors are doing theatre and it happens to be a camera nearby. It starts to get better by min. 30 and from there on it takes a way better turn, incorporating themes from Wild Strawberries and other of his known works.

This is a movie about dreams, however i feel Bergman didn't create a sufficiently effective mise-en-scène, with lots of hero shots and only quick glimpses at a scenery that had more room for development and details; it may have been because of budget as this was a TV film but i feel there was a lot of potential, camera movements, camera angles that were only partially incorporated bit by bit towards the end of the movie, but not embedded as a core element of it.

It baffles me that there's only one review for this film apart from this one so i invite anyone who read this to go watch it, if you like Bergman you won't regret it.