Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24589 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-08-02
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1

Synopsis
In this powerful but excruciating drama, Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow play Eva and Jan Rosenberg, a married couple who have withdrawn to a farm on a remote island while their country is ravaged by a violent civil war. After the island is overrun by rebel troops, all hell breaks loose, and an attempt to escape from the war zone fails. Soon the need to survive brings out the worst in Eva and Jan, and their relationship suffers irrevocable damage. Using one couple's descent into moral corruption as an example, Ingmar Bergman shows how civility and society can break down under extreme conditions.

Customer Reviews

Unforgettable
I saw this film only once, 33 years ago. I have been waiting ever since for a second opportunity – and now at last Shame is becoming available on DVD (in August 2004). Even if, as the previous reviewer warns may be the case, the film is presented in the wrong aspect ratio, I urge you to watch Shame. It is a most haunting, moving and unsettling portrayal of individuals caught up in the inexplicable terrors of the modern world (specifically a civil war in an unnamed country). I have never forgotten this film and doubt that you will either.

Classic! Do not miss!
Shame, just like Hour of The Wolf, that's going to be released on DVD in Europe on August 2, are Ingmar Bergman classics that should not be missed by anyone who has enjoyed others of his films. Shame, or "The Shame" as the Swedish title suggests, was filmed in the fall of 1967, featuring Bergman's long time partisans Liv Ullmann (her third Bergman film,) Max Von Sydow, and Gunnar Björnstrand. Shame tells the story of two artists - Eva (LU) and Jan (MVS) - a married couple who lives in fear on an island during War. The movie is unforgettable, incomparable, and should be very accessible to any admirer of director Bergman, cinematographer Nykvist, or actors Ullmann, Von Sydow, and Björnstrand. For those familiar with the cast and crew from before this movie will be a great treat, UNLESS...unless the movie, just like MGM's American DVD edition of the film, will be presented in the wrong aspect ratio; MGM's region 1 releases of Shame, Hour of the Wolf, and Persona were all released on DVD in AR 1.33:1, NOT 1:37:1, which are the correct AR's for these movies. This technical mumbo jumbo means that, on the region 1 releases, 11.5 percentage of the image is missing throughout the film (a slap in the face especially for Sven Nykvist, one would imagine.) Keep your fingers crossed for the European releases of Shame and Hour of the Wolf, just like Persona, to be presented in 1.37:1.

Skammen (1968)
'Shame', due to the production, is not one of those many Bergman classics that have been put out by Tartan on VHS and DVD in the 90s and zeroes, and as such has become a bit forgotten. William Goldman's excellent book 'Which Lie Did I Tell?' (the companion to the classic 'Adventures in the Screen Trade') mentioned this and Bergman's most well known work 'The Seventh Seal,' and as such I wanted to see it - though it wasn't released on DVD in 2004, and then with not much comment from reviewers.

A recent article on Bergman, to tie in with the epic box-set just released, quite reasonably pointed out that certain elements and themes were being repeated and wondered if much post-Cries and Whispers really was that necessary (Fanny and Alexander and Scenee from a Marriage for sure). Failures like Life of Marionettes and The Serpent's Egg pale when you have seen Bergman's previous work, while the recent Saraband divided people hugely.

'Shame' is perhaps one of Bergman's greatest works, feeling as alien and surreal as 'Persona' while having the apocalyptic feel of 'The Seventh Seal.' The story appears heavily indebted to Kafka, set in a remote island in an unnamed country as a civil war rages - married couple Jan (Max Von Sydow) and Eva (Liv Ullmann) are living an idealised pastoral life living on a farm (Bergman's The Good Life? - not quite). We watch them wake up, get dressed, have breakfast, Jan moan about his teeth, and maybe some pleasure from a bottle of wine...

It's all in the brilliant credit sequence, the typically stark black and white credits that Woody Allen borrowed from poorly, as the sound flits between news broadcasts and the sounds of war, sinister static and signals detuning. Preceding the domestic state of the couple, it's clear that something will happen, and the apolitical couple attempting to create their own utopia will be effected by the war.

'Shame' quickly turns into a surreal war film, as bombs and bullets rain down on the island, Eva and Jan caught in this conflict. Houses on fire, dead bodies, dead children, tanks, broken bridges...all the signs of war - though with the conflict anonymous, in some ways 'Shame' feels more universal. This could be the Balkans, this could be Iraq, this could be Byelorrussia, this could be a scene from 'The Red and the White' (though as a film it feels like a relative of 'The Round Up'), Central America, an African State...

Like many people in the 20th Century, the married couple might want to live in their own idyll, but sadly they can't prevent the imposition of war anymore than the characters in 'The Seventh Seal' can prevent death. This is the nightmare of the 20th Century and war made into a hypnotic film brilliantly shot by the legendary Sven Nykvist.

Elements like the way the invading army use cameras to film propaganda, or the sinister interrogation, or visit from Gunnar Bjornstrand's character are psychologically disturbing and very relevant now. The scene where Jan has to kill and their home is burnt down as their animals are slaughtered is unforgettable and feels like a predecessor of several scenes in Klimov's brilliant 'Come and See.' A scene where Jan overpowers and kills a boy soldier is extremely powerful, people wonder why people do what they do in the Balkans or Iraq, wonder no more. The final sequence of the beach, sea and boat is unforgettable, the sea in a way a sort of River Styx sucking everyone down to the underworld.

'Shame' is definitely one of the greatest Bergman films I've seen and one that I'd consider alongside such works as 'Cries and Whispers', 'Persona', 'The Seventh Seal', 'The Virgin Spring', and 'Wild Strawberries.' I guess it relates to the couple-themed works 'The Hour of the Wolf' and 'The Passion of Anna' ('The Serpent's Egg' was much later), the former I've found even more harrowing, feeling a headache coming down and I've yet to see 'The Passion...' 'Shame' is one of the Bergman works that everyone should see, while joining a list of war films that are very far from the stock American-British WWII style works, films like 'The Burmese Harp', 'Come and See', 'Paisa' and 'The Red and the White.' 'Skammen' is a budget price slice of brilliance that is more than worthy of the sticker on the box declaring it "a masterpiece."