Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)
Apparently Bergman was upset with the critical response to his recently completed dark trilogy, so he made this "comedy" in which he rakes a critic over the coals. A famous cellist, representing artists everywhere and presumably Bergman himself, lives in a country mansion surrounded by wealth and women. A critic arrives to write his biography, but becomes involved with the various women. The critic is a bumbling fool: unable to control his basest instincts, obviously putting himself above the artist he is writing about. Bergman makes his contempt plainly obvious in a scene where the critic is hit with bird droppings. The cellist, never seen, remains aloof. I'm not so sure Bergman is mocking artists as well. It's all rather cerebral, beautifully filmed in color by Sven Nykvist, in particular a set piece involving fireworks.
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