Films/DVD Asylum

Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

RE: Pauline Kael brilliantly puts Bergman into perspective in her

Posted by Cosmic Closet on January 17, 2009 at 10:16:10:
I have always loved Pauline Kael, even when I disagree with her.
While it is easy to mock the 'gloomy Swede', I do find that she comes down too hard on him here.

Bergman at his best was a realist about the world. In his films, beauty and love are hard-won things, that, when they do happen, shine all the more for it.
No one has to do 10 of his films in a row; if you do, of course you will see a certain style and outlook, much like with any great director. I have not found, in watching his major films, that he was getting tiresome or repetitious.
That said, I go in to one of his films with certain expectations, and light comedy is not one of them (although 'Fanny and Alexander' is probably his most upbeat work.)

The man had a profound understanding of the human condition. While his films could get dark, there was always some redeeming hope in most of them. I would not call "Wild Strawberries" or his other big ones "second-rate thinking."