Torment (aka Frenzy aka Hets)
Although this film is included in the collection it isn't actually directed by Ingmar Bergman, but the film is the first screenplay he had produced and he's credited as 'Assistant Director'. He shot the final scene of the movie.
Jan-Erik (Alf Kjellin) is in his final year off school coming close to his exams, but he has no real care for school- he wishes to play the violin and fall in love. He and his fellows are tormented by the Latin teacher nicknamed Caligula (Stig Järrel), an unpleasant man who believes the boys should be taught through fear. Neither does Jan-Erik get on with his parents who don't understand him. Only when he meets the drunken Bertha (Mai Zetterling) do things begin to look up, but she is afraid of a man who torments her.
When I watched this, my first thought was that it's a film about an angry young man before being an angry young man was popular. Rebel Without A Cause arrived nine years later, so the Swedes got there before the Americans.
It's a good, solid film. The story is fairly interesting, though it does get stilted in places. Järrel always looks the part of an evil Latin teacher, and the rest of the cast are adequate. My favourite shot of the film was the last one which (only after watching did I discover) that Bergman himself directed it. It reminded me of a more urbanised version of the painting Wanderer Above A Sea Of Fog.
So, a pretty good start by Bergman.
Rating- 6/10
Top 5 Films (To be updated with each film I see)
1)Torment
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hello! impressive task you've taken on here. you mentioned that stig jarrel looked like the part of a evil latin teacher. you might be interested to know that he played almost the exact same part two years earlier in a film written and directed by hasse ekman. the english title would be something like 'flames in the shadows' and the similarities between the films are striking.
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