Brink of Life

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Audience Member Lesser-known Bergman drama reflects on life and death on a maternity ward. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member As atuações do trio protagonista são de altíssimo nível, ajudadas pelo roteiro correto e a direção quase que só em cenário de Bergman. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review guillaume h This movie is not nearly well known enough. It is one of Ingrid Thulin's most subtle perofrmance and of Bibi Anderson,s most powerful. The story is gripping, well tought out and so deep it will leave a mark for good on most. It is also very tender and like all the best Bergman, never gets swallowed in its despair as the richness of its caracters souls always prevail. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member A masterpiece of the greatest director ever lived, Nära Livet presents the audience with three different points of view about pregnancy: there's a girl who definitely wants her baby, another one who doesn't want at all, and a third one who feels how the maternity can be a burden if not borne by a couple. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member From a cinematic standpoint, that is camera movement and lights this movie is ordinary. The screenplay was not written by Bergman and it is an adaptation after Ulla Isakson written by the same author. And yet Bergman makes this movie a magnificent analysis of the act of giving birth, I think unequaled in cinema. The action takes place in a constricted place, only indoors, so there are no long shots. However we don't feel we are missing anything, Bergamn was a master of the close-up and we get plenty of suffering caught brilliantly on film. I still have no idea how these wonderful actresses were motivated into playing at such a level of intensity. The actresses each represents a perspective on maternity. Ingrid Thulin understands that her miscarriage was the most intense and life-affirming experience she ever had and will have in all her life. She understands that her husband cannot acknowledge what she went through so she settles on a divorce. However by the end of the movie she regains hope and may give her husband another chance. Bibi Andersson plays a wonderful role as a character that fits her very well, the naive girl rich in emotions but with a very poor experience of life. She wants to get rid of her baby but by the end of the movie she is rejoined with her mother who accepts her pregnancy and we can only acknowledge what a great mother she will be. By the way Bibi herself already had an abortion in real life when she was very young, and this shows. The way she plays her part feels like it involves more than mere acting. I have seen Eva Dahlbeck in only;y two other Bergman movies, Lesson in Love and Smiles of a Summer Night, both comedies where she played the temptress in a light manner. Her role in Nara Livet is up to a point also light, she represents the optimistic view of maternity. Only how sad it is that it is her birth that is thwarted by mere hazard. However we feel that she has enough will and support from her husband (played by von Sydow in a brief role) to pull through. Overall, this may be one of Bergman's most optimistic dramas. At the end we feel that things are in order, that every character has learned something essential and that life even if it may be a dangerous business has to be looked at optimistically even if we have no idea that should be so Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Brink of Life

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