Episode Details

(1953/Sweden, 92 min., b&w, drama, in Swedish with English subtitles) Dir.: Ingmar Bergman. Cast: Åke Grönberg, Harriet Andersson, Hasse Ekman, Anders Ek. Ingmar Bergman presents the battle of the sexes as a ramshackle, grotesque carnival in Sawdust and Tinsel, one of the late master’s most vivid early works. The story of the charged relationship between a turn-of-the-century traveling circus owner (Ake Grönberg) and his performer girlfriend (Harriet Andersson), the film features dreamlike detours and twisted psychosexual power plays that presage the director’s Smiles of a Summer Night and The Seventh Seal, works that would soon change the landscape of art cinema forever. Distributor: Janus Films. Discussion guest: Stuart Liebman, Queens College.

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