Directed by:
Ingmar BergmanScreenplay:
Ingmar BergmanCast:
Harriet Andersson, Hasse Ekman, Anders Ek, Gudrun Brost, Annika Tretow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Lissi Alandh, Åke Fridell, Eric Gustafson, Majken Torkeli (more)Plots(1)
Aging,portly, traveling circus owner and ring master Albert Johansson is passing with hisdown-and-out troupe through a provincial town wherehis tobacco shop owner wife Agda liveswith his children. Albert is tired of running and is yearning for the stability of a bourgeois life. (British Film Institute (BFI))
Reviews (3)
An intense and ruthless study of humiliation and picture of the distortion of the character of variety artists and other cobblers. The impoverished circus performer Alfred must suffer the slights and ridicule of similarly ridiculed and humiliated actors who play the decline. The weight and intensity of the image is at the maximum and the choice of actor types is precisely tied to expressiveness. Humiliation and disgust, submissiveness, inability to anchor and remove one’s mask, no matter how vain and disgusting the role is... a very intense 93 minutes of absolutely focused film matter. There are no missteps.
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I consider the bleak existential drama The Naked Night to be one of Bergman's weaker works, but that doesn't mean it's a bad film. It just didn't quite work for me. The silhouettes of the circus wagons looming on the horizon probably caught my attention the most, if I leave aside the plot. They seemed to foreshadow Bergman's masterpiece The Seventh Seal. Compared to that cinematic gem, however, I have to go lower with my rating.
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Even though this film by Ingmar Bergman didn't exactly captivate me, I must acknowledge that many scenes demonstrate his masterful direction. Moreover, thanks to the black and white camera, you'll further appreciate the interplay of light and shadow. The actors (both circus and theater) are portrayed here in a light that shows them as humans, yet they remain different, peculiar, dangerous, and intriguing.
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Gallery (53)
Photo © Sandrew-Baumanfilm AB
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