Tony S
Marital drama and an anti war film unevenly eclipsing each other. Deterioration of the Rosenberg's marriage and the effects of the war and occupation seem at points disconnected. Half way through the film, there is a fade out and a time skip and Jan is already being cheated on leaving this development feel rushed and as if it would happen even without the war. However, the dynamic and the reversal between them is very well made. As Jan goes from emotional to apathetic to Eva going from dominant to emotional and powerless, this is probably the best aspect of the film. All encompassing shame of being weak, being indecisive, being cruel and inhuman lingers in the background. Title can really refer to anything in the film. To the war itself, obviously. That Bergman portrays as bands of raiders with artillery more than anything. There are some interesting insights. Such as propaganda war, where paratroopers land in the enemy territory specifically to get an interview for juicy propaganda.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/14/22
Full Review
rob k
In the midst of a civil war, former violinists Jan and Eva Rosenberg, who have a tempestuous marriage, run a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.
Director
Ingmar Bergman
Writer
Ingmar Bergman
Stars
Liv Ullmann
Max von Sydow
Sigge Fürst
Ullmann and Von Sydow play a married couple, living, mostly in isolation, on an island. Their country ends up caught up in a war, but it is not a war that they have any interest in or take any particular side in. But, eventually, their isolation fails them. The war comes to them. They find themselves brutalized by both sides - they are interviewed on television about attacks and their interviews are heavily edited and taken out of context. A man they believed was their friend shows up and forces brutal stark realities upon them. They eventually escape the island, but their relationship has been shattered, they are barely surviving and this is anything but a happy ending. Through the course of the film, they experience a role reversal--one has the strength of survival and the other is reduced to emotional escapism through dreams. Both will lose a measure of humanity, but one to a greater degree than the other.
Shame was championed by critics, named Best Picture by the National Society of Film Critics, also winning Best Director and Best Actress as well as Best Actress from the National Board of Review. Golden Globes, USA 1969 Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film
Sweden nominee. Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards 1969 Winner Best Foreign film.
Bergman's films are catnip to cinephiles, critics, and theatergoers partially because they inevitably flatter such audiences, offering tortured artists often nothing less than the great existential plight of humankind.
Max von Sydow in Skammen (1968)
Liv Ullmann in Skammen (1968)
Von Sydow had been a star in Bergman's troupe for a decade before Ullmann came along and she would continue for years after he went to America, but here they play a married couple as naturally as if they were married. Perhaps that is part of the power of being in Bergman's regular troupe of actors - he writes roles so perfect and the actors know each other so well that it is easy for them to slip into the roles. That is the mark of a master and this is a classic that really doesn't deserved to be missed. Very glad I watched it .
The magnificent Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann in Ingmar Bergman's Shame (1968)
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
William L
I never thought I would run across a Bergman film that necessitated an explosives coordinator, but here we are.
An unusual turn for the director, given that where normally he would have seemingly been content with incremental plot development, he instead substitutes a cataclysm. Ullmann's Eva and von Sydow's Jan are subject to a war about which very little is ever actually revealed, a civil conflict where the pair are caught in between shifting fronts and are forced to come to terms with just what they are willing to do or say in order to survive as unaligned civilians when human life suddenly loses value.
In some ways, it's difficult to ignore how Bergman almost romanticizes suffering in this film, focusing on an artistic, expressive couple whose worldly desires are charmingly straightforward, such as a bottle of wine after dinner, and then reducing them to practically and morally impoverished circumstances in incremental fashion. Characters slipping into somber depressions, fully embracing the near-certainty of impending death with hardly a whisper. But while it is not necessarily completely original territory, the story does still wield power, giving the quiet moments (whether due to cowardice, resignation, or murderous certainty) as much respect and gravitas as the periodic outbursts. (4/5)
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
07/29/21
Full Review
s r
1001 movies to see before you die. A well made film that wasn't what I was expecting. An interesting couple moves to an isolated island and small community to escape the conflict, only to have it arrive on their doorstep. The character development was particularly good. They both evolved throughout the conflict to do things they wouldn't have done it beforehand. It was tragic and it was a surprising reminder of the horrors of tyranny and anarchy. It was on YouTube.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
dave s
Ingmar Berman's Shame may be the most depressing, somber, and political film of Bergman's lengthy oeuvre…and that is saying something. Jan (Max von Sydow), an emotionally and physically fragile man, and his apolitical wife Eva (Liv Ullmann) operate a small farm on an isolated island in an effort to escape a civil war raging on the mainland. Their willful ignorance is a way of living in a world of love instead of a world of conflict. However, their slowly deteriorating relationship is eventually infringed upon by the war they are trying to escape. Sven Nyquist's gorgeous cinematography is the eye through which we watch the horrors. This is a powerful film (the final scene is devastating) that is somehow always overlooked when examining Bergman's massive body of work.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
michael d
Very bleak, even for Bergman, and hauntingly beautiful.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
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