i find bergman’s films brutal but not depressing. we all have fleeting thoughts, even nurtured thoughts at times, which can be atypical – embarrassing, self-contradictory, irrational, hysterical, shameful, hateful, petty, vengeful, infantile – well, bergman expresses them on screen. we might relate to some of it, others might relate to something else, but the fact remains that our social, responsible, adult persona is hardly a complete representation or understanding of who we r in toto. it’s like freud’s idea that every aspect of the “conscious” is rooted in a much deeper, broader, primal unconscious. i think bergman brings that which is swept under the rug and denied to the fore. that can be violent and unpalatable but it’s also honest and brave. maybe that’s why his films have an eerily beautiful quality to them.
watch the beginning of scenes from a marriage here.