Fantastic work again, Bergman's entire filmography has been borderline existential horror and creepy monologues so when he just pushes it to the limit it makes for some of his best and most underrated films.
Let us not forget Roger Corman often citing Bergman as the inspiration for the style of his Poe films. It is glaringly obvious in Masque of the Red Death.
Watching the first minute of this video essay, the dialogue is a cut above the other channels, the editing is amazing, and everything you are showing from the film is perfectly chosen for the point you are making. Many of the other media channels seem very superficial, this channel seems like it will be great.
Me, one of your 1% teen viewers (16 years old) at my next slumber party: “oh yah y’all I got some real scary movies for y’all, we got Persona, a metaphorical vampire film, Hour of the Wolf, a vampire-esque film about a weird family with lots of subtext, and The Magician, which has the scariest thing of all of film: subtitles!”
A sizable inspiration to Bergman was Victor Sjöström, whose 1921 film Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage) was one of the earliest Swedish horror films. Bergman would of course use Sjöström himself in Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries) complete with a deliberate homage to Körkarlen.
A number of years ago a friend and I were discussing David Lynch films. One of us said he could make a great horror film, then at the same time we both realized that most of his films already are!
The nightmare scenes in Wild Strawberries and supernatural episodes in Fanny & Alexander are some of the scariest and most deeply alarming things I've seen in any film. And I've seen Cries and Whispers exactly once and never want to watch it again for fear of the emotional devastation, which must count as something.
Bergman used to the an epicenter of film discussion when I was going to arthouse movie theaters in the 1970s-1990s and now nobody on TH-cam talks about his magnificent canon, so thank for helping restore proper balance.
I love all the examples you showed of Bergman influencing and being influenced by other horror movies. One other example I know of is The Phantom Carriage, which influenced Wild Strawberries. It's emotional to watch them together and see different ways a man can tear his family and soul apart. The Phantom Carriage also influenced The Shining, which has the same theme.
Have you seen a Ken Russell film? Arthouse director with a foot in horror, e.g. Tommy, Altered States, Lair of the White Worm, Gothic, Crimes of Passion, Lisztomania, The Devils.
I once took a friend to a Nic Roeg double bill: Don't Look Now and Bad Timing. His dismissive response: they were just horror films. Later we went to see Hour of the Wolf and he thought it was really interesting.
Though not regarding horror specifically, similiar things could be said for Carl Th. Dreyer as well. The tendendcy with some critics and audiences to overlook "genre elements" such as comedy or horror in all the artfull intellectualism and perceived "Scandinavian gloom".
I covered similar topics a couple weeks ago on my own channel, and we agree on a lot of what makes Bergman interesting. Thank you for sharing the fantastic cinematic language of Bergman with others. I consider so many of his films to be horrific in nature, especially when you regard many of his existential themes. Great video! You approached much of his films and filmmaking with more articulate points than I did.
As someone who loves the horror genre, but is basically never actually scared by any horror fiction, I feel like these Bergman movies would feel as much like "horror" to me as anything else. I'm mainly in it for the vibes after all, not to "feel scared", since as I said, that pretty much never happens anyway. I should watch some of these movies and find out! They look very interesting regardless. Anyway, fascinating video, thank you for sharing!
@@fightscrimewhilesleeping4024 thanks for watching! If you watch any of the Bergman films I talk about here please circle back and let me know what you thought of them?
@@EyebrowCinema I actually watched one last night! I looked at some of the works you mentioned, picked Persona kind of random, and, not only would I characterize it as a horror movie, it might actually be one of my FAVORITE horror movies now? Anyway, I'll restrain myself from saying anything else about it, since I feel I'm at risk of rambling too much and possibly giving a scene by scene analysis in your comments section lol. Instead, I'll just leave it at saying thank you for inspiring me to check it out cause I am SO SO glad I did! I'm definitely gonna watch more Bergman now, tho I don't know when I'll have time to sit down and give a movie my full attention again (I usually multi task when watching things, so I can get work done at the same time, but I really don't want to do that with these) but when I do have a full evening I can devote to something, another film you cited in this video will definitely be a top runner for what I pick!
Thanks for a great essay. I'm a big Bergman buf, always annoyed by the misconception that his films are difficult and boring homework movies. He's always been a great entertainer whom combines intellectual ideas with visceral freights and also a lot of laughs
@@dimitrispapadimitriou5622 There is more to Bergman's comedy then that. Think of the wonderfull comic bickering between professor Borg and his housekeeper in Wild Strawberries or the brilliant fart-jokes in Fanny & Alexander.
Wes Craven was very much influenced by Bergman, as you mentioned. I gotta imagine the blurring between dream and reality/fiction and reality in his Nightmare on Elm Street movies was inspired at least in some part by Wild Strawberries, Persona and Hour of the Wolf.
Bergman and Polanski. The bit in Elm Street, for instance, when Tina sees a tooth lodged in the window that "wakes" her up, was inspired by Polanski pulling a tooth out of the wall in The Tenant.
You didn't mention The Serpent's Egg, which, though not really very good, most certainly uses the horror tropes of another non-horror horror director, Fritz Lang, and explicitly involves human experiments, although it's probably a bit too heavy-handed.
Yes!!! My favorite series. I was watching the Criterion set and reading the book that came with it while he was making them and am still sad he hasn’t returned to them. Haha.
I’ve only seen Wild Strawberries, Through a Glass Darkly and Autumn Sonata and I was surprised to find they all had horror elements, even autumn sonata has a hand falling on Ingrid Bergman when she’s having a nightmare. 😂
Perfect timing releasing this before Halloween 🎃!!! The only other thing that I think can rival and in some cases even surpass Bergman's work as a whole is the film Marketa Lazarova (1967), the crowning monument of the Czech New Wave. It's one of my Top 💯 Favorite Films, and there's enough creepy, surrealist, unsettling, and allegorical content in there to give Bergman a run for his money!
I personally interpreted the ending as Agnes' last breath (since she is struggling to breathe) and her sisters are too selfish and distant to comfort her so they run away from their shame.
Bergman was one of, if not the first, "foreign arthouse" filmmaker I got into. And I felt from the jump he made unambiguous horror films. But I never really broached that topic in more uppity film spaces because one can tell they would outright reject that notion.
I’ve been going through all of your videos and love them! Would you consider talking about 3 days of the condor and Fay Dunaway’s character. The film seems great in so many ways, but I can’t get over how poorly motivated her character is. Maybe I’m misreading her motivations or maybe it is just a tragic example of sexism? Thanks!
Frasier: The horrors of Ingmar Bergman. Norm: Boy, who could forget her in Casablanca, right? Frasier: No, no, no you're thinking of Ingrid Bergman amd I'm talking about INGMAR Bergman. Woody: Ingmar Bergman the boxer?
A thing you start to notice when watching Hour Of The Wolf is how much it resembles The Shining, to the point where The Shining almost becomes a remake. An artist trapped at a remote location. His relationship with his wife. Von Sydow tries to kill his wife. He even hurts a small boy. And the scene where the old woman laughs at Von Sydow, like a ghost ridiculing him, is IDENTICAL to the scene in The Shining. I don’t think anyone has made a video about this. Just a tip.
''I for one object to that conclusion for i am thoroughly familiar with the art of Neoatheism after reading the first chapter ofGod Delusion from one Richard Dawkins..''
Me, a horror buff who hasn’t seen any Bergman films: … (What should I start with this dude is such a major blind spot and I’m afraid of Scorsese will find it on my LB and take away my cinephilia card lol)
@@gunnarthedude8205 I’d say so, especially if you like B&W horror films. But like he says, Bergman isn’t an out-and-out horror director. It’s under the surface.
What is Ingmar Bergman's scariest movie?
Scenes from a Marriage.
I'd say Fanny and Alexander. The ghosts of the Bishop's daughters and the scene with Ismael will haunt me forever.
Persona freaked me out the second I had an inkling of what it was (maybe) going for, haha
GREAT QUESTION..
Persona haunts me like no other film, and then there is a spectral image of Ingrid Thulin in a mirror, I just can't remember in which film...
Fantastic work again, Bergman's entire filmography has been borderline existential horror and creepy monologues so when he just pushes it to the limit it makes for some of his best and most underrated films.
It's interesting that Existential Horror isn't real Horror in some people's mind.
Let us not forget Roger Corman often citing Bergman as the inspiration for the style of his Poe films. It is glaringly obvious in Masque of the Red Death.
and Corman also helped get his Movies shown in American Cinemas.
I saw The Hour of the Wolf in a film class and it really scared me. Deeply unsettling, but great film.
Watching the first minute of this video essay, the dialogue is a cut above the other channels, the editing is amazing, and everything you are showing from the film is perfectly chosen for the point you are making. Many of the other media channels seem very superficial, this channel seems like it will be great.
Thanks for the kind words, Alice. I hope the rest of the video lives up to that first minute!
Me, one of your 1% teen viewers (16 years old) at my next slumber party: “oh yah y’all I got some real scary movies for y’all, we got Persona, a metaphorical vampire film, Hour of the Wolf, a vampire-esque film about a weird family with lots of subtext, and The Magician, which has the scariest thing of all of film: subtitles!”
16 here as well love bergman
My local cinema is doing a series of Bergman double features starting next month, and this has gotten me suitably hyped.
You lucky dog.
A sizable inspiration to Bergman was Victor Sjöström, whose 1921 film Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage) was one of the earliest Swedish horror films. Bergman would of course use Sjöström himself in Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries) complete with a deliberate homage to Körkarlen.
A number of years ago a friend and I were discussing David Lynch films. One of us said he could make a great horror film, then at the same time we both realized that most of his films already are!
The nightmare scenes in Wild Strawberries and supernatural episodes in Fanny & Alexander are some of the scariest and most deeply alarming things I've seen in any film. And I've seen Cries and Whispers exactly once and never want to watch it again for fear of the emotional devastation, which must count as something.
Bergman has several scenes in his films that have frightened me, or unsettled me. One of my favourite directors.
BABE WAKE UP NEW EYEBROW VID ABOUT BERGMAN’S CINEMA JUST DROPPED
It feels good to be back.
Bergman used to the an epicenter of film discussion when I was going to arthouse movie theaters in the 1970s-1990s and now nobody on TH-cam talks about his magnificent canon, so thank for helping restore proper balance.
that's simply not true. Plenty of these movie channels talk about him often, you just haven't bothered looking.
I love all the examples you showed of Bergman influencing and being influenced by other horror movies. One other example I know of is The Phantom Carriage, which influenced Wild Strawberries. It's emotional to watch them together and see different ways a man can tear his family and soul apart. The Phantom Carriage also influenced The Shining, which has the same theme.
Do Cronenberg next, I think he is the only director that straddles the line between arthouse and exploitative horror trash.
Definitely a good suggestion. Would have to revisit some of his films but there's a lot to work with there.
IMO, the two directors who took the Bergmanian project and developed it further was Rainer Werner Fassbinder and David Lynch.
Have you seen a Ken Russell film? Arthouse director with a foot in horror, e.g. Tommy, Altered States, Lair of the White Worm, Gothic, Crimes of Passion, Lisztomania, The Devils.
Lynch and Argento too.
you think wrong.
I once took a friend to a Nic Roeg double bill: Don't Look Now and Bad Timing. His dismissive response: they were just horror films. Later we went to see Hour of the Wolf and he thought it was really interesting.
Cries and Whispers is horrifying
One of the best movie ever.
I only wish there had been more of this video - especially on From the Lives of the Marionettes and Through a Glass Darkly.
I believe that ignoring the horror of Ingmar Bergman is to miss a significant part of his art.
The Hour of the Wolf is Bergman's one indisputable horror film. It is one of the great horror movies of all time.
Man, I do love Hour of the Wolf. That, and Winter Light are my two favorites from Bergman.
Ingmar Bergman is one of the Greatest and Influential director of all time
I'm a BIG Persona fan, and I'd never considered it scary or vampiric... Until now. It was a very interesting interpretation.
What an excellent study of Bergman!
Though not regarding horror specifically, similiar things could be said for Carl Th. Dreyer as well. The tendendcy with some critics and audiences to overlook "genre elements" such as comedy or horror in all the artfull intellectualism and perceived "Scandinavian gloom".
I would love to see you cover a video on Akira Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, or even Kobayashi. Kobayashi especially because he isn’t talked about enough.
I covered similar topics a couple weeks ago on my own channel, and we agree on a lot of what makes Bergman interesting. Thank you for sharing the fantastic cinematic language of Bergman with others. I consider so many of his films to be horrific in nature, especially when you regard many of his existential themes. Great video! You approached much of his films and filmmaking with more articulate points than I did.
Please, I beg of you, I’d love to see your video about Jean-Luc Godard 🥺
As someone who loves the horror genre, but is basically never actually scared by any horror fiction, I feel like these Bergman movies would feel as much like "horror" to me as anything else. I'm mainly in it for the vibes after all, not to "feel scared", since as I said, that pretty much never happens anyway. I should watch some of these movies and find out! They look very interesting regardless.
Anyway, fascinating video, thank you for sharing!
@@fightscrimewhilesleeping4024 thanks for watching! If you watch any of the Bergman films I talk about here please circle back and let me know what you thought of them?
@@EyebrowCinema I actually watched one last night! I looked at some of the works you mentioned, picked Persona kind of random, and, not only would I characterize it as a horror movie, it might actually be one of my FAVORITE horror movies now?
Anyway, I'll restrain myself from saying anything else about it, since I feel I'm at risk of rambling too much and possibly giving a scene by scene analysis in your comments section lol. Instead, I'll just leave it at saying thank you for inspiring me to check it out cause I am SO SO glad I did!
I'm definitely gonna watch more Bergman now, tho I don't know when I'll have time to sit down and give a movie my full attention again (I usually multi task when watching things, so I can get work done at the same time, but I really don't want to do that with these) but when I do have a full evening I can devote to something, another film you cited in this video will definitely be a top runner for what I pick!
Thanks for a great essay. I'm a big Bergman buf, always annoyed by the misconception that his films are difficult and boring homework movies. He's always been a great entertainer whom combines intellectual ideas with visceral freights and also a lot of laughs
I think his Irony is great, but his Comedy not so...
@@dimitrispapadimitriou5622 There is more to Bergman's comedy then that. Think of the wonderfull comic bickering between professor Borg and his housekeeper in Wild Strawberries or the brilliant fart-jokes in Fanny & Alexander.
Wes Craven was very much influenced by Bergman, as you mentioned. I gotta imagine the blurring between dream and reality/fiction and reality in his Nightmare on Elm Street movies was inspired at least in some part by Wild Strawberries, Persona and Hour of the Wolf.
Bergman and Polanski. The bit in Elm Street, for instance, when Tina sees a tooth lodged in the window that "wakes" her up, was inspired by Polanski pulling a tooth out of the wall in The Tenant.
Is it a tooth? I always thought it was just a stone
@@lukassrensen4788 Craven mentions it in the commentary.
@@SquabbleBoxHQ ah cool
Bergman’s horror influence is so obviously Carl Theodor Dreyer
And just as much or more, Victor Sjöström. Bergman explicitly said the image of Death in Sjöström's Phantom Chariot was a direct influence.
What an excellent piece, many thanks.
My pleasure. Thanks for watching.
@@EyebrowCinema I'm not playing either, this is an outstanding upload and I'm delighted to have found you Sir 👍 📚 🇬🇧
What an excellent study. Thank you.
You didn't mention The Serpent's Egg, which, though not really very good, most certainly uses the horror tropes of another non-horror horror director, Fritz Lang, and explicitly involves human experiments, although it's probably a bit too heavy-handed.
Funny, this was the exact thing I thought of. I wonder why he didn't include the film in this.
Hope you'll return to your Bergman 5 minute shorts on each film soon.They're the best.
Yes!!! My favorite series. I was watching the Criterion set and reading the book that came with it while he was making them and am still sad he hasn’t returned to them. Haha.
I’ve only seen Wild Strawberries, Through a Glass Darkly and Autumn Sonata and I was surprised to find they all had horror elements, even autumn sonata has a hand falling on Ingrid Bergman when she’s having a nightmare. 😂
Perfect timing releasing this before Halloween 🎃!!! The only other thing that I think can rival and in some cases even surpass Bergman's work as a whole is the film Marketa Lazarova (1967), the crowning monument of the Czech New Wave. It's one of my Top 💯 Favorite Films, and there's enough creepy, surrealist, unsettling, and allegorical content in there to give Bergman a run for his money!
Pretty Excellent Video here... Makes me wanna rewatch all 3 Films! Nice Work!
Oh hell yeah! BERGMAN'S CINEMA IS BACK BOYS
I personally interpreted the ending as Agnes' last breath (since she is struggling to breathe) and her sisters are too selfish and distant to comfort her so they run away from their shame.
This is great, thank you. Will we get to see more of the Bergman's Cinema series?
Fantastic analysis ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Do Fellini next.
Bergman was one of, if not the first, "foreign arthouse" filmmaker I got into. And I felt from the jump he made unambiguous horror films. But I never really broached that topic in more uppity film spaces because one can tell they would outright reject that notion.
This was great. thank you.
I'm gonna do Persona and Hour Wolf double feature this Halloween damn you, letterbox'd & the ladies who fav Bergm
Brilliant work. Hands down.
I’ve been going through all of your videos and love them! Would you consider talking about 3 days of the condor and Fay Dunaway’s character. The film seems great in so many ways, but I can’t get over how poorly motivated her character is. Maybe I’m misreading her motivations or maybe it is just a tragic example of sexism? Thanks!
Frasier: The horrors of Ingmar Bergman.
Norm: Boy, who could forget her in Casablanca, right?
Frasier: No, no, no you're thinking of Ingrid Bergman amd I'm talking about INGMAR Bergman.
Woody: Ingmar Bergman the boxer?
I'm very glad someone commented this.
Always nice to see a Cheers reference in the wild
How can you mix up Ingmar Bergman and Ingemar Johansson? They didn't even spell their first name the same way.
I love you Eyebrow cinema !!
This was awesome! Glad I came across it.
Enjoyable considerations. Thanks! ❤
You forgot to mention that Fargo also opens with a text card claiming the made up events really happened.
Do you think of Kurosawa’s Thrown Of Blood as a horror film
Don’t know if he does, but I do. A foreboding witch, ghosts, blood, and madness. And that ending...
Throne
I think I love you Eyebrow
A thing you start to notice when watching Hour Of The Wolf is how much it resembles The Shining, to the point where The Shining almost becomes a remake. An artist trapped at a remote location. His relationship with his wife. Von Sydow tries to kill his wife. He even hurts a small boy. And the scene where the old woman laughs at Von Sydow, like a ghost ridiculing him, is IDENTICAL to the scene in The Shining.
I don’t think anyone has made a video about this. Just a tip.
Great observation.
This was pretty great.
''I for one object to that conclusion for i am thoroughly familiar with the art of Neoatheism after reading the first chapter ofGod Delusion from one Richard Dawkins..''
Me, a horror buff who hasn’t seen any Bergman films: …
(What should I start with this dude is such a major blind spot and I’m afraid of Scorsese will find it on my LB and take away my cinephilia card lol)
Go with the ones he mentions. Don’t start with the Seventh Seal like everybody does. While a beautiful film, it’s piety can be a turnoff
Ok. Would you say Persona is a good starting point?
@@gunnarthedude8205 I’d say so, especially if you like B&W horror films. But like he says, Bergman isn’t an out-and-out horror director. It’s under the surface.
new eyebrow cinema video, all plans cancelled
👍
A lot of horror movies, most, are low-brow trash!