I reckon the 2nd most miserable film ever made in on the telly tonight?
Tonight Film 4 is screening Ingmar Bergman’s “The Silence’” (14/7/10)
I like Bergman. He brings out the moody adolescent in me but there is way more to Bergman than merely the stuff that feeds the imagination of dull witted goth type youths. What I really like about his films is that he never really compromised, there is very little sentiment and very little that offers redemption.
It can make for pretty harrowing viewing.
But I’m not sure The Silence is the bleakest film ever made. I reckon it to be the second bleakest.
This film was the third in what is sometimes called Bergman’s “Faith Trilogy” and all 3 films are real contenders for the “Most Miserable Film Ever Made Gold Cup”.
The first of the trilogy was “Through A Glass Darkly” where a young schizophrenic after having sex with her brother (probably), has the stark realisation that God does not give a toss about us. She also thinks God is a spider. She then thinks that the spider god violates her.
All pretty bleak stuff – but the brother has a bonding moment with his dad at the end – and this late burst of redemption means that it can only get bronze in the search for the bleakest film ever.
The second of the Trilogy is “Winter Light” where a Priest in a remote Swedish village realises, a bit like the schizophrenic girl, that if there is a God then he is indifferent to our problems. One of his parishioners sees things the same way and as such he takes himself of to the woods and shoots himself. The Priest’s reaction to his parishioner’s death is to tell his (the Priest’s) fiance how much he hates her, really hates her, how he has seen her in her most intimate moments and how he hated what he saw. What follows is footage of a lonely hate filled priest carrying out a religious ritual he sees no point in.
For me – “Winter Light” is the bleakest film ever made. It’s where Bergman fumbles about in human intimacy and ends up finding existential angst. It’s because of this, and because it’s done subtly and because “The Silence” does tack on an ending which hints at a bit of “there’s always the children” type redemption that I would say “Winter Light” gets the “Most Miserable Film Ever Made Gold Cup”.
I like Bergman’s films but I do think that if you think about this stuff too much it could drive you potty. It’s probably because they do make for difficult viewing that this quite lurid trailer (with it’s talk of lesbianism and incest and “the flesh”) was produced to try to flog “The Silence” to American audiences.
