Saturday, August 4, 2012

Waiting Women (1952)

Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A group of women in a remote country home spin stories of their past while waiting for their husbands and boyfriends to return home. The film is structured with a brief framing story at the house with three stories told in flashback. In the first story, a bored wife has an affair with an old lover then matter-of-factly tells her husband. He overreacts and threatens to kill himself, but is talked out of it. In the second, a pregnant girl remembers her love affairs in Paris. There are some vivid scenes in a cabaret, but the flashback within a flashback is awkward. In the final scene, a husband and wife become trapped in an elevator. They use the opportunity to confront each other over their unfaithfulness, and then have sex. It's all a little tiresome and over the top, even for Bergman, but he continues to grow as a director: the black and white photography, the framing of the scenes, the editing, all display a master's touch.

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