NIGHT IS MY FUTURE (1948)
A film review by Simon Härdh
© 1997 Simon Härdh
(Terrafilms Produktions AB) Alternative title: Music in darkness. Starring: Birger Malmsten, Mai Zetterling, Bengt Eklund, Naima Wifstrand. Screenplay: Dagmar Edqvist. Producer: Lorens Marmstedt. Director: Ingmar Bergman. Director of photography: Göran Strindberg. Running Time: 86 minutes. Original opening: 1948-01-15 Reviewed by Simon Härdh.
It starts as a tragedy when Bengt (Malmsten) goes blind after an accident at a military rifle range, but develops into more of a comedy (perhaps unintentionally) - Ingmar Bergman's fourth movie as a director. The script by Dagmar Edqvist presents dialogue sometimes laughably naive, and the cliches come close. It's hard to tell sometimes if you're laughing at the poorness or the funniness of the script. What saves the film, though, is the beautiful photography and the performances of Birger Malmsten and Mai Zetterling, who plays the housemaid who falls in love with Malmsten. The presence of Zetterling is indescribable. More than once the camera takes a close-up of her face which makes you think of silent movies and Greta Garbo. Is it a message from Bergman that he rather would have made a silent ? During the final scene in a train-coupe, someone in the audience shouts to his friends: - Wasn't that Bergman behind the window ? Neither I nor anyone else seem to have recognized Bergman. Looking this up at home I can't find any certifying proof of this Bergman appearance. Maybe the man just saw the early films' hard-recognized spirit of Bergman's later so recognizable style ?
Grade: 3 stars out of 5
© 1997 Simon Härdh
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