settima

GunnarFischer

Sommaren med Monika [Summer with Monika] (Ingmar Bergman, 1953)

Jul

27

Sommaren med Monika (1953)

Monika (Harriet Andersson) and Harry (Lars Ekborg) rest in each other's arms. DP: Gunnar Fischer, still photography by Louis Huch.

Someone naps or sleeps*

“I guess we like each other a lot, huh?”

– Monika Eriksson

Ansiktet [The Face / The Magician] (Ingmar Bergman, 1958)

Jul

14

Ansiktet (1958)

Granny Vogler (Naima Wifstrand) telling a sobbing Sara (Bibi Andersson) that yes, she may indeed be a witch. DP: Gunnar Fischer.

“I see what I see, and I know what I know. But nobody believes me.”

– Granny Vogler

491 (Vilgot Sjöman, 1964)

Jul

7

Global Forgiveness Day

491 (1964)

One of the juvenile delinquents carving a simple arithmetical calculation into a desk during the Reverend's lecture about forgiveness. DP: Gunnar Fischer.

Early 60s, Sweden. A social experiment. Six hopelessly criminal juveniles are packed in a guesthouse – cynically named Objectivity – and loosely supervised by social workers and a reverend. The public servants speak of a new lease on life, God's servant of how Jesus forgives; all speak on their own behalf. We follow the young men closely and sense their need to break out, to be young, to be out of that house. We learn that their world, in or out, is eternally equally irrelevant.

“Jesus Christ has promised to forgive you 490 times, whatever you have done… because those were his words. But about the 491st time… He has given no words. None at all.”

– Reverend Mild

Vilgot Sjöman's 491 is an extremely, bleak, aggressive, and hopeless depiction of youth in postwar Sweden. Forgiveness is a tool of power, a method of control. And as empty as a repetitive lecture.

Ansiktet [The Magician / The Face] (Ingmar Bergman, 1958)

May

22

love potion

Ansiktet (1958)

Coach driver Simson (Lars Ekborg) serving maid Sara (Bibi Andersson) a potion from a flask. DP: Gunnar Fischer.

– We're out of love potion. What now?

– Take this one, for colic and bunions. What matters is how the bottle looks and how the potion tastes.