Review of Hour of the Wolf (1968) by Zoran S — 27 Nov 2011

With Ingmar Bergman's death, I thought I would revisit this strange and curious film by him. It's difficult to describe, let alone synthesis my response to it. The "plot," as it were, follows the life of Johan and Alma, who are (as you would expect) brilliantly portrayed by Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann.

Essentially, Johan is a painter who his loosing his sanity and is increasingly besieged by hallucinations. What is strange, however, is that Alma seems to share his hallucinations as well. Several sequences in the film are so bizarre, hermetic, and seemingly personal that they are incomprehensible.

Still, the film never fails to disturb (such as when a character climbs up on the celling) and ultimately works as an affective look at madness and spiritual terror. Probably minor Bergman, but nonetheless fascinating.