Popular reviews

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★½ 2

  Action! - of God and Man: Bergman and the Hopelesness Kind

  Ingmar Bergman has been one of those directors who, despite my not fully vibing with all the things I’ve seen from him, has left a mark on me, especially as a filmmaker. The psychological approach he delves into the psyche of humanity, what moves us as individuals, and especially his conflict with society and religion is something that, as a screenwriter, I normally tend to lean into. Especially with this script for my technically second feature length (a more ambitious version of my short film The Man in Constant Sorrow), which leans heavily into Tarkovsky and Bergman’s territory, I decided to explore both director’s work and see if I…

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  Review by braden ★★½

  “We all have our crosses to bear.”

  Ingmar Bergman’s debut film is a decent little melodrama that seems to get harsher criticism than it deserves, even if it isn’t anything particularly special. It follows a modest, neatly written story centred around the tension between a girl’s biological and foster mothers; never going too in depth with its ideas but occasionally offering some sufficiently dramatic sequences and displaying the odd glimpse into the thematic future of the director’s style. It can be obviously amateurish at times but I didn’t feel bored by it, and it’s respectable enough for a first feature.

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  Review by Mads Ej ★★★★

  This is Ingmar Bergman’s first movie and even though it is also the weakest of his movies that I have seen yet, I still think it showed us a good start of his career and how big potential he had as a director.
  In the movie we follow the young girl Nelly, who just turned 18. She lives with her foster mother but one day her real mother visits and she wants Nelly to live with her instead. Nelly is at the same time turning into a young woman, who is trying to find out who she wants to be, while she also is starting to attract attention from the boys. 
  The movie asks the question of who is the…

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  Review by DBC ★★★★

  A Year of Film History Challenge
  (watching a little bit of film history month by month, decade by decade)
  --
  The opening narration of Ingmar Bergman's directorial debut states we're about to watch a common drama, one that borders on comedy. Everything that follows makes you question that description. By the end, it feels like a misleading oversimplification. True, custody battles are a pretty normal part of life, but to say Crisis is a film about a common custody battle with a few funny parts is like saying Nabokov's Lolita is a comedy about an older guy who falls for a younger girl but with a few serious observations thrown in.

  I was reminded of Lolita quite a bit while…

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  Review by Tony (tectactoe) ★★

  [39]

  Yep, it’s a Bergman film all right. Gotta give the guy credit, though : this is immensely competent for a first-ever feature, but man is it excessively unremarkable otherwise. Even calling it “forgettable” would be letting it down lightly -- by the time the final scenes were traversing I had nearly forgotten what happened back in the beginning of the film. The problem (for me, anyway) is that it contains just about all of Bergman’s latter-day melancholy and pessimism without the academic dexterity that made those bottomless pits of glumness more bearable. Not sure I jive with the “message,” either, as if to suggest that there’s something inherently wrong with Big City Life, though mine and Bergman’s ideologies (re:…

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  Review by 🐱Andrew Chrzanowski🐱 ★★½ 11

  ☆"I wouldn't call this a great or harrowing tale. It really is just an everyday drama. Almost a comedy. Let's raise the curtain."☆

  My Journey into the Films of Ingmar Bergman -- Part 1 of 62

  It begins! Welcome friends to my long sojourn into the filmography of one of the greatest artists of all time -- so they say -- as I dive headlong into the gigantic Criterion Collection set of Swedish legend Ingmar Bergman's works. Thirty-nine movies in all, supplemented with a couple dozen other documentaries, featurettes, making-of films, and short works from Bergman and his admirers. This trek will take me two months perhaps, with a vacation planned in the middle and certainly other new films I'll…

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  Review by PUNQ ★★★ 10

  I finally arrive to Ingmar Bergman first official feature film! And I really liked what he did with the naive small-town-girl moving to the big city scenario. Starts out playful, almost as "a comedy", and then turns out anything as....

  
  Not sure I liked the combination of characters. While the dramatic portions had a lot of flair, Jack was a little too much, eating up most of the emotional impact before it hits one. But this was overall a well constructed film, much more provoking than your average Swedish production at the time, which felt like mostly consisted of light farces. Easy to see why Bergman stood-out so quickly.

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  Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★

  Read more of my thoughts on Bergman's early films at Psychotronic Cinema.

  Crisis is Ingmar Bergman's directorial debut and it is not a film which you would guess was made by a future master of cinema. While the filmmaking is solid, it is also basic and unremarkable. The story is also not so interesting. However it does centre on fully fleshed out female characters, something Bergman would become known for. Crisis follows a young, adopted woman whose life is changed when her mother and a mysterious man return. The film has some intimate moments, such as a moonlit kiss by a lake, and later on a more sexually charged scene. As a film about entering womanhood and having a sexual…

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  Review by #im’s ★★★½

  Crisis, Ingmar Bergman’s feature debut is a quite neat take on a mother, foster mother and their daughter. 
  I didn’t think the title suited the movie. Though the story is pretty straight, the mother coming to get her daughter after 18 years, Bergman’s filmmaking, frames, editing and the performances make the movie good with decent characterization especially the ladies. 
  The 90 minutes short run is a grace as you see in most of Bergman movies. 

  I haven’t seen any Bergman movies except Persona and I kinda fall for his style. Let’s see!

  Ingmar Bergman Ranked
  Cinema Favourite from Every Year

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  Review by san ★★★ 4

  my first bergman! thoughts: uh, Ulf needs to chill? he’s way too old for Nelly to be coming at her like that. slick writing and nice low-budget cinematography otherwise, albeit a slightly unoriginal melodrama.

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  Review by Ben Hibburd ★★★½

  "Crisis" marks Ingmar Bergman's feature length debut, and whilst it's not quite top tier Bergman, it's still a highly comptant film that showcases early signs of his unique talent.

  The film focuses on Nelly (Inga Landgré) an 18 year old woman who has her life turned upside down when her aunt (her real mother) returns after a long absence and offers her to live with her and her young love, Jack. This cause a split between her foster mother who has her best interests at heart but lives a boring life.

  Despite an eighty minute runtime this films pacing feels slightly off, and it feels longer then it actually is. The story also lacks any real sense of emotional tension,…

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  Review by Mathias Larsen ★★★ 12

  Hmm..
  While I did find the more dramatic sequences really good, the acting is a bit amateurish and the dialogue is as basic as it comes. This is Bergmans first feature and while the plot is pretty generic I was expecting it to somehow become a masterpiece.. it wasn’t. 

  Overall
  Decent enough for a Swedish 1940 Drama but nothing mind-blowing. Should’ve rewatched Wild Strawberries instead. 

  Also as we all know Letterboxd went down for what felt like a month and I’m now fully aware of how addicted I am to this app, holy shit.