Yes. It's true the film is beautifully shot, with some superb camera-work. I think the opening scene is sheer genius as the camera slowly moves to reveal all the elements of the scene one by one. Brilliant! The lighting is atmospheric, with a beautiful, evocative use of shadows, especially the rippling of leaves which somehow echoes the fire to come... Even the acting is fairly good throughout. But is it enough? Emotionally, it's fairly difficult to come to grips with a story in which the only character with any degree of integrity is the old woman who is burned as a witch early on. Perhaps the mother, too, has a certain degree of consistency about her behaviour, though I wouldn't want to meet her on a dark night! As for the others... a mixed bag of self-interested whingers, ready to do the hypocritical dirty at a moment's notice.
Perhaps none of this should matter, but there's a kind of insistent dreariness to proceedings which gives the viewer just a little too much time to think about whether he/she (or me, in this case) really gives a damn what happens to any of these people. And certainly it gave me enough time to wonder whether some of the dialogue - especially the husband/wife discussion re love - wasn't just a little too modern for what purports to be a period piece.
Yes. It was made during the occupation. Etc. Etc. And? It would have been just as easy to adhere to the internal logic and arrive at the same message... ah...
The message...
What, exactly, was it? I mean, I suppose I assumed it was to decry Man's-Inhumanity-to-Man, the absurdity of burning poor old ladies (or young ones)as witches. But was it? Perhaps I'm wrong, because, at the end, it seems "like mother, like daughter". The mother was a witch and the daughter not only seems to be convinced she has the same powers to kill, but actually manages to use them!!! Apparently.
So are witches meant to be real? And, if they go around killing people who've done nothing more than show them a little kindness (the husband, in his own, misguided way), isn't the world better off without them? Hmmmm. By the end of the film, albeit detesting the son's cowardice, I was thoroughly confused.
Sorry. Not a patch on "Vampyr", which - for my money - really IS a masterpiece!!! This film simply paved the way for some of Bergman's more tedious offerings...
Perhaps none of this should matter, but there's a kind of insistent dreariness to proceedings which gives the viewer just a little too much time to think about whether he/she (or me, in this case) really gives a damn what happens to any of these people. And certainly it gave me enough time to wonder whether some of the dialogue - especially the husband/wife discussion re love - wasn't just a little too modern for what purports to be a period piece.
Yes. It was made during the occupation. Etc. Etc. And? It would have been just as easy to adhere to the internal logic and arrive at the same message... ah...
The message...
What, exactly, was it? I mean, I suppose I assumed it was to decry Man's-Inhumanity-to-Man, the absurdity of burning poor old ladies (or young ones)as witches. But was it? Perhaps I'm wrong, because, at the end, it seems "like mother, like daughter". The mother was a witch and the daughter not only seems to be convinced she has the same powers to kill, but actually manages to use them!!! Apparently.
So are witches meant to be real? And, if they go around killing people who've done nothing more than show them a little kindness (the husband, in his own, misguided way), isn't the world better off without them? Hmmmm. By the end of the film, albeit detesting the son's cowardice, I was thoroughly confused.
Sorry. Not a patch on "Vampyr", which - for my money - really IS a masterpiece!!! This film simply paved the way for some of Bergman's more tedious offerings...