Product Details

• Directors: Ingmar Bergman
• Format: Box set, Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: Swedish
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 5
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: March 27, 2007
• Run Time: 474 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000M2E3GS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,623 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Eclipse Series 1: Early Bergman (Torment / Crisis / Port of Call / Thirst / To Joy) (The Criterion Collection)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 03/27/2007 Run time: 474 minutes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Addition to an Existing Bergman Collection, April 5, 2007

By 

Frederick E. Bartel II (Darien, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eclipse Series 1: Early Bergman (Torment / Crisis / Port of Call / Thirst / To Joy) (The Criterion Collection) (DVD)

Am happy to see that Criterion continues to put out more Bergman as time goes on. This collection includes arguably the best work from his early period and features most often actors Birger Malmstem and Stig Olin, two regulars from this phase in Bergman's career. It is remarkable how versatile these actors are, delivering distinct performances from film to film.

The prints are good, the subtitles removable. Each disc is packaged separately in a plastic case, and there is a concise essay printed on the inside cover for each film. The five cases slide up into the wraparound cover, so this isn't deluxe packaging. No special features, but these films are really intended for the Berman aficionado, who will presumably have seen one or more of them already.

All five films are nicely shot, and two of them (Port of Call and Thirst) are even recommendable to general viewers unaware of Bergman or his corpus. To Joy could just as well have been called To Despair--it is one of the few Bergman films I find truly depressing, with its depiction of a tortuous relationship involving a beautiful and congenial Swedish girl, portrayed by Maj-Britt Nilsson. The other two films, Frenzy and Crisis, besides their visual quality, have historical interest as Bergman's first produced screenplay and directorial effort, respectively.

Not included in this collection of early work are (among other films) The Night Is My Future (1947), which had popular success in its day but is quite conventional, and Prison/The Devil's Wanton (1949), which, while a mature and personal work, might be considered plodding and heavy-handed.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars EARLY BERGMAN IS ALSO MINOR BERGMAN, EXCEPT FOR ONE MASTERPIECE, September 29, 2007

By 

Paco Rivero "Henry" (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Eclipse Series 1: Early Bergman (Torment / Crisis / Port of Call / Thirst / To Joy) (The Criterion Collection) (DVD)

This is an excellent box set of early Bergman works, but after watching all five films I have to conclude that four of them are minor works. Not that they're not interesting, but I recommend the box set above all for THIRST, which is an astounding work. I hadn't seen it before, but after watching it twice now I'm convinced it's Bergman's first masterpiece, introducing many of the themes and techniques he would develop in movies such as THE SILENCE, PERSONA, SHAME, THE PASSION OF ANNA, and SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. THIRST is not otherwise available on DVD, I think, so the box set is worth getting even if the other films are only ones in which Bergman still hadn't found his way, much less his unique style.

THIRST almost leaps ahead over everything he did in the 50s to connect with what he started doing in the 60s. When he makes THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY in 1961, it seems to me he is picking up where he left off with THIRST. The main character is Rut, played effectively by Eva Henning. She is a ballet dancer whose life and career have gone downhill ever since she had a tragic love affair with a married man who abandoned her, an affair that resulted in an abortion that left her barren and psychologically damaged. She also suffered a knee injury that caused her career to abort. The back story is told in flashback, along with scenes from her dancing school days. The film opens on the last day of her vacation with her husband, Birtil, whom she apparently married on the rebound after her affair with Raoul. The movie opens as they wake up in a shabby hotel room and confront their dissolute life and turbulent marriage. Rut is psychologically dependent on Birtil. She also feels tenderness toward him; she might even love him. But she also feels contempt because he's a stand-in for Raoul, and Raoul, however cruel, however big a male chauvenist pig he was, was an assertive military man (i.e., a real man), while poor Birtil--and Rut can't help throwing it in his face--is timid and wimpy (i.e., not a real man at all). When we first see him, he's asleep in a baby-like position with his rump up in the air. Anyhow, a stunning psychological portrait of their complex relationship unfolds on the last day of their vacation as they travel back home through black fantasies of murder and revenge.

The movie takes place in one day, much of it real time, but gives backstory in Rut's memory-flashbacks, which are deftly weaved in. There's also a second thread to follow, which is confusing at first but makes total sense by the end. Birtil has had an affair with a married woman named Viola, apparently also a dancer. On the very day that we meet Rut and Beril on their vacation, Viola, reeling from both her husband's death and her affair with Birtil, is seeing her psychologist, Doctor Rosengren, a cold, calculating sadist who tries to take sexual advantage of her fragile state. Viola rejects him and flees his office. As she walks down the street, she meets an old friend, who invites her up to her apartment. We had already met this friend in one of Rut's flashbacks from her days at Miss Henriksson's dancing school, so she serves as a link between Viola and Rut. (By the way, Miss Henriksson, an old, tough boozer, is brilliantly played by Naima Wifstrand). Anyhow, we then follow the events that lead up to Viola's suicide. In the apartment, the friends get drunk, but things turn dark as Viola realizes that she's being seduced into a lesbian encounter. The woman who plays the lesbian seducer--her name escapes me--gives a tremendous performance. (In fact, there are great performances from just about everybody.)

But the film begins and ends with Rut and Bertil, who leave the hotel room to catch a train home. On the train, through a phantasmagoric, war-torn landscape, their marriage comes to a crisis. The title, THIRST, can refer to several things in the movie: alcoholism, emotional thirst, suicide (Viola drowns herself); keep the theme in mind as you watch the film. In any case, it's Bergman's first major attempt and well worth buying even if you have to purchase the whole box set. The other films are good if intermittently dull, and they pale beside this one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Start for the Eclipse Series, April 26, 2007

By 

Randy Buck (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eclipse Series 1: Early Bergman (Torment / Crisis / Port of Call / Thirst / To Joy) (The Criterion Collection) (DVD)

Judging from this first entry, Criterion's new line, Eclipse, will be serving a valuable function for film buffs by providing high-quality DVD transfers of hard-to-find classic titles. The early Bergman films on display here look great, as expected from Criterion, although perhaps they're of more interest to Bergman completists than to the average filmgoer. They're all easy enough to watch, with Bergman's usual expertise with actors guaranteeing many interesting performances on display. But the major pleasure here is seeing the first appearance in these films of many themes that will be given deeper, more memorable treatment in such later works as PERSONA and SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. The set's price is more than reasonable, the packaging attractive. Recommended.