Ingmar Bergman is really a great director,however wasn't the best one for me, there's fine movies in his career as Jungfrukallan just to quote my favorit a near masterpiece,Skammen has something weird to start,all is based on a fictional civil war which was set place in somewhere at Scandinavia,whereupon there's no civil war at this place in that time which the picture may implied,forgetting all this the picture make sense,a overlooked at point of view over such damages for those people whose most of them don't have no idea why it should be happen,such atrocities,such pain and worst how the persons changes over for instance two leading roles,a anti-war picture but sounds a unreal for to be raised under a virtual war....therefore and just for that 7 out 10!!!Resume: First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5

I have found many of the films of director Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona, Cries and Whispers, Fanny and Alexander) in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and this was another Swedish film featured in it that I watched. Basically a civil war is occurring, and musicians and married couple Jan Rosenberg (Max Von Sydow) and wife Eva (Liv Ullmann) escape the devastation in society to a rural island and farm, there they remain indifferent to politics, they will communicate with only a few people, and the only luxury they have is wine. Jan and Eva love each other, but problems develop when Jan becomes upset with the war, weeping and becoming sensitive, and Eva wants to have children, but he does not, and they cannot escape the warfare as rebels attack and their neighbours are killed. Order is restored on the other side of the fight, but the couple are arrested for enemy collaboration, but following the fright and abuse against them they are released by local Colonel Jacobi (Gunnar Björnstrand), and he becomes a frequent visitor at the farm, but it is not clear whether he is just being friendly or trying to pursue Eva, at one point she gets money from him. Chaos ensues with the return of the rebels, at one point Jan is given a gun by the soldiers and told to kill the Colonel, he does so, and over the period of time becomes increasingly violent and murderous, until eventually the rebels flee, but the question remains as to whether Jan and Eva can truly escape the war, and if they can what happens next? Also starring Sigge Fürst as Filip, Birgitta Valberg as Mrs Jacobi, Hans Alfredson as Fredrik Lobelius, Ingvar Kjellson as Oswald and Raymond Lundberg as Jacobi's son. Apparently this film is part of a trilogy, the second instalment following Hour of the Wolf, Von Sydow is good acting selfish, immature, treacherous and cowardly, Ullman is good being strong and tender, together they make an intriguing pair of concert violinists and married couple. I will confess that I found the film slow at times, the most interesting moments came from the warfare material, and these moments do feel nightmarish and chilling as it interferes and diminishes love, beauty and trust, I don't fully agree with the four stars out of five by critics, but I know it is not a bad drama. It was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film. Worth watching!

Extremely pinching vision of a war situation where the couple from Vargtimmen (ok, they have different names and initial situations, but the actors are the same) gets caught in the crossfire of two fronts. The depiction of the fighting parties as faceless, superordinate authorities are often captured in sublime surreal pictures and draws interesting parallels to Orwell's 1984, even if Bergman thwarts this context on a personal level of a slowly burgeoning conjugal war. That is why countless fundamental and philosophical questions towards Eva's and Jan's marriage are relevant and essential, while the threat and danger from the outside tears open an abyss in the inside which was toilsomely covered with lambencies before. An intense allegory on the fragile facades of civic conventions.

This is one of the bleakest, the most harrowing of Bergman's films I've seen. I also think this is one of the most powerful films about the ugliness of war and what it does to the human souls.The couple of musicians, who left a big city for a remote island and make a living as farmers, find themselves capable of unspeakable and shameful acts that would have ordinarily been impossible for them even imagine, as they struggle to survive horrible reality of war. They betray their souls, their friends and even each other in a desperate attempt to simply survive another day. Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow are brilliant as usual as lost, confused, and terrified couple that got caught in the midst of a civil war.9.5/10