David O'ConnellIt Rains On Our Love
May 10th 2010 05:08
The second feature from Ingmar Bergman may be unpolished and lacking the depth that would characterise his later work, but It Rains On Our Love is more than just a curiosity nicked from his back-catalogue. The earliest signs of a filmmaker able to draw his audience to the plight of highly empathetic characters are on display, in this case two strangers who meet at a train station. Both Maggi (Barbro Kollberg) and David (Birger Malmsten) are down-on-their luck outsiders, heavily-laden with chequered pasts and with little but small change lining their pockets.
Maggi is won over by David’s charm but misery, in a sense, will keep them together. After a tryst in a hotel room that breaks the shackles of frustration, they finally board a train to the country hoping to make a clean break. A rocky beginning awaits, in which a gleefully malicious old man threatens David with arrest, before they settle down in a home he keeps open for rent. However the road ahead is littered with obstructions blocking their progress towards a better life.
Though spliced with whimsical, comedic anecdotes centered on the town’s eccentric characters, the film generally takes a fairly bleak view of humanity. Regardless of the couple’s good intentions, every turn for the better is soon cancelled out by the poisonous suspicion or ill-will of those around them, especially the horrible wife of the man who employs David in his greenery. Her malicious response at the first sign of David’s distress when accepting bad news via a phone call, asking with malevolent glee, “what is it……..something tragic?” represents the nadir of scorn tossed like a bucket of cold water on his reformatory ways.
It Rains On Our Love (1946) can also be viewed as a pessimistic, anti-authority film, a tirade against the misuse of power or those whose higher social standing affords them arrogance and contempt. These grim figures, portrayed as vampiric agents of faceless tormentors preying on the good intentions of David and Maggi are unrelenting and without conscience.
These protagonists are far from saintly figures, with David’s life of crime and Maggi’s loose morals spelt out clearly early on, but both have made a pact with the past, to leave it behind and embrace a fresh beginning. Will their love be strong enough to overcome circumstance and human intervention? Or will their dreams tear apart at the seams once more?
Malmsten and Kollberg are a great pairing. There's a commendable earnestness in their portrayals of David and Maggi who are forever bracing for the worst with grim-set expressions which make the flickering moments of joy all the more convincing.
Bergman’s film holds up remarkably well, and though it’s difficult to reconcile this as emanating from the man associated with so many masterpieces of world cinema in the decades to come, there are glimpses of a serious director to keep an eye out for. Certainly the main theme - an acerbic probing of a man’s downfall and loss of faith in humanity - rings true, albeit with less psychological impact than Bergman would become notorious for. Then there's the roving 'narrator', acting like an omniscient overseer mysteriously inserted into the story by Bergman as advocates for the beleaguered pair at crucial junctures.
Another notable example is the montage of faces superimposed over the court documents as snippets of their testimony are presented to the jury. It’s a clever touch and seamlessly grafted onto the narrative; indication enough that this young director had what it takes to impart a story with something other than conventional methods.
*© © 1958 Nordisk Tonefilm. All Rights Reserved
It Rains On Our Love is now out on Madman DVD.
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