| Shame | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Ingmar Bergman |
| Written by | Ingmar Bergman |
| Starring | Liv Ullmann Max von Sydow Sigge Fürst Gunnar Björnstrand |
| Cinematography | Sven Nykvist |
| Edited by | Ulla Ryghe |
Production company | Cinematograph AB |
| Distributed by | Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden) Lopert Pictures Corporation (USA) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish |
| Box office | $250,000 (US)[1] |
Shame (Swedish:Skammen) is a 1968 Swedishdrama film written and directed byIngmar Bergman, and starringLiv Ullmann andMax von Sydow. Ullmann and von Sydow play Eva and Jan, formerviolinists, a politically uninvolved couple whose home comes under threat bycivil war. They are accused by one side of sympathy for the enemy, and their marriage deteriorates while the couple flees. The story explores themes of shame, moral decline, self-loathing and violence.
The film was shot onFårö, beginning in 1967, employing miniature models for the combat scenes.Shame was shot and released during theVietnam War, although Bergman denied it was a commentary on the real-life conflict. He instead expressed interest in telling the story of a "little war".
Shame won a few honors, including for Ullmann's performance. It is sometimes considered the second in a series of thematically related films, preceded by Bergman's 1968Hour of the Wolf, and followed by the 1969The Passion of Anna.The film was selected as the Swedish entry for theBest Foreign Language Film at the41st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee
A husband and wife, Jan and Eva Rosenberg, are formerviolinists who are living on a farm on a rural island during acivil war. Their radio and telephone do not work, and Eva expresses frustration with Jan's apparent preference ofescapism from the conflict, while they debate whether they can have children and if Jan is selfish. The couple visit the town, hear a rumor that troops will soon come, and meet with an older man who has been called to duty.
When they return, their home area is bombed, and they see aparatrooper descend on it. Jan and Eva are captured by the invading force and interviewed by amilitary journalist on camera, for a segment on the viewpoints of the "liberated" population. Eva initially seems indifferent to the conflict, but denies neutrality; Jan declines to speak, and they are released. They are later captured again, and as soldiers interrogate them, the troops play a film of the interview, in which Eva's words have been dubbed over with incriminating speech. This is primarily ascare tactic.
Eventually, they are released by Col. Jacobi, who had formerly served as the mayor. After the couple returns home, their relationship is strained. Jacobi becomes a regular, but uncomfortably constant, visitor who treats them with gifts but also has the power to send the couple to awork camp. This relationship ismanipulative. Jacobi convinces Eva to provide him with sexual favors in exchange for his bank account savings. They go into the green house to have sex while Jan is resting. He wakes, calling Eva's name. Eventually, he goes upstairs and finds Jacobi's savings on the bed and begins to cry. Eva enters, while Jacobi stays outside and turns to leave. She then comments to a weeping Jan that he can continue sobbing if he feels it will help. Soldiers arrive, and Jacobi explains his freedom can be bought, as the side of the war who is here is in desperate need of money. Jacobi, the soldiers, and Eva ask Jan for the money. Jan states he does not know what money they are talking about. The soldiers raid the house to look for it, in vain. They hand Jan a gun to execute Jacobi, and he does. After the soldiers leave, Jan reveals he had the money in his pocket, to Eva's disgust. This has split their relationship irreparably and causes repeated breakdowns. The relationship grows silent and cold. When Jan and Eva meet a young soldier, Eva wants to feed him and allow him to sleep. Jan violently takes him away to shoot and rob him.
Eva follows Jan towards the sea, and he uses the money from Jacobi in order to buy them seats on a fishing boat. While at sea, the boat's motor fails. The man steering the boat kills himself by lowering himself overboard. The boat later finds itself stuck in the middle of floating dead bodies, unable to move forward and continue. As the boat takes away the refugees, Eva tells Jan of her dream: she walks down a beautiful city street with a shaded park, until planes come and set fire to the city and its rose vines. She and Jan have had a daughter, whom she is holding in her arms. They watch the roses burn, which she states "wasn't awful because it was so beautiful". She feels she had to remember something, but could not.
Author Jerry Vermilye wrote that in exploring "the thread of violence intruding on ordinary lives",Hour of the Wolf (1968),Shame, andThe Passion of Anna represent a trilogy.[2] Author Amir Cohen-Shalev concurred that the films form a trilogy.[3] In particular,Shame depicts the "disintegration of humanity in war".[4] The violence, which author Tarja Laine believed represented a civil war in Sweden, is depicted as "apparently meaningless".[5] Marc Gervais writes thatShame, as a war film, does not address what either of the two sides of the war stand for and does not venture intopropaganda or a statement againsttotalitarianism, instead focusing on "human disintegration, this time extending it to a broader social dimension in the life of one small community".[6] The film delves into the concept ofshame, associating it with the "moral failure with the self" bringing about a "traumatic configuration" in character, with Von Sydow's character developing from coward to murderer.[5]
Journalist Camilla Lundberg observed a pattern in Bergman's films that the protagonists are often musicians, though in an interview Bergman claimed he was not aware of such a trend.[7] Author Per F. Broman believedShame fits this trend in that the characters are violinists, but remarked that music did not seem very relevant to the plot.[7] Laine suggested memories of playing the violin represent an "if-only" theme, in which the characters imagine a better life they could have had.[8] Cohen-Shalev wrote that, likePersona andThe Passion of Anna,Shame follows an "artist as fugitive" theme touching on issues of guilt and self-hatred.[3]
CriticRenata Adler believed that "The 'Shame' of the title is God's".[9] However, other authors believe the film differs from Bergman's earlier works, inasmuch as it is less concerned with God.[10][11][12]
Ingmar Bergman wrote the screenplay forShame, completing it in spring 1967.[13] He explained the origin of the story:
For a long time before making this film I had carried around the notion of trying to focus on the 'little war', the war that exist on the periphery where there is total confusion, and nobody knows what is actually going on. If I had been more patient when writing the script, I would have depicted this 'little war' in a better way. I did not have that patience.[14]
The controversialVietnam War was being fought at the time, and while Bergman denied the film was a statement on the conflict, he remarked that "Privately, my view of the war in Vietnam is clear. The war should have been over a long time ago and the Americans gone".[15] He also stated "As an artist, I am horror-stricken by what is happening in the world".[10] He envisioned Jan and Eva asSocial Democrats, for that party subsidized culture.[15]
Shooting began in September 1967.[13] The film was shot on the island ofFårö, where the filmmakers had a house built to portray the Rosenberg residence.[16] The war scenes requiredtrompe-l'œil effects, with Bergman and cinematographerSven Nykvist burning miniature churches and making small streams look like violent rivers.[17] Nykvist also employed a substantial number of shots withhand-held cameras andzoom lenses.[15] Another location wasVisby onGotland; filming wrapped on 23 November.[18]
After shooting completed, Fårö's environmental regulations required the Rosenberg house be burned, but Bergman had developed an attachment to its appearance and saved it by claiming there were plans to use it in another film.[16] He began writingThe Passion of Anna, and with Von Sydow and Ullmann still contracted to work with him, envisionedThe Passion of Anna as "virtually a sequel".[16]
The film had its debut at the International Cinema Incontri inSorrento, Italy, which Bergman could not attend due to an ear infection.[10] It opened inStockholm on 29 September 1968.[18]
In North America,Skammen was released under the titleShame.[19] It opened in New York City on 12 December 1968.[18]MGM releasedShame onDVD both in the US and the UK as part of a box set includingHour of the Wolf,The Passion of Anna,The Serpent's Egg andPersona, though the UK box set omitsPersona.[20]The Criterion Collection announced aBlu-ray release inRegion A for 20 November 2018, along with 38 other Bergman films, in the setIngmar Bergman's Cinema.[21]
In Sweden, Mauritz Edström wrote inDagens Nyheter that the film signified Bergman dealing less with his own inner conflict to something more contemporary and more important than one person.[14] Torsten Bergmark, also inDagens Nyheter, wrote Bergman had found a new message, one of how a person without religion, Jan in this case, is left with self-loathing, while Eva is Bergman's "new solidarity".[22]
In the United States,Pauline Kael reviewed the film inThe New Yorker in December 1968. She was an admirer of the film, writing "Shame is a masterpiece, ... a vision of the effect of war on two people". She praisedLiv Ullmann as "superb in the demanding central role" andGunnar Björnstrand as "beautifully restrained as an aging man clinging to the wreckage of his life".[23]Renata Adler, writing forThe New York Times, called it "Dry, beautifully photographed, almost arid in its inspiration".[9]Judith Crist ofNew York called it "Bergman's definitive apocalyptic vision, painful and powerful". However, Crist added the kind of people who could learn from it did not usually watch Bergman films.[24] In 1996,Shame was included inMovieline magazine's "100 Greatest Foreign Films".[25]
In 2008,Roger Ebert gaveShame four stars, noting its timing during theVietnam War and calling it "angry and bleak film that was against all war" and "a portrait of a couple torn from their secure lives and forced into a horrifying new world of despair". However, he remarked the film was less remembered than other Bergman films at the time of his writing.[26] In 2015, Drew Hunt of theChicago Reader placed it in Bergman's top five films, judging it "A war film that's not actually about war".[27] The film has a 65% approval rating onRotten Tomatoes, based on 17 reviews with an average rating of 6.9/10.[28]
The film was selected as the Swedish entry for theBest Foreign Language Film at the41st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[29] Liv Ullmann won the award forBest Actress at the6th Guldbagge Awards.[30]
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Globes | 24 February 1969 | Best Foreign Language Film | Shame | Nominated | [31] |
| Guldbagge Awards | 13 October 1969 | Best Actress | Liv Ullmann | Won | [30] |
| National Board of Review | 10 January 1969 | Best Actress | Won | [32] | |
| 1 January 1970 | Best Foreign Language Film | Shame | Won | [33] | |
| Top Foreign Films | Won | ||||
| National Society of Film Critics | January 1969 | Best Film | Won | [34] | |
| Best Director | Ingmar Bergman | Won | |||
| Best Screenplay | Runner-up | ||||
| Best Actress | Liv Ullmann | Won | |||
| Best Cinematography | Sven Nykvist | Runner-up |
