Colby A
Debuts are a mixed bag, and that sums up this movie. Some of the scenes are a little melodramatic, and on the whole everything is just simply uneven. The first half of the movie is played very lightly, and is quite enjoyable, but the second half doesn’t deliver. The main character, Nelle, is uninteresting and a little irksome. Her foster mother (and the true main character), Ingeborg, is played very well and she becomes the main draw of the film. The love triangle between Nelle, Jack, and Jessie makes no sense, and the climax between the three makes less than no sense. The first forty minutes suggest a pleasant small-town dramedy, the remaining forty is more like a bad soap opera. Technically speaking, the movie is unremarkable but shows promise, especially with the staging of the more dramatic scenes.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
06/21/24
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Christopher B
Ingmar Bergman's first film as Director explores many of his trademarks that would appear and define his latter works. While not a masterpiece like many of his subsequently films, Crisis is a strong debut from one of cinemas greatest Directors! With its theme of humanity and many relationships, it is a complex and layered work. This is the start of what would become a long and critically acclaimed career and is highly recommended!
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
11/01/22
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Audience Member
A bit naive but captivating story about love taking various forms sometimes helping and sometimes killing the people.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/05/23
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Audience Member
Awesome movie, if the movie were not Swedish, it would be a Hollywood classic
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
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Audience Member
Ingmar Bergman's first feature is a melodrama about women's relationships (foreshadowing some of his later concerns). In particular, we meet an older woman, Ingeborg (Dagny Lind), who has been foster mother for a young girl, Nelly (Inga Landgré), now 18 and ready for adulthood. They live in a country town, away from the pleasures and perils of the big city. However, at the start of the film, Nelly's birth mother arrives from Stockholm to take her back, now that she has established herself with her own beauty salon and slick boy toy (Stig Olin). Of course, this creates conflict, as the strangers bring their different (rougher) sensibilities to the town, threatening Nelly's relationship with older suitor Ulf (Allan Bohlin) and Ingeborg's health and well-being (because Nelly is her only companion). When Nelly does choose to leave in defiance, she finds that the city is not exactly what she wants. So, a rather straightforward melodrama marked by some ordinary and variable acting, a few stock types and situations, but the occasional glimpse of something more interesting. Olin, as the most interesting character, manages his part well and Bergman gives him a well-staged end. Even maestros start somewhere...
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
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Audience Member
Bergman barely tests the waters of surrealism in the quaint, soap operatic story about a superficial mother returning to her daughter after 18 years to make her a partner in her loneliness. She's not looking to be a mother, but to be a pal.
Full of incest, corrupted innocence, vaingloriousness, and sleeze, Bergman's directorial debut feels like a collection of key scene's over a week's worth of daytime soap operas, as even the performances suggest.
The jerkiest aspect of this film is the character at the center of everyone's devotion, young and beautiful Nelly. She has no reason to want to go off with her birth mother and is very satisfied with Ingeborg, it doesn't seem reasonable that she runs off with her. But then when we see her, she puts up a front for Ingeborg, suddenly she can't open up to her and pretends to be happy in her new life, badly. It doesn't follow the emotional logic of the story development, feels like it's missing key scenes.
Bergman connects some trippy ideas that I don't necessarily understand, mainly mannequins. Maybe this is the best association he has for the layers Jenny wears. I do enjoy the part where she rubs her face in the mirror, talking about the old lady she hides underneath. Just before, in the train car, there was that incredibly moving moment with Ingeborg - Danny Lind so believably deep in thought, in context with that cramped train car, we just feel her pain and suffering - she called herself an old lady, and she's so weathered and heartbroken at this point that we believe it, even though her age doesn't suggest it. Jenny owns a beauty shop where we see a woman getting a facial talking about seeing a man who at first appeared young, but closer appeared 60 - she is both attempting to de-age and laugh at the expense of another's age. Mannequins, however, represent that superficial perfection, models who serve our need to see designs (which will end up on people) more perfectly than humans can provide. The most startling, surrealistic use of mannequins is in the minimalist designed train station, Jack getting acquainted with Ingeborg, saying he will lose his suit and return to the streets (I was wondering at this point if he ever changes clothes!). As he moves in to tell his tale, we clearly see two background actors transform into mannequins; when he's done with his story, they are flesh again and moving, very specifically to the needs of the scene, as does the gypsy he gave candy too. Later, Jenny appears behind a curtain, ghostlike over the mannequins in her salon as she catches Jack and Nelly having sex. Jack is both her lover and nephew, now having sex with her daughter and his cousin. Jenny reveals that the story he used on her was a ploy to gain some dark psychological sympathy and trick her into sex, which Nelly now feels ashamed for. But it turns out there's one truth he will finally fulfill, and that's blowing his brains out. When Nelly recounts this to Ingeborg later, she recalls the appearance of Jenny over the mannequins. It's a threaded idea, and it may be more of a loose association than one can write an essay about, but it shows an artist who is budding with unveiling the subconscious mind on film, and who will painstakingly take that to greater lengths in the future when it comes to meta films like Wild Strawberries.
Bergman is also playing with the various tones, suspense, and textures of a scene with this key salon showdown. Before Jack enters, we see a strange, creepy old man come to the window looking in, followed by a subtle knock. His arm is obscured by a curtain, and we can't tell if he's knocking on the window, or if someone else is at the door. The light tapping persists, and it's eerie. Thus enters a moody, raggedy-clothes prophecy-fulfilled Jack, and the old man is nothing more than a red herring. Later we see him outside the salon after Jack shoots himself, looking on helplessly. He's photographed in two shots, one interior introducing Jack for the last time, one exterior exiting Jack for good. Both times we get a false impression of his nature - in introducing Jack, we think it may be him trying to come in. In exiting Jack, we're not sure what Jack is doing, if he's perhaps having a struggle with Jenny, and we're waiting to see this old man, isolated in the shot, run over and do something. It may not have any meaning besides it's use as a framing device, but it works and it's interesting.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/12/23
Full Review
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