Product Description

Sawdust and Tinsel was Bergman s thirteenth feature as a director and his most complex and shocking film to date. Albert, the owner of a small and tawdry circus, arrives at a small town where he attempts to effect a reconciliation with his wife Agda whom he left for the circus many years previous. She refuses to resume the marriage whilst Albert s lover, Anne, upset at Albert s rejection of her, has a humiliating affair with an actor, Frans. During a performance given by the circus, Frans begins to taunt Albert and, enraged, challenges him to a fight during which he is severely beaten. Deciding that suicide is his only escape he tries to take his own life but fails. As the circus leaves town, the ill-fated couple find themselves reluctantly and miserably committed to each other. Special Features: -Bergman Trailers -Film Notes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13177 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-06-11
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Swedish
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 91 minutes

Synopsis
Ingmar Bergman’s SAWDUST AND TINSEL bears a resemblance to his later, better-known features in its harsh treatment of human relationships. Jealousy, lovers taking turns humiliating one other, selfish sexual desire--all these are familiar themes that would be developed further by Bergman later on, but the film’s final moments seem to hold a rare promise of reconciliation. Albert Johansson (Åke Grönberg) is a sad, pathetic man who has given up domestic tranquillity for an uncertain life on the road as the director of the traveling Circus Alberti. Since leaving his wife and children, he has taken up with young bareback rider Anne (Harriet Andersson, who often played sexy, earthy characters in Bergman movies of the period). In Albert’s old hometown the couple approaches the haughty director of a local theatre company (Gunnar Björnstrand) to borrow props and costumes for the night’s performance. Anne falls for the dandylike ham actor Frans (Hasse Ekman), who subsequently insults Albert in public, and a physical confrontation between the two men ensues. The film is formally captivating throughout and contains a celebrated, somewhat surreal flashback sequence early on, reminiscent of German Expressionist cinema, in which a white-faced clown (played by Anders Ek) suffers a breakdown after being confronted with his wife’s infidelity.

Customer Reviews

Carnival of souls
This early Bergman film is the potent visual seed from which all his later (greater) films grow.To see it is to see them before they had been articulated and flowered.
All the acting in this superb film is first rate: Anne
(Anderson)dripping with sensuality but with a profound
saving innocence.Albert(Gronberg) driven as the circus director by anger and humiliation.And Frost(Eckman) the clown to end all clowns,who we see at the beginning in an expressionistic flash-back shot in stark
sunlight of unimmaginable horror in long off crowd shots or in close-ups comparable to Christ carrying his cross(his partnerAlma). We are in a travelling circus
trekking across the country to its next town.This town is where Albert's wife lives with his children and he's going to see them.She is now successful and he wants to leave his younger mistress and the circus and settle down in security and peace.Anne fears him returning to his wife and she cuckolds him with a sleazy theatrical
cad.Bergman's vision of the sexual-emotional battle between the sexes is particulary well realized,the hoops we all(yes us) have to jump through to bond
through humiliation and desire and the need for security. However the creative artist -another theme-is driven by demons and lays bare his soul.We also get
the interplay and contrast between cinematic space and
theatrical space.Bergman came from a theatrical tradition and utilises it with his use of light and shadow
and long-shot.With cinematic space he moves right up
close or people move towards the camera like Anderson.Albert's close ups show him in all his sweaty
suffering.But he is like the theatre director a tyrant and
they both keep their shows on the road. But the theatre folk look down their noses at the circus folk at the bottom of the pecking order.This circus is not Felliniesque,but more like one of the lower circles of hell.As Bergman said in praise of this film and why he likes it: it is wild,but never loses control.This came after Summer with Monika and before Smiles of a Summer's Night and The 7th Seal. Bergman proves his genius.

Unwatchable
Sven Nikvist's first collaboration with Bergman makes for beautiful images in a terminally boring film.

so weirdly good!
Bergman really has an eye for capturing weird moments and surreal experiences in his films. He's a really brilliant director. This oddly brilliant film centres around a travelling circus and the relationships between the various performers. A really thought provoking and peculiar film, definately one to watch! Oh and check out the weird music at the beginning with the crazy lady dancing naked, it's haunting.