#A4/Eclipse Series 1: EARLY BERGMAN: BERGMAN, Ingmar: Thirst (1949)

BERGMAN, Ingmar (Sweden)

Thirst [1949]

Spine #A4/Eclipse Series 1
DVD/Blu-ray

2007 synopsis

A couple traveling across a war-ravaged Europe. A disintegrating marriage. A ballet dancer's scarred past. Her friend's psychological agony. Elliptically told in flashbacks and multiple narrative threads, Thirst shows people enslaved to memory and united in isolation.

2018 synopsis

Intricately structured and technically accomplished, Thirst is an often dazzling examination of people burdened by the past and united in isolation. The principal couple, Bertil (Birger Malmsten) and Ruth (Eva Henning), travel home by train to Sweden from Switzerland, at each other’s throats the whole way. Meanwhile, in Stockholm, Bertil’s former lover, Viola (Birgit Tengroth, who also wrote the stories on which the film is based), tries to evade the predatory advances of her psychiatrist, and then of a ballet dancer who was once a friend of Ruth’s. With this dark and multilayered drama, sustained by biting dialogue, Bergman began to reveal his profound understanding of the female psyche.

84 minutes
Black & White

Monaural

in Swedish

1:33:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2007/2018

Director/Writers

Ingmar Bergman was 31 when he directed Thirst.

Screenplay by Herbert Grevenius.

From the short story by Birgit Tengroth.

Other Bergman films in the Collection:

#A1/Eclipse Series 1: Crisis (1946)
#A2/Eclipse Series 1: A Ship to India (1947)

#A3/Eclipse Series 1: Port of Call (1948)
#A5/Eclipse Series 1: To Joy (1949)
#A6/#613: Summer Interlude (1951)
#A7: Waiting Women (1952)
#A8/#412: Sawdust and Tinsel (1953)
#A9/#614: Summer With Monika (1953)
#A10: A Lesson in Love (1954)
#A11: Dreams (1955)
#A12/#237: Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
#A13/#11: The Seventh Seal (1957)
#A14/#139: Wild Strawberries (1957)
#A15: Brink of Life (1958)
#A16/#537: The Magician (1958)
#A17: The Devil's Eye (1960)
#A18/#321: The Virgin Spring (1960)
#A19/#209: Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
#A20/#211: The Silence (1963)
#A21/#210: Winter Light (1962)
#A22: All These Women (1964)
#A23/#701: Persona (1966)
#A24: Hour of the Wolf (1968)
#A25/#961: Shame (1968)
#A26: The Passion of Anna (1969)
#A27: The Rite (1969)
#A28: Fårö Document [1970)

#A29: The Touch (1971)
#A30/#101: Cries and Whispers (1972)
#A31/#229: Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
#A32/#71: The Magic Flute (1975)
#A33: The Serpent's Egg (1977)
#A34/#60: Autumn Sonata (1978)
#A35: Fårö Document 1979 (1979)

#A36: From the Life of Marionettes (1980)
#A37/#263: Fanny and Alexander -- The Theatrical Version (1982)
#A38/#262: Fanny and Alexander -- The Television Version (1982)
#A39/#264: The Making of Fanny and Alexander (1982)
#A40: After the Rehearsal (1984)
#A41: Saraband (2003)

The Film

99

By Director
By Spine #