11/23/06 Hour Of The Wolf

Hour Of The Wolf (1968), directed by Ingmar Bergman

watched solo; DVD rental (North American Video) @ car ride (from Hammonton, NJ to Havertown, PA) & Leslie’s Dad’s house (Havertown, PA)

Going back to my college film course days, I wanted to revisit a certain class subject matter that always bored me to tears (or at least to drooling on my desktop as the lights dimmed to watch the film). You see, I took one film course strictly on famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman and his obsession with the human psyche, life and death, and the ambiguity between illusion and reality. Basically, and mind you…I may have been too hungover to fully appreciate the heavy-handed surreal elements of his films and the incessant inner-monologue and introspection to his main characters…, his films were nothing spectacular to me. From what I can remember through my heavy eyelids were snippets of such “classics” as “Persona” and “Fanny & Alexander,” liking only his “Seventh Seal” for its stoic yet effective treatment. OK, so my uneducated brain perhaps could not comprehend the depth of the art it was processing, but I was never all that impressed with the Swede…but I have to admit, on this day of thanks (it’s Thanksgiving, if you haven’t checked a calendar lately or eaten so much turkey that the tryptophan has knocked you completely unconscious while watching football with relatives in the living room) that I appreciated how much I did like this film. And I know there’s probably two statements in that last sentence that could raise a few eyebrows…yes, I did in fact enjoy a Bergman film and secondly tryptophan can make you sleepy…but it probably doesn’t come solely from the turkey you greedy buggers. Now, to the fictional plot…the film centers on a struggling artist who is slowly losing his grip on reality, as he secludes himself on a desolate island cabin with his worried wife. The artist, very closed off to emotions with his wife, soon begins to allow her more into his deepest and darkest memories. The dark ambience is heightened by the late night witching hours, between midnight and dawn known as “The Hour Of The Wolf.” Even though I have family who live in Sweden, that’s my best interpretation of Swedish language…although I used to know how to count numbers fairly high thanks to my uncle…but I digress. Not unlike Bergman does in most his films. Anyway, some interesting side notes to the people in this movie…director Bergman (of no relation to other famous Swede film actress Ingrid Bergman, although his fifth wife was also named Ingrid…weird); actress Liv Ullmann (had child with director Bergman, but of no known relation to British funny woman Tracey Ullman); and finally stoic actor Max Von Sydow (of close relation to Mr. & Mrs. Von Sydow, his parents).

3 out of 5 stars