In some ways, Hour of the Wolf (1968) is rather like many different movies directed by Ingmar Bergman, one of many biggest filmmakers of all time. It stars two of his most frequent collaborators, Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann (the latter of whom was Bergman’s accomplice on the time); it was filmed on the Swedish island of Fårö, the place Bergman lived for a lot of his life; and its script was closely impressed by Bergman’s personal life and relationships.
Even so, Hour of the Wolf is a singular entry in Bergman’s acclaimed oeuvre for one easy motive: it is a horror movie. Whereas lots of Bergman’s movies handled darkish themes and featured Gothic imagery and foreboding atmospheres, Hour of the Wolf stays Bergman’s solely try to actually frighten his viewers on a visceral stage, taking heavy inspiration from his personal nightmares. However Bergman did not dabble within the horror style only for shock worth. Relatively, as was usually the case, Bergman was attempting to exorcise his personal internal demons by actually projecting them onto the large display screen. In consequence, Hour of the Wolf is just not solely an efficient horror movie, but additionally a deeply private exploration of the troubled thoughts of certainly one of cinema’s biggest artists.
A Dangerous Dream Come True
Hour of the Wolf
- Launch Date
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April 8, 1968
- Runtime
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88 minutes
- Director
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Ingmar Bergman
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Gertrud Fridh
Corinne von Merkens
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The movie facilities on painter Johan Borg (von Sydow) and his pregnant spouse, Alma (Ullmann), after they transfer onto the small island of Baltrum. Johan is tormented by recurring nightmares that make him refuse to sleep, and he usually asks his spouse to remain up with him. Ultimately, the married couple meets a mysterious household of noblemen dwelling in a close-by fortress on the island, who declare to be large admirers of Borg’s work. Nevertheless, as they spend extra time with the household, Alma begins to suspect that her unusual neighbors have malicious intentions for her husband. The movie culminates in a terrifying and surreal sequence within the fortress through which the demons from Johan’s nightmares seemingly come to life.
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Is all of it a dream? Like many traditional horror movies, Hour of the Wolf blurs the road between creativeness and actuality. On the one hand, it is likely to be tempting to ascribe Johan’s nightmares and waking visions to his personal tormented psychological state. Nevertheless, Alma has many uncanny encounters of her personal, like when she is approached by an previous girl claiming to be over 200 years previous. Close to the tip of the movie, she even sees the exact same creatures from Johan’s nightmares herself.
The movie leaves it ambiguous whether or not Alma seeing the demons is proof that they’re actual or if she has come to share her husband’s vivid creativeness. Certainly, Alma explicitly ponders whether or not married {couples} start to undertake one another’s bodily options and psyches the longer they’re collectively. (This theme of two identities merging into one is explored extra deeply in Bergman’s wonderful 1966 avant-garde movie Persona, which some critics and students argue is a horror movie in its personal proper.)
A Disturbing Self-Portrait
Whereas the supernatural parts of the movie are based totally on a mix of widespread artwork (particularly Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, the music of which options within the movie’s soundtrack), Medieval European folklore, and even Bergman’s personal nightmares, the narrative itself comes just about straight out ot Bergman’s life. Hour of the Wolf was launched in 1968, solely a few years after Bergman left his fourth spouse, Käbi Laretei, for Ullmann. Infidelity options prominently within the movie, as it’s revealed that Johan had an prolonged affair with a lady named Veronica (Ingrid Thulin) throughout his marriage to Alma, creating an enormous scandal.
The stress ensuing from this affair arises as soon as once more when the aristocrats repeatedly carry up Veronica in Alma’s presence, as if tempting Johan to go away his spouse once more — a temptation he struggles to withstand. This parallel between Bergman and Johan’s infidelity means that Hour of the Wolf is a confessional of types, implying that Bergman’s creative ambitions and want to please the hungry plenty (represented by the aristocrats) contributed to the collapse of his marriage, with Alma representing Laretei.
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In step with the movie’s place within the horror style, a number of students have even steered that the aristocrats are like vampires who “feed on” Johan’s artwork whereas corrupting him as an individual, whereas Johan himself is sort of a werewolf in that he’s torn between two competing impulses — the impulse to remain devoted to his spouse and the impulse to fulfill his baser sexual wishes with Veronica. By this lens, Johan (and, by extension, Bergman himself) is arguably the true monster of the movie, whereas the true sufferer is Alma (and Laratei).
Certainly, the entire movie is definitely a flashback narrated by Veronica to an in-universe filmmaker, to whom she offers Johan’s diary. Hour of the Wolf is subsequently not solely an allegory for a way artists wrestle to please their most adoring followers, but additionally an empathetic try by Bergman to point out what his infidelity will need to have been like from his spouse’s standpoint.
A Man of Many Abilities
With Hour of the Wolf, Bergman confirmed that he was able to making a compelling horror movie, regardless of his inexperience within the style, whereas nonetheless sustaining the thematic complexity and emotional profundity of his different works. Moreover, he was prepared to let himself be weak and shine a lightweight on the darker elements of his life and character. A willingness to step exterior each his stylistic and private consolation zones is a significant motive why Bergman is among the all-time nice filmmakers. If it had been made by some other director, Hour of the Wolf may need been thought of their magnum opus. As an alternative, it has flown underneath the radar merely as a result of sheer variety of Bergman’s different masterpieces. For that motive, it is a textbook instance of a hidden gem, and deserves extra consideration.
Hour of the Wolf is accessible for streaming on The Criterion Channel by this hyperlink.