209 - Thirst, 1949, Sweden. Dir. Ingmar Bergman.

Friday, July 28, 2017

209 - Thirst, 1949, Sweden.  Dir. Ingmar Bergman.

Criterion has a sub-series of movies called Eclipse.  Eclipse movies are those movies that Criterion deems to be also of interest.  They may be the lesser known films of an important director or films that are not considered a part of the cinema cannon.

It is a euphemism to explain why they place some films in the public without bothering to add supplements.

It is also the result of some filmmakers being so prolific that some of their films take attention away from others that otherwise would have been considered classics.

Thirst is a mature work.  If Bergman did not have so many masterpieces to keep it hiding in the shadows, it might be considered one of his great works.

It focuses on the lives of a couple who are vacationing in Europe, who love each other and hate each other and who have made their lives so complicated by past transgressions that it is hard for them to escape.

The couple are Ruth and Bertil.

Ruth once had an affair with a married man named Raoul.  Bertil once had an affair with a woman named Viola.  Ruth and Viola were once classmates at a dance school.  Viola is now a widow and has since had another classmate named Valbourg come on to her.

Raoul got Ruth pregnant and she had an abortion.  The abortion has made her infertile and unable to dance any more.  She is bitter about it.  Viola was under the care of a psychiatrist who enjoyed mentally torturing her for sport, as a means of control.  Valbourg's attempted seduction came shortly after Viola escaped from the psychiatrist's clutches.

Bergman takes a moment to get in a cheap shot at a couple of clergymen who have just come back from a couples' retreat where they have worked on communicating better with their spouses.  They have committed to speaking openly about their own struggles in their marriages, and one wants to write a book about how to communicate more effectively with your spouse.  Bergman uses this moment as a juxtaposition with Ruth and Bertil, who are hopelessly lost in their relationship, as if to say the clergymen have no clue what real marital struggle is all about.  Never mind that their hard work at fidelity and selflessness might be the reason their marriages are more successful and the very thing that Ruth and Bertil need.

Ruth and Bertil stick together because they each decide that being alone is worse than "the hell we have together."

This quick plot summary may read like a soap opera, but this is a good film.  It looks at the struggles of relationships and consequences of various choices, and it holds up a mirror to nature.  It is modern and frank in its treatment of love, relationships, abortion, women's roles in society, and the struggle of men and women to communicate with one another.

It also prefigures Bergman's classic Summer with Monika with a sequence involving Raoul and Ruth out on the water.


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Ruth (Eva Henning)

Bertil (Birger Malmsten)

Raoul (Bengt Eklund)

Verona, Bologna, Florence, Venice, the Lido, Capri, Messina, and Syracuse.

* * *

I could spend all summer here with you.

* * *

Any healthy man has to have two women.  There are sly devils with more, and that's just indecent. No, two's the right number, and you hold on to them for dear life.

* * *

A woman nowadays can do so many other things besides having babies.

Your profession is so full of variety, where you're both celebrated and envied.

I don't want to be sterile!

Let's let in some fresh air.

* * *

You shouldn't smoke so much.  Think of your heart.

What use is a heart to a dancer who can't use her legs?

It wouldn't even do as an arch support.

* * *

Always looking at your watch.  It's your god.

* * *

I don't want to be your appendix, like Viola.

Just toss me away.

* * *

Notice anything?

Of course.

Doesn't it excite you?

Not really.  There's too much nudity in this marriage.

* * *

The two sexes can never be united.  They're separated by a sea of tears and misunderstandings.

* * *

Find me a cigarette, will you?  I haven't smoked in 15 minutes.

* * *

Come away and break up a marriage.  Do something worthwhile.

Help yet another sleepwalking couple wake up from their illusions.  I'd like to shatter your illusions.

You never loved your husband, not until after his death.  You've spun a coat of armor around your marriage.

Admit that your whole life has been one long mistake.

Of course, you could stop seeing me.  "Patient jumps up from operating table, intestines hanging out."

Must be a problem with the anesthetic.  I feel awfully awake.

* * *

I replace kindness with imagination.

You have no imagination.  You've never lived!  You know nothing about life or suffering.  You think!

* * *

You smoke too much.

My last lover nagged me too.  "Think of your heart," he said and married a dancer.  That's how much he thought of my heart.

* * *

I'll plow your virgin soil.

You will not plow my soil!

* * *

You belong with the incurables.  Your breakdown is imminent.

* * *

Now I know how ruins feel.  Sterile and empty-eyed amid lush nature.  That's me in a nutshell.

* * *

You're always jumping on children.  And you're oversensitive.

Easy for you to say.  They threw my child in the trash and mutilated me!

I've seen buckets of my own blood.  Butchers with sharp knives!  "Everything will be fine."

Ruth, you have to get over it.

I can't.  They killed something inside me.

Is it that painful?

It's hell.

* * *

I should get myself tested, but I never have the time.

* * *

You've ruined people too.

Not to my knowledge.

* * *

There isn't a man who hasn't brought ruin to a woman, one way or another.

I wouldn't mind a bite to eat now.

* * *

They're so busy surviving that they never have time for a spiritual life.

* * *
Did any one bother to make me real?  How often do men make human beings of women?

In your case it would be a full-time job for a millionaire.

* * *

I'd like to sleep.

That can be arranged.

* * *

Raoul was brutal.  You took away my lust for life.  You cheated on me, with Viola, and maybe others.

You're no saint either.

I told you everything.  But you forgot to tell me.  You made me believe you were the noblest man on earth.

It's my cursed fate to always meet hysterical women.

It's my cursed fate to play the nurse, and I've had enough.

You want a divorce!

Stop shouting.  People can hear.

I'll never leave you.  We're joined together, like on a chain gang.

* * *

Are you afraid of me?

Why should I be?

You're beautiful standing there with your flushed cheeks.

* * *

Quite pleasant, don't you think?

Yes.  It's blissful to go numb.

Everyone seems to have exclusive rights to hell.

I'm so lonely, Valbourg.

Lonely and dependent on a man.  I know that one.

* * *

You understand me.

Don't be too sure.  Let's not get autobiographical.  It only ends in sentimentality.

Men are a closed chapter to me.

* * *

I don't want to be alone and independent.  That's much worse.

Worse than what?

Than the hell we have.  At least we have each other.