Skammen (1968)

Director:

Ingmar Bergman

Writer:

Ingmar Bergman (writer)

Release Date:

23 December 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Ingmar Bergman's psychological study of how humans react in a situation of war. The film takes place on Gotland, where invasion forces arrives.

Plot Keywords:

Musician | Island | Farm | Fictional War | Military

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 8 wins

Cast

Liv Ullmann	...	Eva Rosenberg
Max von Sydow	...	Jan Rosenberg
Sigge Fürst	...	Filip
Gunnar Björnstrand	...	Col. Jacobi
Birgitta Valberg	...	Mrs. Jacobi
Hans Alfredson	...	Lobelius
Ingvar Kjellson	...	Oswald
Frank Sundström	...	Chief interrogator
Ulf Johansson	...	The doctor
Vilgot Sjöman	...	The interviewer
Bengt Eklund	...	Guard
Gösta Prüzelius	...	The vicar
Willy Peters	...	Elder officer
Barbro Hiort af Ornäs	...	Woman in the boat
Agda Helin	...	Merchant's wife
Ellika Mann	...	Prison guard
Rune Lindström	...	Fat man
Axel Düberg	...	Pilot
Lars Amble	...	Officer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Per Berglund	...	Soldier
Jan Bergman	...	Jacobi's driver
Karl-Arne Bergman
Lilian Carlsson
Gregor Dahlman
Nils Fogeby
Karl-Axel Forssberg	...	The secretary
Åke Jörnfalk	...	Man sentenced to death
Eivor Kullberg
Monica Lindberg
Stig Lindberg	...	Assistant doctor
Frej Lindqvist	...	Bent man
Raymond Lundberg	...	Jacobi's son
Börje Lundh
Brita Öberg	...	Woman
Georg Skarstedt	...	Man in the boat
Björn Thambert	...	Johan
Nils Whiten	...	Older man
Brian Wikström

Directed by
Ingmar Bergman

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ingmar Bergman		writer

Produced by
Lars-Owe Carlberg	....	producer

Cinematography by
Sven Nykvist

Film Editing by
Ulla Ryghe

Production Design by
P.A. Lundgren

Art Direction by
Lennart Blomkvist

Costume Design by
Mago

Special Effects by
Evald Andersson	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Einar Carlsson	....	grip
Gerhard Carlsson	....	electrician

Production Companies

• Cinematograph AB
• Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Distributors

• Lopert Pictures Corporation (1968) (USA) (subtitled)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Shame (USA)

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 (video rating) (2004) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Fårö, Gotlands län, Sweden

Company:

Cinematograph AB

Goofs:

Continuity: Eva is not wearing any socks when Jacobi arrives but several times during his visit she can be seen wearing a couple of black socks and no socks at all again.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in En passion (1969)

It wasn't so awful since it was so beautiful...

First of all the story is not so simple as many earlier reviewers tend to emphasize, it is actually a very complex story, unlike Bergman's other movies that are more bend towards character study. In Skammen we have two main characters but as we are thrown from the start in the middle of a war we have no idea who is fighting and why, everything is open for any resolution. This creates a huge tension and makes every event meaningful. As the story unfolds we are introduced to numerous characters, that are turned into symbols of humanity, both its dark and luminous sides. We have the example of the innocent bystanders who try to get by during an absurd war, the cynical doctor who makes fun of his patients and provides the only bitter humor of the whole movie, the perverse opportunists who try to make the best of an atrocious event (Bjornstrand's character), the innocent dead children, the nameless figures almost turned into animals from the boat etc. All of them are somehow seen through the eyes of Jan (von Sydow) and Eva (Ulmann), their characters are more restrained then in other Begrman films (En Passion) and this is exactly because what is important here is the story, the way exterior events have the capacity to radically change human nature.

Bergman made this film two years after Persona where the main conclusion expressed by the only word uttered by Liv Ulmann's character is INGENTING, nothing. That's it: the meaning of art and the meaning of life, the latter being nothing more than a play that includes all plays. But what about war? And especially the annihilating ones of the XX'th century. In Persona, the only real emotion suffered by Ulmann's character is when she sees a victim of the Vietnam war turned into a human torch. In Skammen that idea is extended to a complex analysis of the dehumanizing nature of war. In a nameless region of a nameless country (we only assume it's Sweeden) two factions speaking the same language fight an absurd war. Jan and Eva are two dreamers caught in the middle but their dreams are woven in a sort of counterpoint. Jan is at first an idealist, unable to react properly to the world and a subject to his wife's will. Towards the end he turns into a radically different personality, capable of unmotivated murder, strong-willed, pitiless (watch carefully the suicidal on the boat..the simplicity of the act is harrowing). On the other hand Eva progressively looses touch with reality and at the end she is completely suffused in her own unfulfilled dream.

From a technical point of view the whole movie delivers its message in a very effective way. Bergman places the viewer alongside the character, putting the camera in the car with the actors, or in an extreme close-up behind the actor. Nykvist manages an extraordinary control of the camera, there are some masterful "hand-held" effects, very good in making everything seem "real". The shots when the characters are captured by the army look remarkably documentary-like. The screenplay is minimalist but the story is quite complex for that matter. Actually the whole movie is paradoxical, it has an intensity in the subject that is in a sharp contrast to the coldness and lack of emotional involvement with which it is directed and filmed. Nothing is melodramatic here, there is no compassion, no hope and no apparent redemption. But, as in Liv Ulmann's dream at the end it is all so beautiful one cannot help but being amazed at it...It was not so awful since it was so beautiful!