EWB Film Club

[Monkey D. Lars]

Haven´t seen one of his movies but the Seventh Seal has been high on my watchlist! Great reason to watch it!

[Jimmy]

I just watched The Seventh Seal...and it didn't live up the hype for me. It really lacked the kind of human involvement I got from Wild Strawberries (which, the more I reflect, the more I realise it could be one of my favourites of all time). As you'd expect from Bergman, there's some beautiful imagery and some really interesting stuff in there, I just never got involved. I think it's a film I'll revisit very soon. Will probably watch another one or two Bergman films this week if I get time, he's such an interesting filmmaker. Really quite gutted this didn't tick the boxes for me.

[DFF]

It'd be cool to get a few other people jumping back in. I know Srar's still about, but if we could get it up to just 5 or 6, that'd be cool. Enjoyed the discussion more this week, and hopefully Bergman's not too much after doing Kar-Wai.

I've been out of town for the best part of two weeks - hoping to catch up a bit with this :-)

[Your Mom]

I don't know who this is. Someone want to help me out with a recommendation?

[Jimmy]

Seventh Seal is one of his most famous films. I'd say Wild Strawberries is very accessible. If you want a weird Swedish mindfuck, Persona's meant to be very weird.

[GA!]

Persona is weird and incoherent, but you sort of get the gist of what's going on towards the end.

[Jimmy]

Had some spare time, so watched Cries and Whispers today. I've only seen three films, but it's clear Bergman liked working with the same actors over and over again. It's an incredibly disturbing film, and by no means an easy watch, but it's very effective and emotive and it says a lot about the negative side of the human psychology. It's really worth watching and it's another film which keeps making me wanna watch more Bergman films.

[Benjamin]

Gonna' be watching Persona, I'm told it's a real mindfuck, so I'm both extremely curious and apprehensive.

[Benjamin]

Eurgh. I watch Persona, and I wasn't entertained, nor did it make any other kind of impression on me. I guess I'm just not smart enough for whatever this was.

[Monkey D. Lars]

So, I followed in Jimmy's footsteps and my first Ingmar Bergman film was Cries and Whispers. And what a way it was to introduce me to Ingmar Bergman. Just like Jimmy said it's very disturbing. Especially the scene where Agnes lies on bed breathing heavy. Also some moments between Maria and Karin are hard to watch. How sisters can be so far away emotionally from each other and put it on film like this is just amazing. What I also found amazing where the last lines of the film:

"Come what may, this is happiness. I cannot wish for anything better. Now, for a few minutes, I can experience perfection. And I feel profoundly grateful to my life, which gives me so much."

and this one also stood out:

"I've received the most wonderful gift anyone can receive in this life. A gift that is called many things: togetherness, companionship, relatedness, affection... I think this is what is called grace"

If you are going to watch a Ingmar Bergman, this one won't let you down!

[livid]

I'm not sure I'll go back and catch up but I may take part in this this week. The Seventh Seal has been on my to-do list for forever.

[Jimmy]

I wanna hear what other people have to say about The Seventh Seal. I know there's someone (maybe Skummy?) on here who loves it, but I definitely didn't have that reaction to it. Would be interested how others feel.

[Your Mom]

From what people are saying I don't think I'm interested in this one either

[Benjamin]

That's what you get for skipping Wong Kar-Wai.

[Jimmy]

From what people are saying I don't think I'm interested in this one either

Just don't watch Persona. Unless you don't like foreign language films, there's some pretty great stuff of his out there which isn't very weird. I'd love for you to give it a go, but fair enough if not

[Benjamin]

Isn't the Seventh Seal more than two hours? I think that's why I chose not to watch it. I'm gonna watch something, but I can't remember what it is.

[Jimmy]

Seventh Seal is 90 minutes.

[Your Mom]

Has anyone seen The Passion of Anna? That's the only one on Netflix

[Benjamin]

Seventh Seal is 90 minutes.

Whoopsie. I think I got Wild Strawberries instead, though. I might have got Seventh Seal! Have to go back and check.

[Jimmy]

They're both 90 mins. I think Wild Strawberries is incredible and up there with the best films I've seen, but I'm totally interested as to what other people think of Seventh Seal.