Review of Shame (1968) by Joe L — 12 Apr 2011

Ingmar Bergman's 1968 effort SKAMMEN (Shame) is the auteur's only war film. Nevertheless, like all of his films from the Sixties, his main concern is human relationships. Jan (Max von Sydow) and Eva (Liv Ullmann) are two violinists living on a island off the coast. The country in which they live is fractured by civil war, and soon the islanders face an invasion by the other side. Jan is a unable to handle the threat of destruction, and is given over to crying. Eva hates this sensitivity and constantly rebukes him. Once the bombing starts, the divisions between them become even more polarized, especially once the local military commander Jacobi (Gunnar Bjornstrand) demands the attentions of Eva.

I love Bergman's work, but I find SKAMMEN rather disappointing compared to most of Bergman's output from the 1960s, in the main all masterpieces. His treatment of war lacks fluency, with the feeling that he is just using stock gestures of battle and confusion just to further the disintegration of the relationship. Another reviewer criticized Bergman's focus on the interpersonal when war is by its very nature something that touches all of society, and I agree. Personally, I think the scene in Bergman's earlier film TYSNADEN where the tanks roll by as the passengers are sitting in the train communicates the horror of war between than anything in SKAMMEN. And the role reversal at the end of the film, where Eva is the sensitive one and Jan has become cruel and confident under the constant violence, seems too pat.

Nonetheless, even poor Bergman is better than most other films, and there's a few praiseworthy things here. Sven Nykvist's cinematography is, as always, excellent. Bergman's fellow filmmaker and protege Vilgot Sjoman plays the director of a propaganda film, which I take as a wry jab at the director's art. The acting is fine, even if the script they are working with isn't the best. Gunnar Bjornstrand is especially memorable, since he finally gets to play a villain, and he plays him well enough that the audience despises the character.