Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #112384 in DVD
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Swedish
• Subtitled in: English
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Ingmar Bergman's gloomy but incisive 1961 classic about a woman's descent into madness--and the inability of her family to mitigate her pain with love--is still a stunning work. Harriet Andersson plays Karin, a psychiatric patient newly released from a hospital and staying in the island home where she found some measure of security in childhood. Instead of getting on her feet, however, Karin begins disintegrating after realizing she no longer loves her physician husband (Max von Sydow) and is being rather coldly observed by her writer father (Gunnar Bjornstrand), whose distant fascination with her plight is recorded in his daily journal. Hearing voices, believing God to be a spider, and pursuing an incestuous relationship with her brother, Karin slips into an inexorable decline, objectively witnessed by those too emotionally frozen to help. The first of Bergman's trilogy on themes of faith and isolation (the other entries being Winter Light and The Silence), Through a Glass Darkly finds the legendary Swedish filmmaker at an artistic and philosophical peak. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

THROUGH a GLASS, DARKLY
"Through a Glass, Darkly" is Ingmar Bergman's pensive chronicle of a young woman's descent into the maelstrom of schizophrenia. This four character study is set on a secluded island off the coast of Sweden, where Karin (Harriet Andersson), upon having just been released from a mental hospital, is brought by her husband, Martin (Max von Sydow). They are joined there by her father, David (Gunnar Bjornstrand), a novelist, and her brother, Minus (Lars Passgard). Karin has reached a pivotal juncture in her life, facing the uncertainties inherent in the nature of her illness. Doctors have advised Martin that she is occupying a middle ground between two worlds, and that the next few days may be crucial in determining the outcome. Will she emerge in the light, or succumb to the darkness of the voices that beckon her from within. Through Bergman's eyes we observe the effects of Karin's situation on each of her loved ones, and how differently each one of them strive to cope with and understand her elusive affliction. This is one of Bergman's finest works, the first of his "Faith" trilogy (followed by "Winter Light" and "The Silence"). "Through a Glass, Darkly" is an absorbing, evocative, and sometimes intense drama that should not be missed. An Oscar winner for Best Foreigh Film of 1961, it firmly establishes Ingmar Bergman as one of Cinema's greatest directors.

a beautiful, disturbing film
Emotionally wrenching mid-period Bergman is also beautifully shot and acted, especially by Harriet Andersson and Max Von Sydow. One of the more accessible of Bergman's movies, should be seen by every film buff.

The Blackness, The Darkness, Forever.
Brilliant study of insanity set on the bleak island landscapes off the coast of Sweden. Writer/director Ingmar Bergman philosophically probes and questions man's relation to God through the tortured eyes of an emotionally disturbed young woman, haunting played by Harriet Andersson. Her husband, father and brother - superbly portrayed by Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max Von Sydow and Lars Passgard - share the island with her for a summer, and experience a devastating descent into hell as Anderston goes beyond the brink. Deservedly received two Academy Awards, for best foreign-language film and best story and screenplay written directly for the screen.