Sawdust and Tinsel
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Year Released: 1953
Rating: 3.0
Somewhat peculiar entry in the Bergman canon actually borrows from silent cinema and the grotesque (more than once I was reminded of Weine's Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). A man and woman circus team are miserable together (and hate their job) so he goes back to his ex-wife and she has an affair with a shady actor-type - I expected it to all end very tragically, but Bergman usurps that prediction, and the sad people just keep on keeping on, miserable as ever. It's cold and cruel and hard to enjoy, but does hold up - elder Bergman, in the intro to the DVD, claims he liked it when he made it and still liked it years later despite one critic's referring to it as "vomit."
