Review of Port of Call (1948) by Dfw F — 31 Oct 2009

Port of Call (1948) Hamnstad ["Harbour city"] Bergman's 5th film 2nd directing effort. Personal freedom is a major theme of this lovely, bleak, but not pessimistic, early Ingmar Bergman movie.

This one of the his rare Swedish films focusing on family life. Its uniqueness is due to the fact that it has an eclectic mix of serious themes. These themes include bitter, harsh realities like abortion,broken home, correctional house etc.

Bergman has deftly portrayed the dreary lives of its two lonely protagonists : Gosta and Berit. A lonely ship guy comes home to Sweden after 8 years at sea. His first day back- he saves a girl from drowning (herself).

She is Bergit who has a trouble past. They fall in love. She hates the life she is trapped in and social workers monitor her and she is living with a strict overbearing mom . The mom herself is trapped in a horrible abusive marriage.

Bergit is out of reformatory for girls (on kind of a probation). Will Gosta the sailor give her the love she needs and marry her? Meanwhile, Berit is desperate to be free: free from the badgering and manipulation of the mother she is forced to live with, free of the dirty work of the factory and free of her social worker and the constant threat of returning to reformatory school.

Her already unhappy life is complicated when an old friend from the school desperately needs her help.. Bergman himself admitted the strong influence of Rossellini and Neo-Realism on this dockside drama, filmed partly on authentic Gothenburg locations.

Bergman makes excellent use of his gritty, sea-front locations and doesn't shirk from showing the drudgery and misery his protagonists endure in their day-to-day lives. Although less typical of Bergman's style than most of his films, Port of Call is a good piece of work.

A certain influence from Italian neo-realism may be found, and this is suited to the type of story told here. The fine handling of the actors does much to catch the interest of the spectator, and the life of the harbor has been well integrated into the plot.

The film is a good example of his early film work before he had gathered the regular troupe of actors and characters that he would later mine for his more complex, psychological dramas. Later Bergman dramas would come to be associated with personal breakdowns, the alienation and isolation of the characters expressed partly in the remoteness of the outside locations Here, as in many of Bergman's early films (Summer Interlude, Summer With Monika, Torment) it's the outside location, the small-town attitudes and social restrictions on young people, particularly women, that influences the state of mind of the characters rather than represents it.

Port of Call is consequentially a much more conventional social drama, a rite of passage for the young director. It is a typical example of the first period in Bergman's filmography that will reach its climax with "Summer with Monika".

The story may sound cliched and naive at times, but it is its honesty that engages its viewers, as well as the masterful shots of the great Swedish director. This is the 5th film to be directed by Bergman, Port of Call is the first which shows him to full advantage.

It is just as interesting on a visual scope as his films usually are While it lacks the sophistication and complexity of later Bergman films, Port of Call is nevertheless a very fine film. We yearn for Berit to find freedom from her unpleasant life, and most of all freedom from loneliness, just as we hope Gosta can free himself from jealousy and the specters of long-gone rivals for his affections.

. This film was made in collaboration with cinematographer Gunnar Fischer, with whom he continued to work on seventeen other films (including Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal) until switching to another great cinematographer, Sven Nykvist.

Although it pales in comparison to his more philosophical works, Bergmanâ??s brief flirtation with social-realism is a work of quite some power, and, compared to most films of its day, decidedly adult in its depiction of difficult subject matter.

I liked this film five stars.