Greetings gentle readers and welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a high-brow horror piece from Bergman, The Hour of the Wolf:
https://youtu.be/7XarTsIOxms?si=G9VWJafh3uRAAU5J
and next week’s film, The Witch Hunt,
Reviews of The Hour of the Wolf:
RogerEbert.com says:
A great deal of the action takes place halfway between midnight and dawn — the hour, Scott Fitzgerald said, which is the dark night of the soul. In a brief note, Bergman calls this the “Hour of the Wolf,” and explains: “It is the hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are more real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fear, when ghosts and demons are most powerful. The Hour of the Wolf is also the hour when most children are born.”
…
But if we allow the images to slip past the gates of logic and enter the deeper levels of our mind, and if we accept Bergman’s horror story instead of questioning it, “Hour of the Wolf” works magnificently. So delicate is the wire it walks, however, that the least hostility from the audience can push it across into melodrama. But it isn’t that. If you go to see it, see it on Bergman’s terms.
Letterboxd says:
It is a film that, despite its simple title, plunges the viewer into the unknown. In my view, it is one of Bergman’s best films when it comes to dialogue. I have rarely encountered characters who felt so familiar and true-to-life—a quality that is particularly striking for the time in which it was made. I love that Bergman created a horror film that is simultaneously profound and psychological. For me, Bergman is one of the few directors whose work has never fallen below a rating of 4—and that really says something.
My take:
This is an incredible film. It’s a ghost story, don’t buy the “hallucinations” talk above. I don’t care what Bergman himself might have said, it’s a ghost story. Hallucinations don’t bite you.
It’s deeply weird and deliciously foreboding. Von Sydow’s face was made for this film; it’s natural gravity easily shades over into the despair of a doomed soul. Liv Ullman is the perfect counterpoint to the grimness of her husband, emotive and sweet-hearted. Well worth watching again and again: ⭐⭐⭐.
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Writer: Ingmar Bergman
Notable actors: Max Von Sydow, Live Ullman
Plot (Spoilers!):
Johan is a painter who lives with his wife Alma on a small island. They have a sweet relationship, but Johan is troubled. His work is getting weird and weirder. Alma is a bit scared.
For good reason, it appears. An odd set of individuals begin to appear to Johan and Alma. One invites him and Alma to dinner at his castle. They attend and are treated to a grotesque display of decadence. This is a nest of vipers.
Johan is growing more and more distant. He struggles with insomnia. And he may have killed a young boy.
Things come to a head. Johan attempts to murder Alma and then returns to the castle. There the inhabitants reveal their true selves. He has fallen in with the doomed and they claim him as their own. Alma is left alone without knowing his fate.
***
Bonuses:
The Big Interview: Karl Lagerfeld
Outspoken, in demand and still at the top of his game, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld talks to Monocle’s editor in chief Tyler Brûlé about the industry, the media and why Berlin isn’t as good as it used to be.
An Infinite Past – Richard Sorabji (2003)
This is a clip of Richard Sorabji discussing the possibility of an infinite past and how it can be made sense of, particularly in the light of attempts throughout history to prove its absurdity. He discusses Aristotle’s conception of the infinite and Hilbert’s Hotel, among various other things. This comes from a talk which Richard Sorabji gave back in 2003 at Gresham College on whether the universe had a beginning.
W. V. Quine on Necessary Truth (1963)
Audio recording of a 1963 lecture by Willard Van Orman Quine on necessity. This was the seventh talk in a series of 17 lectures given on the philosophy of science from Voice of America’s “Forum: The Arts & Sciences in Mid-Century America”. The series includes Paul Feyerabend, Ernest Nagel, Carl Hempel, Hilary Putnam, Nelson Goodman, Max Black, Sidney Morgenbesser, Patrick Suppes, and others.
This Is A Reggae & Rocksteady Mix 25 GREAT JAMAICAN TUNES
Rocksteady classical love songs (7inch vinyl mix) selected by SoulSkankin’
Joel the Bookworm: Animations of Mortality by Terry Gilliam (Book Flip-Through)
I wanted to make a small YouTube series where i just show some of the art and animation books from my collection so here we are! The first episodes features a “How To” book about cut-out animation by none other than Terry “Python” Gilliam!
