David O'ConnellThe Magician
October 8th 2010 02:55
Ingmar Bergman’s The Magician (1958) is nestled amongst so many gems that there is a tendency for it be overlooked by fans only spasmodically drawn to his body of work. It followed the remarkable Wild Strawberries (1957) and the vastly underrated Brink of Life (1958), and would be followed in turn by another venerated period film, The Virgin Spring, two years later.
Naturally evolving from the director’s work with the Malmo City Theater group through much of the 1950’s, the film would dabble in matters of lost faith, personal demons, competing belief systems and feature a haunting, surreal sequence near the finale that, like The Hour of the Wolf (1968), provided ample proof of an under-explored, macabre side of Bergman that might just as easily opened doors to a successful career as a horror director.
It’s 1846 and Dr. Albert Vogler (Max von Sydow) is the leader and star attraction of his Magnetic Health Theatre, a traveling troupe that includes his assistant, wife Manda (Ingrid Thulin) who is disguised as a male; exuberant mouthpiece Tubal (Ake Fridell), their coach driver Simson (Lars Ekborg) and Vogler’s crusty old grandmother (Naima Wifstrand), an old witch who carts around her potions, secreting the change she makes from her underhanded sales.
Vogler is a conjurer, a mesmerist, an illusionist - in summary, a purveyor of ‘hocus-pocus’. Times are tough however and the group is now regularly coming into conflict with authorities ever more suspicious of Vogler’s supposed ‘abilities’. We first see them on the road to Stockholm where, upon arrival at the city's border, they're escorted by police into town before being ushered into the home of Councilman Egerman (Erland Josephson) who has assembled a greeting party consisting of Police Chief Starbeck (Poivo Pawlo) and Dr.Vergerus (Gunnar Bjornstrand).
For a while Vogler and his troupe are subjected to questioning about the veracity of their traveling show from the trio who are more amused than anything by the sight of these oddities. But after Tubal's convincing arguments, unwinding his spiel like a true salesman, Egerman concludes that Vogler should be put to the acid test and give a private demonstration for them all the next day.
A night of preparation and mixing with the lowly servants lays the foundation for the calamity to follow the next day with Vogler’s faith in his abilities subjected to suspicion from those around him. The conflicting arguments of science - with its cold rationalism - and faith in something abstract and less rational are pitted against one another. As ever with Bergman, dig a little deeper and fascinating autobiographical elements reveal themselves, as they do from beneath the surface of this dark, cynical tale.
Max von Sydow as Vogler
Vogler himself is representative of Bergman and his struggle for artistic expression; a need to perform (i.e. produce commercially successful films) - in the face of a despair created by the crushing, unrelenting demands of commercially-mindful producers. This was a difficult era for Bergman, a man ahead of his time; whose output was regularly derided in his homeland.
The key figure of Dr. Vergerus represents a ruthless Swedish film critic of the time whose criticism Bergman saw as unnecessarily harsh and tipping over into the realm of personal vendetta. Tellingly, Vergerus admits to Manda, in reference to her and Vogler, that “you represent what I despise most of all: the inexplicable.”
The elusive or illusive magic of creating meaningful cinema correlates with the disparaged talents of Vogler who ploughs on, like Bergman, though beaten down by a nearly paralysing lack of faith in his art. Vogler remains mute for the film's first hour but his first outburst in response to his accusors resonates with pent-up ferocity: "I hate them. I hate their faces, their bodies, their movements, their voices. I'm scared as well. Then I'm powerless."
Fortunately, in the context of Bergman’s life, his own malaise never deepened to the point where his output halted or his meaning became blunted. He would continue to generate momentous cinematic landmarks, his ability to separate personal angst from the compunction to feed his artistic craving never wavering.
The highlight sequence of The Magician comes near the end when Vogler’s mastery of perception leads to the taunting of one of his critics. Shot as a gothic, surreal snapshot as if from a horror film, this set-piece is brilliantly orchestrated by Bergman and his cinematographer from those early years, Gunnar Fischer. The chilling, gothic splendour of the sequence soon resolves itself with a resumption of ‘reality’ but it leaves its mark, both on the players and viewers alike.
The Magician may not be Bergman’s greatest achievement but nor need it be marginalised as merely an interesting failure. It's an absorbing, thought-provoking drama, sprinkled with wry black comedy, which has earned a legitimate place amongst his second tier of films - those with tangible shortcomings yet still containing spellbinding and lucid moments of greatness scattered throughout.
The original Swedish poster
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Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
It continues to elude me. what is the connection between this and Hour Of The Wolf?
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
The Hour of the Wolf is one of my favourites and the nearest thing - well, no not the nearest thing - it really is a horror film.
The Magician has the creepy sequence at the end which is very much in that vein - surreal and the work of a manipulative horror master which Bergman might have been in an alternate world. Though again, so many of his films contain bleak, horrifying elements. Think of Shame or Autumn Sonata or Cries and Whispers to name just a few. They're all horror films in a sense.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I am one that has only seen the essential Bergman's and haven't explored his catalog further.
The Magician sounds like its worth my time and I have had it recommended previously.
The Virgin Spring and Seventh Seal are naturally my favourites. Still have to check out Hour of the Wolf too.
On the horror note the first time I saw "Last House on the Left" was as a double bill with "Virgin Spring". I totally agree that several of his films can be seen as emotional horror.
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Shaun and Bryn, yes The Hour of the Wolf is now available on R4 though not on its own I don't think. There's a recently released 5 disc set (I've seen it in a JB Hifi stores) called the Ingmar Bergman Collection - one disc is a doco, then there's Hour of the Wolf, Shame (which I've reviewed and is a dead-set masterpiece as well), The Passion of Anna (another fascinating later film in colour) and The Serpent's Egg (out of the 25 odd Bergman films I have this is my least favourite but still worth a look). The set is well worth owning for the other 3 films, esp. Shame and Hour of the Wolf.
Definitely check out The Magician too JD, and yes, love The Virgin Spring. Last House on the Left was indeed an off the wall unofficial remake if ever there was one!