Sawdust and Tinsel [VHS]

Sawdust and Tinsel [VHS]
by Ingmar Bergman

Sawdust and Tinsel [VHS]
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Actor: ?ke Gr?nberg, Anders Ek, Gudrun Brost, Harriet Andersson, Hasse Ekman
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cinematographer: Hilding Bladh
Cinematographer: Sven Nykvist
Writer: Ingmar Bergman
Editor: Carl-Olov Skeppstedt
Producer: Rune Waldekranz
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Subtitled); Swedish (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, NTSC, Subtitled
Running Time: 93 minutes
Release Date: 2000-06-16
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Homevision
Studio: Homevision

VHS Movie Reviews of Sawdust and Tinsel [VHS]

Movie Review: Not a Fanny & Alexander
Summary: 4 Stars

The photography & direction are excellent. The female characters are credible, but the men are not truly lifelike. The actor Frans comes closest, but the stage director and circus men are more like types than real people. They are symbols of people trapped, or the forces trapping them, no more real than the soldiers of the opening scene. I'm not a fan of people as symbols rather than people as people. The former approach works fine in a Bunuel film or "O Lucky Man!" because their intention is to exaggerate by presenting the absurd. Their comment is on inherent illogic of life. Bergman's vision is one of the hopelessness of life, whether caused by circumstances or the individual's nature, though he seems to imply (correctly in my view) that the latter causes the former. Unfortunately, he makes the presentation hopeless by the implication that growth is impossible.
As with "The Serpent's Egg", the vision is dark, insurmountable, and fatalistic. Such a view of life or mankind may be executed well, as it is here, but can never stir us within as can, for instance, "The Seventh Seal" or "Fanny and Alexander", both dark in different aspects - one in the knight's death, the other in the father's death and the restricted life the children endure - but both also offer a final scene in which a future life of growth and happiness is possible. In SS, the young couple survive and we can hope they'll continue human civiliztion; in F&A, the final speech by the precocious uncle tells us that despite all, we are duty bound to live life as best we can, to make the most of things. Neither film stirs us with sentimentality, yet they do stir us. "Sawdust & Tinsel" does not raise us up, does not give us much of a deeper sense of life. This is an existentialist message.
The DVD commentary is well done, informative, and definitely adds to the esperience of the film. Without it, I would have given this only 3 stars.

Movie Review: "I want out of the circus!"
Summary: 5 Stars

Even in interviews years after "Sawdust and Tinsel" appeared, it's clear that Bergman was still irked by the charge that his film was "vomit." But in a certain way, this comment by a film critic is a vindication of the movie, because in it Bergman is exploring a vision of life that is anything but comforting. Each time I watch this magnificent little film, I'm reminded of Sartre's "No Exit." We're trapped in life, and that's all there is to it. It's entirely appropriate that our reaction to the film should be negative. The challenge is to not confuse our response to the film's theme with an aesthetic evaluation of it.

The film's central metaphor for our existential entrapment is the tawdry circus run by the central character, Albert (Ake Groenberg), a middle-aged man beginning to feel the weight of his mortality. Involved with Anne (Harriet Andersson), a woman half his age, he's worried about his ability to keep her interested, just as she's worried about being deserted by him. A large subtext in the film is the crisis their relationship undergoes, but that crisis--and the relationship itself--must be understood in terms of the alienating existence that humans endure. "We're all stuck in hell. Stuck in hell... I want out of the circus!" as Albert moans.

Yet, typical of Bergman, there's some small consolation. At the end of the film, Albert and Anne return to one another. The circus-entrapment continues. The tawdry troop hitches up its wagons and moves on to another town, as it apparently always will. And Anne and Albert realize that their relationship is built on fear and loneliness as much as love. Like everything else, it's sawdust and tinsel. But in this circus we call life, that's no small thing.

Very good performances throughout the film, particularly by Ake Groenberg. The lighting is magnificent, and bears all the characteristics of later Bergman/Nyqvist collaborations.

Movie Review: an early Bergman classic.
Summary: 3 Stars

This review is for the Criterion DVD edition of the film.

Sawdust and Tinsel released in Sweden as "Gycklarnas afton" is about the owner of a travelling circus and his girlfriend.

The film has been described by Criterion as a battle of the sexes film. This could be considered an understatement. This also led to the censors cutting five minutes from the film for the American release. These scenes are included here for the first time in the United States.

The DVD includes two special features. A 2003 introduction to the film by director Ingmar Bergman, and audio commentary by Peter Cowie.

This is mediocre when compared to the later Bergman films but still is one that should be seen.

Movie Review: INGMAR BERGMAN, OPUS 13
Summary: 4 Stars

**** 1953. Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. A land circus owner comes back to the town he left his wife and his children in, three years before. Criterion presents here the uncut version of this film with scenes absent from the VHS and laserdisc editions of SAWDUST AND TINSEL. Among the bonus features, you'll find an introduction by Ingmar Bergman himself, shot in 2003, as well as a very edifying commentary by film scholar Peter Cowie. The theme of humiliation, sexual, physical or simply psychological, is the main theme of SAWDUST AND TINSEL and the underlying element of its most awesome scenes such as the flashback on the beach which is also an homage to Sergei Eisenstein and to other masters of the silent films period. A movie to watch several times.

Movie Review: Great film
Summary: 4 Stars

While still an "early Bergman," this film is in drastic contrast with his previous work and is a definite indication of an emerging great talent. It has most elements of a great Bergman's movie - realism, symbolism, good cinematography (the famous scene with clown Frost and his wife; also the entire "love" scene of Anne and Frans has been filmed excellently). Although it's not a fully mature Bergman's circa the early 60's, the picture is pure brilliance. A must see for anyone who loves Bergman.
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Summary of Sawdust and Tinsel [VHS]

Bergman's powerful and pitiless essay on passion, jealousy, and betrayal unfolds against the backdrop of an impoverished traveling circus in turn-of-the-century Sweden. Sawdust and Tinsel is considered by many critics to be one of Bergman's finest films, and often favorably compared with such classic tragedies as The Blue Angel and La Strada. The disturbing story revolves around an aging circus owner, who suffers heartbreak and humiliation at the hands of his young mistress and her brutal lover. Harriet Andersson (Monika) exhibits the fierce sensuality for which she became known in her portrayal of the flirtatious mistress. Bergman uses stark black-and-white photography and inspired editing of sound and visuals to construct his haunting allegory of human weakness and spiritual despair.
This early film by Ingmar Bergman, made before his international hits Smiles of a Summer Night and The Seventh Seal, was vilified by critics when it first came out (one referring to it as "a piece of vomit"), but with time has earned a reputation as one of the master filmmaker's first important works. Sawdust and Tinsel touches on many of Bergman's standard themes--vanishing love, godless existences, the redemptive power of theater--in its telling of a disillusioned circus owner (?ke Gr?nberg) and his young mistress (Harriet Andersson of Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly) as they set up for yet another performance in a small town. Both contemplate leaving the circus and each other, as Gr?nberg pays a visit to his now-independent wife (an exceptional Annika Tretow), and Andersson allows herself to be seduced by a local actor (Hasse Ekman), only to find herself used and humiliated. One can see traces of the melancholy Smiles of a Summer Night in the romantic roundelays that start out bright and end up bitter--the constructs may be farcical at times, but the emotions are raw and heartfelt. And stylistically, from the first frame the film evokes strong similarities to The Seventh Seal; in fact, this film marks the first collaboration of Bergman and his legendary cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Despite some awkward dialogue and a static pace, Sawdust and Tinsel shows a young, assured Bergman finding his way to the themes and techniques that would define his later films. A must-see for Bergman aficionados. --Mark Englehart

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