The Shame

A film which has exerted considerable influence on the work of Andrei Tarkovsky, especially in The Sacrifice, The Shame may be regarded as one of Bergman's most intense films. It refers again to the moral universe which Bergman brings up in every single one of his films but this time his characters face holocaust.

A childless middle class couple (played by Liv Ullman and Max von Sydow) is confronted with the outbreak of war in the region they live. The panic builds up slowly in the relationship between the man and woman and the devestatingly destructive power of war forces them to look bluntly at the true feelings they have for each other. As they unsuccessfully try to break out of the war zone they are confronted by the frightening outcome of war in a scene that has become a classic in the history of cinema...

Bergman transforms the Swedish countryside into a misty and nightmarish landscape matching it with the psychological panic of the two characters. The imagery remains as disturbing as ever in scenes like the one where Liv Ullmann spots the body of a little girl lying dead - possibly poisoned by radioactivity - on a riverbank. Bergman remains a pessimist questioning the issue of whether children deserve to be brought into such a world. A film with agonizingly intense performances by the two main actors, The Shame provides the stalling point which Tarkovsky almost twenty years later attempted to resolve in The Sacrifice. A very bleak film but also an amazing achievement of contemporary cinema!

Review by Spiros Gangas
Taken from EUFS Programme 1993-94