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The Serpent's Egg
Das Schlangenei
USA / West Germany 1977
produced by Dino De Laurentiis, Horst Wendlandt (executive) for Dino De Laurentiis Company, Rialto, Bavaria, ZDF
directed by Ingmar Bergman
starring Liv Ullmann, David Carradine, Gert Fröbe, Heinz Bennent, Toni Berger, Christian Berkel, Paula Braend, Erna Brünell, Paul Bürks, Gaby Dohm, Emil Feist, Kai Fischer, Georg Hartmann, Edith Heerdegen, Klaus Hoffmann, Grischa Huber, Volkert Kraeft, Gunther Malzacher, Lisi Mangold, Günter Meisner, Kyra Mladeck, Heide Picha, Hans Quest, Charles Regnier, Walter Schmidinger, Irene Steinbeisser, Fritz Strassner, Glynn Turman, Ellen Umlauf, Wolfgang Weiser, James Whitmore, Ralf Wolter, Hans Eichler
written by Ingmar Bergman, music by Rolf A. Wilhelm, cinematography by Sven Nykvist
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Germany, 1923: Once, Abel Rosenberg (David Carradine) and his brother
Max (Hans Eichler) were a celebrated trapeze duo, but then Max hurt his
wrists and couldn't perform anymore, which left them, and Max's soon-to-be
divorced wife Manuela (Liv Ullman) stranded in Berlin - as Jews, with
National Socialism gradually gaining power, and with it an especially vile
form of antisemitism. Abel, who has long turned alcoholic, soon finds
himself on the radar of inspector Bauer (Gert Fröbe), himself not a
Nazi-sympathizer at all, but one who bows to the powers in control, and as
he is able to somehow link Abel to some murders that have happened in
Abel's neighbourhood, he finds it opportune to at least bring him in for
questioning. Abel finds solace of all people in Max's ex-wife Manuela,
nowadays a cabaret singer by night and prostitute by day, and they're
desparate enough to lean on one another. Enter Hans Vergerus (Heinz
Bennent), a man Abel still knows from their childhood together, who offers
them a better job, better life - and Abel has never trusted Hans as he has
been a weirdo and sadist even when growing up, yet he and Manuela accept
his offer, and are given a nice apartment to live in and respectable jobs
at a hospital - but somehow their lives go downhill from there, they are
constantly on their edge and at one another's throats, their health is
deteriorating ... and eventually Abel finds out the hospital runs
unethical human experiments, and they might be one of those - but when he
gathers this knowledge, it might already be too late ... Produced
by Dino Laurentiis, this is considered Swedish arthouse darling Ingmar
Bergman's only "Hollywood movie" (even if it was shot at Bavaria
Studios in Germany), but while he must have enjoyed the higher budget
he had, he didn't compromise much regarding style and story, as this is a
very off-mainstream movie relying heavily on its slightly depressing
atmosphere (one of Bergman's trademarks throughout his career) and
delivers a very complex, jigsaw puzzle like story without any real heroes
and set entirely in the grey areas between good and evil, one which
doesn't give any concrete answers but leaves one with quite a few very
interesting questions. And add to that great production values and a first
rate international cast, and you're basically in for another treat from a
director known for treats.
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