Vargtimmen

Plot synopsis:
During the opening credits, Bergman can be overheard giving instructions to and discussing with his staff while preparing a shot.
The film is framed through the account of Alma (Ullmann), who addresses the audience directly. She tells of her husband's disappearance, which is explored in a flashback constructed of his diaries and her words.
Painter Johan Borg (von Sydow) and his young wife Alma live on the small island of Baltrum, where he seeks rest after a crisis which is not detailed. He is regularly approached by odd and suspicious people. He confides to Alma that he believes them to be demons, and begins to give names to them, including the Bird-Man, the Insects, the Meat-Eaters, the Schoolmaster (with pointers in his trousers) and The Lady With a Hat. Also, his insomnia grows worse. On the nights when Johan cannot sleep, Alma stays awake by his side.
One day, an old lady stops by the house and tells Alma to read Johan's diary, which he hides under his bed. Alma discovers that Johan is not only haunted by the real or imaginary strangers, but also by images of his former lover, Veronica Vogler (Ingrid Thulin).
The couple are approached by a Baron von Merkens (Erland Josephson), who lives in a nearby castle. The painter and his wife visit them and their surreal household. After dinner, the baron's wife (Gertrud Fridh) shows the couple into her bedroom, where on display is a portrait of Veronica by Borg. The painting appears to be so beautiful, the baron's wife proclaims, "It has become like a part of my solitary life. I love her." After Johan and Alma leave the castle, she confesses to him her fear of losing him to the demons, but also her will not to give up easily.
A superimposed title "Hour of the Wolf" marks the end of part one and the beginning of the second part. Again, Alma stays awake with Johan who cannot sleep. He tells her of the "vargtimmen" ("Hour of the Wolf"), during which, he says, most births and deaths occur. He also recounts his desperate love affair with Veronica and his childhood trauma of being locked into a cupboard where, as his parents said, a small man lived who fed on children's toes. Then he recalls a confrontation with a small boy which occurred some time ago and culminated in his killing of the boy. Whether this encounter actually took place or is imaginary is never revealed. Alma is shocked by Johan's confessions.
One of von Merken's guests shows up at the couple's house to invite them to another party at the castle, pointing out that Veronica Volger is among the invited guests. He places a pistol on the table, to protect them against "small animals", and leaves. Johan and Alma get into a fight over his obsession with Veronica. Johan finally picks up the pistol, shoots Alma and runs to the castle.
Johan attends the party. The baron's guests, all of whom previously attended, are revealed to be the demons that Johan described to Alma. As he rushes through the castle searching for Veronica, he meets the prophesied "Bird-Man", who applies cosmetics to his pale face and dresses him in a silk robe. He then leads Johan to her. Johan is humiliated as he finds the reunion a jest, with Veronica and the baron's guests laughing at his sincere, passionate display of love. Incredulous, he declares, "I thank you, the limit has finally been transgressed. The mirror has been shattered. But what do the splinters reflect?" Johan is physically attacked by the demons and flees into underbrush.
In the last act, Alma searches the forest for her husband. She witnesses the attacks on him, before he finally disappears, leaving her alone in the woods.
In the final scene, Alma addresses the camera, "Is it true that a woman who lives a long time with a man eventually winds up being like that man? I mean, she loves him, and tries to think like him, and see like him? They say it can change a person. I mean to say, if I had loved him much less, and not bothered so of everything about him, could I have protected him better?"

Tags: gothic, murder, violence, atmospheric, flashback, insanity, psychedelic

Review:
johann (max von sydow) and alma (liv ullmann)are husband and wife, and sydow's character is basically a tormented artist who has moved to the deceptively serene and quiet island with his wife to collect himself and try to escape his personal demons.
one of the crucial characters, tamino (and anyone into mozart will understand what i'm talking about)collapses in the *palace of wisdom*, that is, a terrible place where he has discovered the tragic truth about human life and it's meaninglessness, and asks desperately "when will mine eyes the daylight see?" lindhorst is quick to recite the reply:"soon, soon fair youth..or never." he then goes on to talk about how mozart was terminally ill at the time of it's composition, and i would not be surprised if this entire scene was a metaphor for the artists' struggle with the fact of death and it's crushing finality:how can the creative individual, more sensitive to the issue of ultimate meaning as regards the human condition, be content or happy with anything when he knows that the world just might be and probably is what thomas carlyle called it, "an uncaring hall of doom"?
This impressive and disturbing movie about the loss of sanity by a tormented artist is another magnificent work of Ingmar Bergman, the closest to the horror genre he ever directed with his regular actors, Max von Sydow who is amazing as Johan and his Muse Liv Ullmann who is equally compelling as Alma, Jonah's wife.
The film takes place on an isolated, windy island where Johan and pregnant Alma moved in hope for Johan to work on his paintings and where he is haunted by nightmares from the past that may or may not be just his dreams.
The Hour of the Wolf is also the hour when most children are born."Bergman has always been obsessed and fascinated by the inner demons that imagination can create and like no other filmmaker has explored the deepest mysteries of human soul and mind.
Surrealistic, Gothic and dark horror film, with its magnificent black and white cinematography provided by Bergman's long time friend and collaborator, Sven Nykvist, "The Hour of the Wolf" is a frightening view of the mind of a mad person.
Much like F.W. Murnau, or even David Lynch for that matter, Ingmar Bergman can create horror in a film, such as his rarity in the genre of Hour of the Wolf (no, no werewolves boys and girls, the title refers to something else entirely regarding the middle of the night), by imposing images that are so unbelievable as to either frighten or annoy.
But that's not to say this is a relatively accessible Bergman film, unless you are very much into the genre.Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullman give strong performances as a couple (one an artist the other his pregnant wife) who arrive on an island to have some peace, where he can get some work done.
But this is not the case as Von Sydow's character goes through a kind of deconstruction in the night- he can't sleep, he's shaken to intense uncomfort by neighbors, and a particular memory haunts him all the time (and once Bergman shows what it is, it becomes one of the most horrifying scenes I may have ever seen).
While HOUR OF THE WOLF seems eminently worth viewing (what Bergman film isn't?), I think it's substantially less compelling and essential than SHAME, made the same year with the same two principal players.It took me a long time to see VARGTIMMEN, and I've finally seen it tonight on the big screen.
Last night I refamiliarized myself with an Ingmar Bergman film that might be the closest this great director ever came to doing a horror picture (other than, perhaps, "Through a Glass Darkly," and of course, "Scenes From a Marriage." LOL!).
The film in question is "Hour of the Wolf," from 1968 (original Swedish title: "Vargtimmen"), starring Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann.
A disturbing artist named Johan Borg (Max Von Sidow) in crisis is haunted by nightmares from the past , which takes place on a thunderous , windy island in Sweden .
Strange hallucination create the artist's world , as he sees apparitions shaping a tormented vision of dreams and anxieties that seem at times utterly out of control .This Swedish movie displays haunting and powerful scenes , it's plenty of bizarre images which stay forever in the mind .
Interesting , claustrophobic and surrealist film about an artist retreated to deserted island , being splendidly performed by Max Von Sidow , in Ingmar Bergman's only horror film .
The movie realizes an excellent Sweden reunion actors with usual Bergman's players as Max Von Sidow , Liv Ullman , Ingrid Thulin and special mention to Erland Josephson as Baron Von Merkens , showing perfectly the different characters and exploring their apprehensions , ambitions , fears and circumstances .
The painter Johan Borg (Max von Sydow) and his wife Alma Borg (Liv Ullmann) have been married for seven years and are living in an island.
This impressive and disturbing movie about the lost of sanity by a tormented artist is another magnificent work of Ingmar Bergman, again with his favorite actor (Max von Sydow) and actress (Liv Ullmann).
I always thought that Stanley Kubrick had a major influence on David Lynch, but after watching "Hour of the Wolf," from renowned director Ingmar Bergman, I feel that David Lynch had to watch this film in his formative years.
This is the film about an artist (Max von Sydow), heavily troubled by nightmares, trying to deal with his life of anguish on a small island together with his wife.
Hour of the Wolf (1968) *** (out of 4) Strange and not totally rewarding film from Ingmar Bergman about a husband (Max von Sydow) who is haunted by past memories brought on by demons and his wife (Live Ullmann) who soon starts seeing visions herself.
"Hour of the Wolf" is the worst Bergman movie I've yet seen, proving only that Mr. Clinical Depression can't do horror to save his life.The problem with his horror film is that it doesn't look or feel any different from every other film he's made.
With his diary and testimony from his wife we follow what looks like his final tortured weeks overwhelmed by conscience and demons he cannot escape while his wife (Liv Ullman) steers into the camera looking as confused as many of us are by the time Wolf winds down.Given his high priest of film prominence in 68, Hour of the Wolf was getting the same lavish attention all Bergman's works received back then as another daring and unique look at the tortured artist with a hint of bio from the celebrity /director who shunned the spotlight.
Not in the top tier of Bergman's works but still effectively unsettling, The Hour of the Wolf tells the story of an artist whose mind is haunted by figures and his wife who tries to pull him back into sanity.
Hour Of The Wolf has good direction, a good script, good performances by both Liv Ullman and Max von Sydow (who plays Johan) and beautiful black and white cinematography.
Hour Of The Wolf is acclaimed director Ingmar Bergman's first and only horror film.
This masterpiece of horror from BERGMAN WILL HAUNT you for a long time after the ending.A devastating journey into the very soul of a tortured artist// Only Bergman can lead us into this frightening world of inner demons and disturbing thoughts and images.
Johan Borg an artist (Max von Sydow) with his wife Alma (Liv Ullmann) at their remote summer island home is haunted by memories and scarring nightmares of the past, all because of his adulterous betrayal on his wife.
Ingmar Bergman had had a penchant for short injections of fantasy into his films as far back as the chiaroscuro dream sequences of his forties 'neo-realist' dramas, although by the time of 'Vargtimmen' the hero (Max von Sydow) has moved up market and is now an artist in retreat from the world on a remote island who happens to have a neighbour - played by Erland Josephson - who lives in a castle occupied by a court of dinner-jacketed idlers.Based - like 'The Blair Witch Project' - on the diary of an individual who then disappeared without trace, relaxed 60's censorship permitted more explicit images than the vaguely Freudian nature of Bergman's earlier fantasies, like Ingrid Thulin baring herself for the camera while cackling fiendishly, and one of Bergman's sun-bleached nightmares in which Sydow bashes in the head of a young lad in speedos.
The quote in the film that I mention does lead onto other 'happenings', as Max von Sydow recounts the Hour in question - as he fumbles to light candles in the dark.With such, it does sound like this film's going to be about werewolves and vampires and such, but this is all human, the area of darkness that Bergman often visited and probably no more so here than with any other film.
It's like he's made a feature of all the ghostly and demonic thoughts and dreams he's ever had and stuffed them all into one movie.Which is actually no bad thing but I would suggest that so many ripe and vivid nightmares make for a great chilling horror chiller and less his usual area of excellence, the study of human psyche and persona.
My skin crawled in recognition of this scenario when von Sydow describes the story about the wardrobe....is there a lot more in Hour Of that's biographical?Whichever way you want to take it, the beginning has more relationship and personal drama going on whilst from 45 mins on, when 'The Hour of the Wolf' is flashed up, it's hallucinatory hell, much really quite absurd but also really rather effective at being chilling and scary.Liv Ullman, as the artist's wife, who discovers these dark secrets in his diaries is intense and excellent, as always, but I would still stand by saying that Hour Of isn't as deeply profound as some say - and possibly, if one tried to dissect it all too much, you'd be starting to experience some of those nightmares too!My slimline DVD is part of the 4 disc The Ingmar Bergman Collection..
Together, the two are unstoppable, and it is a good thing for both of them that they had such a strong relationship."Hour of the Wolf" is considered by some to be Bergman's only horror film.
The painter spends his nights sleepless, waiting for daylight "as though he's afraid of the dark", relating to his wife painful past memories during the "hour of the wolf" - that hour of legend between deep night and dawn where the dead are said to pass on and the newborns to come into the world.Combinging Bergman's gradual progression from his overly literary and stagey earlier films to the more expansive, freewheeling experimentation, both narrative and visual, of films like THE SILENCE and PERSONA, with a deconstruction of Gothic horror, filtering out the pulpy, wafer-thin narratives yet retaining the gloomy atmosphere and that aura of impending doom that made early 60's Bava so mystifying, piercing back the broken pieces in a canvas unmistakeably, traditionally Bergmanesque in signature, HOUR OF THE WOLF, whilst never aspiring to play a Hammer Horror double-bill, shows what is possible for the horror genre when a knowledgeable dramatist and keen visual director of Bergman's calibre adds the needed depth.Yet for all that, Hour suffers as much as it benefits from typical Bergman qualities.
The characters tend to harp on tediously when they don't have much to say.It's no wonder then that, unlike something like WINTER LIGHT, Hour of the Wolf comes on its own when Bergman allows the film to become the sensory, as opposed to literary, experience it wants to be.
The film begins with a sort of interview from someone to Alma Borg (Liv Ullmann) not before we learn that the story of Johan Borg (Max von Sydow) that we are going to watch is based on his diary and on Alma's words.
Described in the 2008 Istanbul International Film Festival guidebook as "Bergman's only horror film," it is about an artist (Johan) who moves to the countryside with his young wife (played by Liv Ullmann) to paint.
***SPOILERS*** Said to be Ingman Bergmans most confusing as well as personal project "Hour of the Wolf" has to do with this Swedish painter Johan Borg, Max Von Sydow, who's losing it because of things real and imaginary that he did in his past that are now catching up with him.
He has a chillingly persistent case of insomnia, and stays awake all hours of the night with his wife, especially during the "vargtimmen," also known as "the hour of the wolf," where, he states, is when the most births and deaths occur.Johan Borg (Max von Sydow) is the painter, and his wife is Alma (Liv Ullmann).
This is a surrealist fantasy, equipped with a marvelous performance by von Sydow, a Bergman regular, who was one of the sources to The Seventh Seal's greatness.The character I felt the most sympathy for was not Johan, but Alma, who is forced to watch her husband be eaten alive by his own fear and insanity.
There are, in this film, loneliness, cold and solitary atmosphere, distant communication, a foreboding of danger and acts of violence, and an enigma which is open for many literary and psycho-analytical interpretations.A couple, a painter and his wife - Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow - seem to be the only inhabitants of the island until the other ghost-like garrulous inhabitants start to appear.
Sometimes broadly categorised as a horror film, Hour of the Wolf (1966) is in fact one of director Ingmar Bergman's most potent and interesting examinations of the artistic psyche, with all of the usual psychological elements and interpretations that such a subject can present.
As with those particular films, the characters of Hour of the Wolf find that the solitude they so dearly sought bring out the very demons that their escape was attempting to exorcise, creating in the process a hellish, psychological landscape where they find themselves repeating the same actions, events and mistakes, as if existing within some tortured loop.As the film progresses, Johan and Alma, the couple at the centre of this claustrophobic drama, realise that they are not alone on the island; with the local inhabitants coming to represent the frightening, unseen abstractions presented in the artist's work.
From this the film becomes weighted from the perspective of Alma, the wife of the artist, who discusses her husband's final days with an unseen film crew.Once we cut back into the real story and begin to unravel the central mystery of Johan Borg and the terrible demons that plague him, the perspective of the narrative switches once again, this time becoming entirely focused on the man; presenting us with his own fragmented memories, dreams and nightmares.
In the end, it is such a fascinating accumulation of superlatives of creepy undertones, it would've been impossible for an explorer of the human condition like Ingmar Bergman not to tackle it.And to illustrate the eeriness of the titular notion, Bergman translates it into a mysterious pathology that took possession of a tortured artist's soul; a painter named Johan Borg and played by Max Von Sydow.
But "The Hour of the Wolf" is one of these pieces of the puzzle you don't know where to put.This is not to separate the film from Bergman's other works, it's his first and –I guess- only take on supernatural and surrealistic material, and the result is aesthetically nightmarish and conveys well the horror inhabiting Johan's soul, but Bergman, as inaccessible as he is, always found a way to guide us to his characters, even at the price of a second viewing.
I can accept the absence of definite answers and the way Bergman drowns his work into his own creativity, my take is that Bergman invites us to embrace these moments where we're directly haunted by our own demons, where we must face the true facet of our personality, when the nightmare gets its realest feeling, perhaps the closest moment in life is when it looks like a nightmare."The Hour of the Wolf" is certainly the closest Bergman's film to a nightmare and I wonder if the deliberate noises he made at the beginning of the film were made to reassure us that we were only watching a film, as to insist that no matter how creepy this stuff is, it's still the product of one's imagination.
Isolated islands those always feel like a trip to the psych ward.I like the idea that the ghosts to Max von Sydow's character are as fans are to any artist, perhaps even Bergman himself?
This film, in fact, might just be my least favorite film he did--it's a close call between this film and Persona.Hour of the wolf is a very surreal film and I think it was deliberately made to be very confusing as to exactly what was occurring--was Max Von Sydow's character a schizophrenic or were there demons or monsters on this island==it's very hard to tell.
We then get a close-up of Alma (Liv Ullman), the pregnant wife of Johan (Max von Sydow).
Director Ingmar Bergman's familiarly bleak and windswept isolated island (Baltrum) is the retreat of artist Johan Borg (Max von Sydow) who is recovering from an unspecified illness.
And if we are awake, we're afraid." He's slipping into insanity, thus losing himself, and his wife also is in danger of losing her mind, as she wonders whether it's true that "a woman who lives a long time with a man, eventually winds up being like that man." I suppose therein lies further horror.The film has strong performances from Max von Sydow, who really puts himself out there for the film, as well as Liv Ullman, who expresses such fear with her eyes.
"Hour of the Wolf" is often regarded as Bergman's only true horror film, even though one could describe some of his other works as horrific or terrifying.