Cinema
Through a Glass Darkly
Såsom i en spegel
Ingmar Bergman · 1961
Synopsis
One summer, on an island, a widowed novelist, David, back from Switzerland, is reunited for twenty-four hours with his two children, Karin, who is just out of a psychiatric hospital, and Minus, seventeen, as well as Karin's husband, Martin, a doctor. Minus and Karin perform for their father a short play of their own composition. But Karin discovers that her father is observing her illness in order to make it the material of a novel, and she feels drawn towards an inner world where no one can follow her.
Context
The film, at first titled “The Wallpaper”, was the first that Bergman shot on Fårö, on the advice of his cinematographer Sven Nykvist; he then lived on the island until his death and shot several other films there. It has only four characters, takes place over twenty-four hours around a house and a beach, and has as its only music a sarabande from a Bach cello suite. The first part of a trilogy devoted to faith, it represented Sweden at Venice in 1962.
Who it is for
Eighty-nine minutes, in Swedish. A chamber piece for four characters, which sheds light on the author's next two films on the same theme.
Prizes and reception
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1962, which Harriet Andersson received in place of Bergman.