the audience applauded

Fantastic!

Dreadfully Boring

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

'Shame' as it is best known world wide, is probably most underrated Bergman movie at the moment. Or perhaps little seen is more correct term, as most people who have seen it consider 'Shame' to be among the Bergman's bests. And the film is too great for such unnoticed film.Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow star as wife and husband getting caught in the horrors of war. Although the war is shown mostly without epic battle scenes, rather shown just by soldiers marching by and fighter jets flying over, the sound of imminent doom is in every frame. 'Shame' is wonderful character study and what war does to a peoples' psychology. Max von Sydow's Jan is intelligent, but somewhat cowardly man. Some can even call him weak, while Liv Ullmann's Eva is strong and independent woman, who really cares about her husband. The character descriptions seem simple at first - strong wife, weak husband - but there's much more hidden in these people. Although Jan is not your typical macho guy, his intelligence compensate lot of his cowardice. And Eva, although strong woman, is still in need of some support from her husband. While the war comes closer and closer we see their relationship starting to fall apart, and then getting stronger again, until they get right into the middle of war horrors, with both sides riding over their farm. They both grow cold and stay together just for habit. Jan becomes cruel and violent, while Eva becomes not exactly submissive, but rather distant.Bergman has stated his dissatisfaction with the film in several occasions, and never considered it his best work, but 'Shame' is must see film.

While deciding whether or not to make a film covering the Algerian War, Francois Truffaut, the French master of cinema, eventually decided not to take on the task because he felt as though "to show something is to ennoble it". Truffaut further claims in a publication in 1960, that an anti-war film is a contradiction in terms, a sentiment which I tend to agree with. Shame, directed by Ingmar Bergman in 1968, challenges that idea. Depicting a couple who attempt to shield themselves from the war being waged around them, Shame is a powerful statement proving there is no winning on either side of a war. As a civil war has engulfed the area in which they live, Jan Rosenberg (Max von Sydow) and Eva Rosenberg (Liv Ullmann) an apolitical couple who used to earn their living as musicians, grasp at the remnants of what used to be their lives. The war has encroached upon their relationship, as well as their livelihood. Jan is weepy and constantly dealing with the emotional disturbance over the chaos and killing the war has caused. Meanwhile, Eva desperately wants to have children, but her husband can't imagine bringing a child into the anxiety-ridden life they now share. When the war reaches their town, rebels attack killing many of Jan and Eva's neighbors. The couple is continuously harassed and their home eventually destroyed when the two are arrested as collaborators. No matter how far they run, there is no escaping the conflict that has taken over their lives.Shame shows two people who purposefully don't take either side in a war, yet that very silence and unwillingness to take sides results in their being assumed collaborators. Bergman seems to go to great lengths through this film to not only show the necessity of remaining neutral in times of military conflict but also to expose how dangerous it is to hold such a position. Shame is powerful because it exposes the difficulty in actually living a situation where people are not shielded by the side they chose in a battle because they didn't choose a side at all. The couple only has each other and with a host of marital problems to deal with on their own, their lives are further complicated when life or death problems penetrate their existence. We get a glimpse of the security the two used to share before the horrors of war tore them apart outwardly. Inwardly, however, the two were experiencing difficulties which left their own marriage clouded in as much uncertainty as the world around them. In my viewing of Shame, the neutrality was the most interesting aspect as the audience is able to see clearly that the two had not chosen a dominant side for the future of their marriage, just as they hadn't shown a side to adhere to in the war. Using his trademark humanism, Bergman delves deep into a marriage and reveals that no matter how far we delve into the lives of others, we may still be none the wiser to what will happen to them.

As a matter of fact, I also call it one of Ingmar Bergman's best, along with The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander, Wild Strawberries, Cries and Whispers, Persona and The Passion of Anna. Not everybody perhaps is going to like it, whether you are familiar with Bergman or not, due to how bleak and lacking in optimism it is. But I don't consider this a bad thing in the slightest, seeing as this bleakness and nightmarish feel is very realistic and in a remarkably compelling way. As you'd expect from a Bergman film, his direction is superb and the quality of the production values are very high especially in the atmospheric cinematography. The lack of any music adds to the suspense and unrelenting power of the story, while the dialogue provokes thought and the story really hit me hard, not because of the subject matter's bleakness but more how realistically everything was portrayed. The characters are not characters that you like all at once or immediately relate to, nor are you intended to, Eva is the most sympathetic somewhat though I imagine that there will be those turned off by Jan's selfishness and treacherousness. These character traits are reflected perfectly in the performances. Three of the most prolific actors in Bergman's resume, and three of the best as well. With her ever expressive eyes and helped by Bergman's trademark handling of his female roles, Liv Ullmann is movingly tender while bringing a certain determination to her character. Max Von Sydow brings a magnetic quality to every performance he gives, and his performance in Shame is no exception, his face speaks volumes in particular. Gunnar Bjornstrand evokes chills as the Colonel, making you thoroughly believe in the corrupt nature of his character. All in all, Shame is a brilliant film, not one that everybody will love but not to the extent that it becomes polarising. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Bergman's regular Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann starred as a village couple, Jan and Eva Rosenberg. The story began with an ordinary couple who fights and make up. Jan was a sensitive person, but an escapist who isolated himself from the world. Eva is a practical woman who is getting fed up with her husband's lack of ambition. Because Jan procrastinating in fixing their radio, the are oblivious of the impending war. Of course the war arrived, and the movie was a fascinating study of their transformation of each other and to each other through the invasion as they were mistreated by the enemy and by their own government.There were no musical score to the movie, but the soundtrack was the war noise. In one scene the pulsating background gun shot, the explosion, and sound of the fly by planes was incredible. Now and then, Bergman zoomed into the facial expression as different event took places. When something violent happened, he zoomed out to let the audience sensed the violence rather than seeing up close. Very well done movie.