Sunday, January 13, 2013

Watch These Films


Ah, youtube. As much as I am skeptical of the internet's emancipatory capacity to set us all free, it is a great thing that I can watch Ingmar Bergman's back catalogue. They lie just a click away. Because the films are old, and because they are subtitled from the original Swedish, I suspect that no one really gives a shit if they are up on youtube or not. 

But this may also be a sad thing, in a sense. Is no one watching Bergman's films anymore? He is truly a master at work, ahead of his time in so many ways.

None of the major stores which sell DVDs had a collection of his films, sometimes just the odd curio, hidden away under "world cinema". So, fallen into a thoroughly undeserved irrelevancy, on youtube we find the specter of Bergman, allowed to live because no one is watching.

Such a pithy.

Here are two of his best.  

WILD STRAWBERRIES (1957)


PERSONA (1966)



Discussion to follow ...

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