To Joy (1950)

Recommended

Sweden

Feature Film

Original Title: Till glädje

Writer/Director: Ingmar Bergman

Cinematographer: Gunnar Fischer

Cast: Maj-Britt Nilsson, Stig Olin, Birger Malmsten, John Ekman, Margit Carlqvist, Victor Sjöström

When Marta joins his orchestra, Stig, a violinist who aspires to be a soloist, falls for her; they marry and have children, but he treats her abysmally, increasingly so as his career begins to falter; a brief separation followed by reconciliation offers a glimmer of hope, but tragedy soon strikes, in Bergman’s terribly uneven, semi-autobiographical look at the male ego, which never the less contains several moments and scenes of great power. Iain.Stott