Vargtimmen tells a story of an artist struggling with isolation, paranoia and madness. The title refers to the night hours when most people die and also when most babies are born. In the black card title sequence, we hear the film crew getting the shot ready. The first scene is Alma (Liv Ullman), the pregnant wife of a recluse painter Johan (Max von Sydow), staring directly into the camera, addressing that her husband went missing. The film being the-post Persona era Bergman, it's filled to the brim with surrealist images and dream logic. Visuals are often frightening - as Johan struggles to ward off a feral child on the beach which is filmed in extreme high contrast and ends up killing the kid and dumping his body in the water. And a grotesque dinner party that reveals Johan's scandalous past and devolves into a string of ghastly sights involving an old woman pulling off her face and eyeballs, cross-dressing and necrophilia even.
It's an odd film that doesn't really give any clear statement or answers directly that Bergman wrestles with usually. It seems more personal, dealing with personal demons therefore more obscure in its presentation. It's still a very interesting experiment.
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