Product Details

• Format: NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302036690
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,556 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed work, nevertheless very good, January 23, 2003

By A Customer

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This review is from: Serpent's Egg, The [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film was probably made during one of the lowest points in Bergman's life. After a terrifying nervous breakdown, he fled Sweden, near penniless, after having been arrested at the Royal Dramatic Theater on erroneous tax evasion charges. Somewhere along the way in exile, he met the famous producer Dino de Laurentiis, and drew up plans for his second and last English language film -- "The Serpent's Egg."

The film is based on a haunting nightmare Bergman had in the 1950s. The dream took place in the streets of pre-war Berlin, or a city like it. Capturing the essence of this dream had been a life-long artistic ambition. But there's more to it than that. Bergman had been an exchange student in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. He describes the strange current of madness in perfect detail in his autobiography -- how he was unsure, as a foreigner, whether or not to salute Hitler in the parades, or how the young man in his German home gave him a picture of Hitler for his birthday... Bergman, a young man, was caught up in the confusion and left for Sweden thinking highly of Hitler. Later he was horrified to hear about the Holocaust and the depravity of the Nazi regime.

This story might account for the apolitical nature of Bergman's work. Certainly, something like that is enough to make one distrust politics forever. The foremost complaint of Bergman's critics is his entirely "vertical" approach in films. That is, being more concerned with abstract notions of man and his destiny, and his relation to God and humanity, rather than on socio-poltical points. By confronting the pre-war Germany of his youth, Bergman must have seen the chance to reconcile himself the past, realize an artistic vision, and make a film with a socio-political dimension to counter his critics.

The result is a work that is a little over-ambitious and overwrought. The film follows a Jewish trapeze artist (Carradine) and his companion, Manuela (Ullman). They become stranded in a Berlin which has abandoned all hope and given way to the darkest portions of their humanity -- prostitution, drunkeness, brawling, fear and hate mongering... it is a powderkeg of that base, indefinable evil at the source of humanity that Bergman expressed in "The Passion of Anna." The film slips into a mad expressionist atmosphere a la Kobo Abe, as Carradine gets a job in the maze-like bureaucratic basement of a mysterious German scientist, and discovers the horrifying truth of his employers -- sadistic scientific experiments on human beings.

Having been made in English was the first mistake. Like all great film directors, Bergman's strength was dampened by the language barrier, as in his other English film, "The Touch." David Carradine gives an awful, stiff performance in this film. Also, the Berlin Bergman created was not the Berlin of his dream. Instead he tried to recreate Berlin as it was... this was his own main complaint. He failed in his ultimate vision.

The product of this strange adventure is mixed. There is undoubtedly a dark poetry to the Serpents Egg that is unmatched in cinema. The atmosphere Bergman creates, while it didn't match his vision, is convincing... almost too convincing. Its much unlike any other Bergman film, and frankly a long ways from the optomistic tales of youthful freedom he told in the 50s. The production is very impressive, for a film-maker known for his small and intimate films -- only Fanny and Alexander matches it in Bergman's canon.

Bergman hated this film and considered it one of his greatest failures. His own assessment of the film largely accounts for its obscurity today. Still, this film is well worth tracking down and watching. Despite its failure as a vision, there is a great deal of artistic merit at work. A must for Bergman fans.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Flawed work, July 31, 2003

By 

Black Russian 1968 "BR1968" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Serpent's Egg, The [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As a film about Hitler's rise to power and pre WWII Berlin, this film is much the failure. There is a pervasive unease which permeates the air, but it's as much an existential angst aborted from the belly of commerce/captialism as anything else. Viewed as an expressionist nightmare where poverty, brutality, capitalism, depravity run the human spirit into the ground, the film is quite powerful. It takes a second viewing to appreciate Carradine's performance. Liv Ullman is very good, as you'd expect her to be in a Bergman film. Ultimately, the film suffers from an inability to focus as well as too much money being spent on the sets (which are nice btw)instead of the real issues at hand. I'd recommend this film to Bergman enthusists...others might ask "what's the point?".