The Nordic cinema was characterized, since its beginnings, by having a language, artistic guidelines, audiovisual paths quite differentiated from cinema developed in other countries of cinematographic significance. Whether with the giant Victor Sjöström -who incidentally works as a producer in the present film-, with either Mauritz Stiller or Gustaf Molander, there were always names of great prestige in that cinema, individuals of great value and talent in the seventh art, among which is also the great Alf Sjöberg. For the present film, it is also added another capital name of the Nordic cinema, the Swedish cinema, a later master, heir to a large extent of many aspects of these giants of classical cinema, the great Ingmar Bergman collaborates, in his first script, an incentive not minor, and not few edges of his future work we will see. The great filmmaker Sjöberg, who developed his career entirely in the stage of sound cinema, when the epiphanic revolution of sound was an undeniable reality, gives us this memorable film exercise, which tells the story of a group of young students, who are constantly humiliated, mistreated by their Latin teacher, while one of the students has an affair with a young woman from the locality; but the martyrdom to which the professor submits them will reach unthinkable heights.
In a study center for young people, after seeing an infant desperately escaping from a teacher, and after a liturgical ceremony, we see some young students. This is Jan-Erik Widgren (Alf Kjellin), along with his friend Sandman (Stig Olin), and Pettersson (Jan Molander), the three members of a class where they are tyrannized by their Latin teacher, whom they nickname "Caligula" (Stig Järrel). Widgren meets one day Bertha Olsson (Mai Zetterling), a tobacco seller, finds her drunk, and takes her home. "Caligula" is then approached by the school principal (Olof Winnerstrand), who asks him to stop being so rigorous with his students, but the teacher ignores it, while Widgren and Bertha are maturing a romance, but she fears certain presences in her house. Later, she is attacked by a dark silhouette in her house, Widgren finds her drunk, a strong argument is generated, the young man gets sick, has trouble in class, but the worst comes when he sees Bertha again. She, who at her home moments before was with Caligula himself, is found dead by the student, and the Latin teacher is also in the room, but is declared innocent by the police. Widgren does not hesitate, he directly accuses the professor of the girl's death, he does not care about the graduation; in the end, he stays in the room of the late Bertha, has final dialogue with Caligula.
As it was said at the beginning, Nordic cinema, Danish, Finnish and Swedish cinema, always had an identity and directives quite differentiated from the rest of the world's cinema trends, Sjöström starting everything as the undisputed great master of silent films, Stiller as well was also a brilliant exponent, and Molander completed this, without forgetting, of course, the immortal Danish giant Carl Theodor Dreyer. After all of them would be Alf Sjöberg, framed his activity already in the sound cinema, this is a memorable film of this referential filmmaker, but nevertheless, it is almost impossible to stop appreciating in the film another element that makes it a jewel. That detail is the thaumaturgy that was born with the film, in the form of a man inseparable from cinema, a man who dedicated a lifetime, his whole life, to cinema, theater, audiovisual art, the prodigious Ingmar Bergman would appear officially accredited for the first time in the present film, and even, by chance, he had to direct the final sequence when Sjöberg felt ill. The cinema changed forever, there was a name that would never disappear from the environment, Ingmar Bergman was made known to the whole world, the great Swedish titan arrived to never leave. Speaking of the film before going back to the maestro Ingmar, it is an interesting beginning that we see in the film, expressing the expertise with the camera that the director has acquired, which will be a hallmark of the film by the way, that show of dominance when we see the infant fleeing from his preceptor, a game of persecution in which different shots, often zenithal shots, many travellings, a variety of resources will be conjugated, soon evidencing a good management of the work tool. That mastery and mobility of the camera will not stop anymore during the film, but with great skill will know how to differentiate that behavior, being exemplary in that sense the sequences in the classroom, with the aforementioned dynamism, and at other times it will be a static camera, highlighting tension, highlighting the secrecy of that classroom, the torture to which Caligula subjects the boys. Returning to that, an extraordinary work is done to generate the atmosphere in that classroom, somber, whose walls print the reflection of raindrops on the windows, in this way the walls
move in a disturbing way, including a sequence in which the frame that serves as cover for the film is captured, where once again this great work in the assembly combining travellings, static shots, and different frames, will reinforce that suffocating feeling of the cloister in the classroom.
The looseness of the lens is particularly noticeable indoors, the freedom of the lens flows, the interior scenes also have, in their treatment of the camera and in the composition of the frames, in the way in which the elements of said framings are figured, a solemn theatrical halo. But the versatility of the film is wide, even dose of terror we will find in that dark language, that dark universe where the shadows at times become independent of the human, where those daughters of darkness seem to move freely, the shadows dominate not a few sequences, ephemeral but powerful, they move by themselves. And in the dream of Widgren, we felt them as shady visual echoes of the characters, it could not be absent the dream level, and although brief and not too elaborate or colorful, it is a sequence differentiated from the rest of the footage without a doubt. The film has a general tone of shade, powerful games of lights and shadows, backlighting, an expressionist aesthetic that flows with vigor throughout the film, and that serves for an appreciator to have noticed, not surprisingly, echoes of the visual art of the master of this current, the giant Fritz Lang, or another great master, the Frenchman Jean Renoir. Even the frames of the shots, even the stairs, very expressionist visual element, and their twisted conformations, refer us to this audio-visual current, to that shady and peculiar expressiveness. In this bizarre world, the figure of the villain, the great tyrant, the fearsome Caligula, can not be absent, he is shown from the beginning with a significant image, we see him unattainable in his presentation, with that low-angle shot that magnifies him, and in the first active participation of sadist teacher, his character is soon reflected, is a tyrant, enjoys commanding and harassing his students, physical and psychological abuse. However, he is actually a pathetic villain, the pathology of Caligula is palpable, so palmarial that it almost hurts; with the old director we will first see glimpses of his psychological cracks, and then, with Widgren, that shell of seemingly impenetrable evil will be completely broken, his hermetic and unbreakable tyranny then leaves space for close-ups that show him fragile, with an expression, with a shine in the eyes, which definitely will not let us see him in the same way again. He is a bizarre creature, plays with Bertha's cat, narrates the sordid story he had with a feline, is a complex, contradictory being, in a few words, and as he defines himself, a sick being, a two-edged villainous, his wickedness, his tyranny, they hide in reality fear, insecurity, a destructive inability to relate normally with other human beings, unable to overcome his traumas; he is a Bergmanian character in his entirety. The end finishes diagramming Caligula's acid pathos, he is indeed a sick individual, he cries like a child, the dark and morbid confusion make him a plaintive prey, while he cries out, "I'm sick, do not leave me alone, turn on the light!", because he is no longer in the visual darkness of the picture, he remains in the dark confusion of his own psyche.
With all the virtues and successes of the film and its director, it is inevitable, as noted, to highlight that a giant was born with this film, and for the lover of the Bergmanian filmography, as the writer of this article, it is certainly an aspect of mandatory mention and recognition. Thus, characteristic elements of Bergman flow, the oppression, in the figure of the father many times -this time with the mask of the teacher-, guilt, fear, much fear, both in the student, but, surprisingly (or maybe not so much) even more so in the tyrant. Words, topics that swarm all the cinematographic life of the Uppsala born, the Bergmanian guidelines, with certain clarity, are already being diagrammed, it is in fact a script of the master director of
Wild Strawberries, and it is a delight for the well-versed palate appreciating, noting, many of the future guidelines and cornerstones of Bergman's cinema already with vigor in this work, his first official contribution to the seventh art. In this way, we will appreciate in certain sequences a familiar atmosphere, in which a closeness and familiar intimacy is also built that will remind us, insinuating, certain later characteristics in Bergman. But this goes much further, we will see the traumas of Bergman himself, which reach new levels, his nightmares, his torments, overflow him, the terror of the master of Latin no longer covers only the classroom, now comes to life itself, to the real life, to the level of extinguishing it. Unbelievable dementia, Bergman takes his fears to another level, the threat transgresses planes, and this is clouded with the sick submission that Bertha shows towards him, towards Caligula, she, ambivalent female, tenderness and love with the young, strange and disturbing submission with the tyrant, we ignore the origin of that toxic relationship, but we know that he is responsible for her death, it is a nightmare in which the worst tortures reach the most intimate part of life, real life. The threat of the tyrant reaches even other ways, it seems to reach supernatural, paranormal levels, this naturally strengthened and reinforced audiovisually by the general dark orientation, the gloomy atmosphere of her house. Torture and torment overflow, is certainly a very appropriate title of the film, complex human relationships, traumas, fears, lies, everything will end in tragedy, break the resistance of the young man. Another element that is irrefutable as Bergmanian, come to be those complex, abstruse, flagellating and destructive human links, bergmanian themes par excellence, both of his cinema, and of his life itself, it is known that Bergman's cinema drank directly from his personal experiences, life itself was the sap that breathed the Swedish cinema, for that reason his art was so powerful and genuine; these self-destructive and harsh human links have in this film the first approach of its author, still as a scriptwriter, who later, as a director, would mince for five-year periods of capital art. Some of the greatest existential and artistic concerns of Bergman are already perfectly recognizable in the film, Nietzsche and Strindberg, of course, two of the greatest and most confessed influences in the life of the master, two of Bergman's greatest luminaries, flow, even one of the students in the classroom is called Bergman. Childhood is an indivisible element of Bergman's cinema, an indissoluble part of his cinema, a breeding ground for a large part of his artistic vein, as we can easily verify when we read his texts
Images, and
Magic Lantern, and thus, an atmosphere lukewarmly infantile, young boys, on the threshold of manhood, will have epiphanic experience. The film, for the subject portrayed, was interpreted at the time, not without controversy, as an accusation to the Swedish educational system, naturally embodied in the traumatized villain, but that double evil is sublimated, both by the own flaws and emotional lacunae of Caligula, as per the director of the educational center. The school theme, however, remains almost in the background, relegated, almost anecdotal, the essence of Bergman's cinema is clear, because the drama, the torment, the terrible vicissitude experienced is the core of everything, and we have in the male protagonists two opposing personalities. Contrast the sensitivities of the protagonists, the materialist, the nihilist Sandman, who quotes Nietzsche and Strindberg, reluctant to love and distrustful of women; opposed to Widgren, the idealist, the man of one woman, who does not conceive evil in his spirit. But then both will present a unique symbiosis, Sandman, after the traumas that occurred, doubts, has an existential doubt, the materialist is no longer so far from the naturalist, and vice versa, both have changed, an experience like this has changed them forever. A feature more than appreciable, with a very defined visual aesthetic, which attests to the work of one of the greatest talents in the film direction of Sweden, who knew how to influence later and contemporary masters, being able to remember, just to mention an example, to Michael Haneke and his
The White Ribbon (2009). But it would be another the most seductive incentive, of course it is; Sjöberg and Bergman were really closely united authors, in Bergman's memoirs we will find some passage of how the elder teacher taught and shared secrets of the office with the then young pupil, an artist passed the post to another, Ingmar Bergman officially arrived to cinema, the movie itself is an epiphany, an unforgettable epiphany, an epiphany that has been chosen to close the cycle of this cinematographic blog, production stops at this point, and new stages are opened. Thanks to Sjöberg, and of course, thanks, forever, to Bergman.
The Nordic cinema was characterized, since its beginnings, by having a language, artistic guidelines, audiovisual paths quite differentiated from cinema developed in other countries of cinematographic significance. Whether with the giant Victor Sjöström -who incidentally works as a producer in the present film-, with either Mauritz Stiller or Gustaf Molander, there were always names of great prestige in that cinema, individuals of great value and talent in the seventh art, among which is also the great Alf Sjöberg. For the present film, it is also added another capital name of the Nordic cinema, the Swedish cinema, a later master, heir to a large extent of many aspects of these giants of classical cinema, the great Ingmar Bergman collaborates, in his first script, an incentive not minor, and not few edges of his future work we will see. The great filmmaker Sjöberg, who developed his career entirely in the stage of sound cinema, when the epiphanic revolution of sound was an undeniable reality, gives us this memorable film exercise, which tells the story of a group of young students, who are constantly humiliated, mistreated by their Latin teacher, while one of the students has an affair with a young woman from the locality; but the martyrdom to which the professor submits them will reach unthinkable heights.
In a study center for young people, after seeing an infant desperately escaping from a teacher, and after a liturgical ceremony, we see some young students. This is Jan-Erik Widgren (Alf Kjellin), along with his friend Sandman (Stig Olin), and Pettersson (Jan Molander), the three members of a class where they are tyrannized by their Latin teacher, whom they nickname "Caligula" (Stig Järrel). Widgren meets one day Bertha Olsson (Mai Zetterling), a tobacco seller, finds her drunk, and takes her home. "Caligula" is then approached by the school principal (Olof Winnerstrand), who asks him to stop being so rigorous with his students, but the teacher ignores it, while Widgren and Bertha are maturing a romance, but she fears certain presences in her house. Later, she is attacked by a dark silhouette in her house, Widgren finds her drunk, a strong argument is generated, the young man gets sick, has trouble in class, but the worst comes when he sees Bertha again. She, who at her home moments before was with Caligula himself, is found dead by the student, and the Latin teacher is also in the room, but is declared innocent by the police. Widgren does not hesitate, he directly accuses the professor of the girl's death, he does not care about the graduation; in the end, he stays in the room of the late Bertha, has final dialogue with Caligula.
As it was said at the beginning, Nordic cinema, Danish, Finnish and Swedish cinema, always had an identity and directives quite differentiated from the rest of the world's cinema trends, Sjöström starting everything as the undisputed great master of silent films, Stiller as well was also a brilliant exponent, and Molander completed this, without forgetting, of course, the immortal Danish giant Carl Theodor Dreyer. After all of them would be Alf Sjöberg, framed his activity already in the sound cinema, this is a memorable film of this referential filmmaker, but nevertheless, it is almost impossible to stop appreciating in the film another element that makes it a jewel. That detail is the thaumaturgy that was born with the film, in the form of a man inseparable from cinema, a man who dedicated a lifetime, his whole life, to cinema, theater, audiovisual art, the prodigious Ingmar Bergman would appear officially accredited for the first time in the present film, and even, by chance, he had to direct the final sequence when Sjöberg felt ill. The cinema changed forever, there was a name that would never disappear from the environment, Ingmar Bergman was made known to the whole world, the great Swedish titan arrived to never leave. Speaking of the film before going back to the maestro Ingmar, it is an interesting beginning that we see in the film, expressing the expertise with the camera that the director has acquired, which will be a hallmark of the film by the way, that show of dominance when we see the infant fleeing from his preceptor, a game of persecution in which different shots, often zenithal shots, many travellings, a variety of resources will be conjugated, soon evidencing a good management of the work tool. That mastery and mobility of the camera will not stop anymore during the film, but with great skill will know how to differentiate that behavior, being exemplary in that sense the sequences in the classroom, with the aforementioned dynamism, and at other times it will be a static camera, highlighting tension, highlighting the secrecy of that classroom, the torture to which Caligula subjects the boys. Returning to that, an extraordinary work is done to generate the atmosphere in that classroom, somber, whose walls print the reflection of raindrops on the windows, in this way the walls move in a disturbing way, including a sequence in which the frame that serves as cover for the film is captured, where once again this great work in the assembly combining travellings, static shots, and different frames, will reinforce that suffocating feeling of the cloister in the classroom.
The looseness of the lens is particularly noticeable indoors, the freedom of the lens flows, the interior scenes also have, in their treatment of the camera and in the composition of the frames, in the way in which the elements of said framings are figured, a solemn theatrical halo. But the versatility of the film is wide, even dose of terror we will find in that dark language, that dark universe where the shadows at times become independent of the human, where those daughters of darkness seem to move freely, the shadows dominate not a few sequences, ephemeral but powerful, they move by themselves. And in the dream of Widgren, we felt them as shady visual echoes of the characters, it could not be absent the dream level, and although brief and not too elaborate or colorful, it is a sequence differentiated from the rest of the footage without a doubt. The film has a general tone of shade, powerful games of lights and shadows, backlighting, an expressionist aesthetic that flows with vigor throughout the film, and that serves for an appreciator to have noticed, not surprisingly, echoes of the visual art of the master of this current, the giant Fritz Lang, or another great master, the Frenchman Jean Renoir. Even the frames of the shots, even the stairs, very expressionist visual element, and their twisted conformations, refer us to this audio-visual current, to that shady and peculiar expressiveness. In this bizarre world, the figure of the villain, the great tyrant, the fearsome Caligula, can not be absent, he is shown from the beginning with a significant image, we see him unattainable in his presentation, with that low-angle shot that magnifies him, and in the first active participation of sadist teacher, his character is soon reflected, is a tyrant, enjoys commanding and harassing his students, physical and psychological abuse. However, he is actually a pathetic villain, the pathology of Caligula is palpable, so palmarial that it almost hurts; with the old director we will first see glimpses of his psychological cracks, and then, with Widgren, that shell of seemingly impenetrable evil will be completely broken, his hermetic and unbreakable tyranny then leaves space for close-ups that show him fragile, with an expression, with a shine in the eyes, which definitely will not let us see him in the same way again. He is a bizarre creature, plays with Bertha's cat, narrates the sordid story he had with a feline, is a complex, contradictory being, in a few words, and as he defines himself, a sick being, a two-edged villainous, his wickedness, his tyranny, they hide in reality fear, insecurity, a destructive inability to relate normally with other human beings, unable to overcome his traumas; he is a Bergmanian character in his entirety. The end finishes diagramming Caligula's acid pathos, he is indeed a sick individual, he cries like a child, the dark and morbid confusion make him a plaintive prey, while he cries out, "I'm sick, do not leave me alone, turn on the light!", because he is no longer in the visual darkness of the picture, he remains in the dark confusion of his own psyche.
With all the virtues and successes of the film and its director, it is inevitable, as noted, to highlight that a giant was born with this film, and for the lover of the Bergmanian filmography, as the writer of this article, it is certainly an aspect of mandatory mention and recognition. Thus, characteristic elements of Bergman flow, the oppression, in the figure of the father many times -this time with the mask of the teacher-, guilt, fear, much fear, both in the student, but, surprisingly (or maybe not so much) even more so in the tyrant. Words, topics that swarm all the cinematographic life of the Uppsala born, the Bergmanian guidelines, with certain clarity, are already being diagrammed, it is in fact a script of the master director of Wild Strawberries, and it is a delight for the well-versed palate appreciating, noting, many of the future guidelines and cornerstones of Bergman's cinema already with vigor in this work, his first official contribution to the seventh art. In this way, we will appreciate in certain sequences a familiar atmosphere, in which a closeness and familiar intimacy is also built that will remind us, insinuating, certain later characteristics in Bergman. But this goes much further, we will see the traumas of Bergman himself, which reach new levels, his nightmares, his torments, overflow him, the terror of the master of Latin no longer covers only the classroom, now comes to life itself, to the real life, to the level of extinguishing it. Unbelievable dementia, Bergman takes his fears to another level, the threat transgresses planes, and this is clouded with the sick submission that Bertha shows towards him, towards Caligula, she, ambivalent female, tenderness and love with the young, strange and disturbing submission with the tyrant, we ignore the origin of that toxic relationship, but we know that he is responsible for her death, it is a nightmare in which the worst tortures reach the most intimate part of life, real life. The threat of the tyrant reaches even other ways, it seems to reach supernatural, paranormal levels, this naturally strengthened and reinforced audiovisually by the general dark orientation, the gloomy atmosphere of her house. Torture and torment overflow, is certainly a very appropriate title of the film, complex human relationships, traumas, fears, lies, everything will end in tragedy, break the resistance of the young man. Another element that is irrefutable as Bergmanian, come to be those complex, abstruse, flagellating and destructive human links, bergmanian themes par excellence, both of his cinema, and of his life itself, it is known that Bergman's cinema drank directly from his personal experiences, life itself was the sap that breathed the Swedish cinema, for that reason his art was so powerful and genuine; these self-destructive and harsh human links have in this film the first approach of its author, still as a scriptwriter, who later, as a director, would mince for five-year periods of capital art. Some of the greatest existential and artistic concerns of Bergman are already perfectly recognizable in the film, Nietzsche and Strindberg, of course, two of the greatest and most confessed influences in the life of the master, two of Bergman's greatest luminaries, flow, even one of the students in the classroom is called Bergman. Childhood is an indivisible element of Bergman's cinema, an indissoluble part of his cinema, a breeding ground for a large part of his artistic vein, as we can easily verify when we read his texts Images, and Magic Lantern, and thus, an atmosphere lukewarmly infantile, young boys, on the threshold of manhood, will have epiphanic experience. The film, for the subject portrayed, was interpreted at the time, not without controversy, as an accusation to the Swedish educational system, naturally embodied in the traumatized villain, but that double evil is sublimated, both by the own flaws and emotional lacunae of Caligula, as per the director of the educational center. The school theme, however, remains almost in the background, relegated, almost anecdotal, the essence of Bergman's cinema is clear, because the drama, the torment, the terrible vicissitude experienced is the core of everything, and we have in the male protagonists two opposing personalities. Contrast the sensitivities of the protagonists, the materialist, the nihilist Sandman, who quotes Nietzsche and Strindberg, reluctant to love and distrustful of women; opposed to Widgren, the idealist, the man of one woman, who does not conceive evil in his spirit. But then both will present a unique symbiosis, Sandman, after the traumas that occurred, doubts, has an existential doubt, the materialist is no longer so far from the naturalist, and vice versa, both have changed, an experience like this has changed them forever. A feature more than appreciable, with a very defined visual aesthetic, which attests to the work of one of the greatest talents in the film direction of Sweden, who knew how to influence later and contemporary masters, being able to remember, just to mention an example, to Michael Haneke and his The White Ribbon (2009). But it would be another the most seductive incentive, of course it is; Sjöberg and Bergman were really closely united authors, in Bergman's memoirs we will find some passage of how the elder teacher taught and shared secrets of the office with the then young pupil, an artist passed the post to another, Ingmar Bergman officially arrived to cinema, the movie itself is an epiphany, an unforgettable epiphany, an epiphany that has been chosen to close the cycle of this cinematographic blog, production stops at this point, and new stages are opened. Thanks to Sjöberg, and of course, thanks, forever, to Bergman.
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