Can you help me? I doubt it!

Starting my trip up Empire's top 20 films of 2022

#20 :  Bergman Island

While it would be tempting to reimagine Mia Hansen-Love’s Bergman Island as an arthouse Jurassic Park — a group of happy-go-lucky visitors are terrorised by a pack of genetically engineered Swedish depressives — the actual film itself is a mini marvel of a movie <loads of filler text> Two great films for the price of one, Hansen-Love’s wistful delicate filmmaking and a great set-piece set to ABBA’s ‘The Winner Take It All’. What more could you want? (Apart from velociraptors wrestling with the existence of God.)

This is one I would never have watched because of the title - I've no interest in watching any Bergman films and I'm afraid this one just gets tarred with the same brush.  However, now I know it's got some ABBA in it, I'm approaching it with slightly more enthusiasm.  But not loads...

The film follows Tony (Tim Roth) and Chris (Vicky Krieps) as they decamp to Fårö (which is, unsurprisingly, the island where Ingmar Bergman lived) for the summer in order to do various film related stuff, including working on screenplays for their next films - Tony is racing through his screenplay and really inspired whereas Chris is really struggling.

So we then spend a considerable amount of time watching Chris's screenplay - which seems pretty fully formed to my untrained eye, but it's also not particularly interesting.  Although one of her characters does go on an amusing anti-Bergman rant ("Maybe three critics thought he was amazing, but there's a world outside your own asshole.  Fuck Bergman!").  But when I say a considerable amount of time, I'm not kidding - there's not far off an hour of the film spent dipping in and out of it.

However, interestingly, towards the end of the screenplay, one of the people that Chris met earlier "in real life" appears - fictional real life begins to blur with fictional fiction and my head begins to hurt.  And then, right at the end, things get even more weird - all of which left me feeling very lost and turned what was a reasonably straightforward but dull film into a confusing but dull film.  I'm not sure whether that's an improvement or not - I think it probably is because I was somewhat intrigued by my confusion.

It's somewhat surprising this is the second Tim Roth film we've met (and Reservoir Dogs was only done as a one-off special) but the third Vicky Krieps film (after The Phantom Thread and Corsage) - and Vicky has a far bigger role in both her previous films than Tim has in his.  But I like them both in this and they're pretty relatable (they certainly have very relatable arguments!), even if they're not the most lovable of characters (and somewhat obsessed with Bergman).  I also thought Mia Wasikowska did a good job as Amy, the lead character in Chris's screenplay - it's the first time we've met her but it's the second time we've met Anders Danielsen Lie who gets to play a bit of an asshole (again!).

It's very beautiful to look at - all Scandinavian cottages and windmills in the sunshine with some gorgeous landscapes (although I didn't envy Vicky and the characters in her film diving into the sea).  It's competently filmed with a minimum of tricks - nothing particularly impressive to write home about in my opinion but I did read a review that said it was written in a way that male critics wouldn't understand it, so I guess that's me told.

I feel it's trying to make me think about things, but I'm not really sure what things - maybe it's a rumination on the nature of obsession (or maybe fandom would be a better turn of phrase), but I'd have to say I'm not convinced.  I'd also say that everyone is very, very earnest in this except for Chris (who often seems pretty lost and miserable) - I can't say it's made me any keener to watch any Bergman films.  And the Bergman safari that Tony goes on looks to be the dullest thing imaginable.

I didn't hate this, but I wasn't exactly grabbed by it - it feels like a film designed for the critics to love and, in Empire's case, they very much did.  And I'm quite surprised The Guardian didn't - only three stars from them and I actually agree with a lot of their comments.  Under normal circumstances I've had deserted this way before the end but I'm glad I stayed because the final weirdness did make me think a bit more about it.  But only a bit and it's just a shame I didn't come to any particular conclusion.

At time of writing, it's available to stream on MUBI or to rent in all the usual places, but I'm not sure it will appeal to all that many people - sorry Empire, but this was a miss for me.

2022 (Guardian) - How was that then?
#19 - A diverting couple of hours