Saturday, August 5, 2017
217 - The Magician, 1958, Sweden. Dir. Ingmar Bergman.
Step right up! Vogler's Magnetic Health Theater is here!
Watch as Vogler levitates a human body right before your very eyes.
Ingest one of Granny's love potions and feel how it makes you come alive inside.
Stare, if you dare, into those darkly penetrating eyes and see if you survive.
You can witness these and other wonders--
If the local authorities ever allow them to perform.
Yes, it is the end of the 19th century, and scientific rationalism seeks to buttress itself against the inexplicable.
The bureaucrats count it their duty to expose enchanted chicanery.
And in the process, they might just get exposed themselves.
Yes, they reveal the vagabonds as actors inventing their own work, but they also reveal themselves, especially the town doctor Vergerus, to be human and thereby given to their own irrational fears.
Or rational ones.
They are wearing masks just as the performers are.
And while the performers are mere manipulators concocting tricks to entertain the masses, the bureaucrats have not yet come to terms with their own pretensions.
It is not too hard for Vogler to reduce Vergerus to a startled and terrified child--despite his defensive denial.
This film in Sweden is titled The Face.
Behold the face of the Magician.
Look in the mirror.
Behold your own face.
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