Gycklarnas afton (Sawdust and Tinsel, also released as The Naked Night, 1953) is the film directed by Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) that sounds and looks most like a backstage Fellini movie with a Nino Rota-like score (composed by Karl-Birger Blomdahl).. If I had to say what it is "about," I would say humiliation -- something that recurs in Bergman and Fellini movies. "Sawdust and Tinsel" is not as light (Mozartean) as "Smiles on a Summer Night" or "The Magic Flute") nor as fascinating as "The Magician," but provides vivid characters, most of whom work in the struggling Alberti Circus

Albert Johansson (Ake Grönberg) is a corpulent and very sweaty ringmaster who is tired of life on the road, but less than enthusiastic about settling down. The circus has come to the town where his wife Agda (Annika Tretow) and two young sons live, and Albert pays them a visit. By the end of it, I started to feel a little sorry for him. More so, after a farcical duel with the leading actor (and lothario) in the local theater, Frans (Hasse Ekman), who has insulted Albert's female companion (who rides an Andalusian horse in the circus), Anne (Harriet Andersson), who also wants out of the traveling circus life, and hopes to become a legitimate actress.

More humiliation is shown early on, a flashback of the clown Frost (Anders Ek) finding his wife Alma (Gudrun Brost), the bear-tamer in the circus, naked in a river with the better part of an artillery company. The humiliation is compounded by her clothes being stolen. There is something very Stations of the Cross about how taking her home was shot -- mostly long shots of a procession on a ridge. I don't think of Sweden as having a cruel sun, but it sure looks that way in this sequence of blazing sunlight.

Both the start and the finish of the film show the circus wagons very photogenic atop a ridge (and crossing a stream on a wooden bridge with no railings.

The film restoration is yet another reminder of what a great service Criterion does for cinéastes. (It restored the scene of the confrontation with the police, though I primarily mean restoration of the quality of the images.)

I saw many Bergman films back in the heyday of art house cinemas and have filled in some blanks since Bergman died, but had not had any chance to see "Sawdust and Tinsel" before its DVD release.

I loathe the voice of Bergman biographer (and too-frequent Criterion Collections commentator) Peter Cowie. If I could get over that, I'm sure I'd learn things from his commentary track. In an introduction to a showing of the film on Swedish television included on the disc, Bergman said that he liked the film because "it's wild without losing control." He also stated that it was in his opinion the first good movie he made.

The editing reins in what could easily have been actors' excesses. Having superb visual compositions didn't hurt (this film marked the beginning of the collaboration between Bergman and the great cinematographer Sven Nykvist, though it took seven more years (Virgin Spring) to become regular), and many of the duets (conversations between two characters) are way better than "admirable."

Even the most vain and caddish member of the cast spends some time groveling (and reveling in erotic humiliation), and there are situations and reactions that made me wince for most of the (other!) characters. And most of the characters put themselves on display -- being circus performers and the only slightly better regarded stratum, actors. None has any illusion of being a major artist, but Bergman must have identified to some extent with the lack of appreciation (and even contempt) which is their lot in casting pearls before swine. The artists and the artistes can't go on, must go on (like Samuel Beckett characters, who also tend to be flayed and weary) ... together.

© 2008, Stephen O. Murray




Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age