Brother Carl (1971) review

Lena (Gunnel Lindblom) and Karen (Geneviève Page) go to an island where Lena's ex-husband Martin (Keve Hjelm) is living with the title character (Laurent Terzieff), a dancer who appears to have schizophrenia (just like Vaslav Nijinsky) but also might possess extraordinary powers.  I like Sontag's debut Duet for Cannibals a lot, but this sophomore effort fails to be even a little engaging: she's borrowing bits from Bergman and Dreyer but never makes them her 'own' (it always feels like half-hearted homage), the soundtrack is shrill and the dialogue should have been delivered in anything but English.  If this was as methodically constructed as one of her essays, it might have been notable, but as it stands you'd be better off re-watching Ordet.  For people who relish watching awkward sex scenes (that's got to be someone's thing, right?), this one has a doozy.