Port of Call (1948)

Port of Call (Hamnstad)


Once again Bergman is making a film about a young couple who fall in love. This seems to be a big recurring theme in these early films. Before seeing these films the earliest Bergman I'd seen was Summer With Monika which comes 5 years after this, but still this film feels like a test run for that later film. But I get ahead of myself.


Gösta (Bengt Eklund) is a sailor who's had enough of the sea. Berit (Nine-Christine Jönsson) is a suicidal factory girl. They meet at a dance and it looks like romance is inevitable, and so it is but there are complications- the past. Berit spent time in a reformatory, and the shadow of it still hangs over so. Gösta can't seem to forgive Berit for her past.


The idea of forgetting the past is interesting, but it's not quite fully developed or explored in this film. I think it's been too tied down to been a romance, and I think this is because Bergman co-authored the screenplay with the author of the novel the film is based on. The film tends to be dull in places, and I think this is due to a fatal flaw Bergman makes- it's clear he wants to make a realist film and makes good use of exterior shots, but when the film is studio shot it falls down, and most of the film is studio based.


Not a bad film, could be better.


Rating- 5/10


Top 5-
1) Music In Darkness
2) Torment
3) Port of Call
4) Crisis
5)--