Film Review
The Devil's Eye is something of an extreme oddity
in the filmography of the legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman - an
eccentric comedy affording a rare excursion into the fantasy genre.
Stylistically, the film is a world apart from the kind of film Bergman is
generally known for (gloomy meditations on matters metaphysical such as
Wild Strawberries (1957) and
The Seventh Seal (1957)),
eschewing bleak realism for a quirky kind of theatricality. However,
the themes which the film explores are unashamedly characteristic of its
author - religion, love and the nature of existence.
The film was certainly not one of Bergman's favourites. He only agreed
to make it as part of a deal with Carl-Anders Dymling, head of Svensk Filmindustri,
to back
The Virgin
Spring (1960). Dymling was anxious that the latter
film would lose money and so insisted that Bergman also made a comedy to
offset the losses. The subject of the comedy was left to Bergman,
and he chose to make an adaptation of an old radio play,
Don Juan Returns, by the Danish writer Oluf Bang.
Bergman's enthusiasm for the production was lacking almost from the beginning.
Physically and mentally drained by the filming of
The Virgin
Spring, he suffered from health problems throughout the making of
The Devil's Eye. He fell out with his long-time
cinematographer, Gunnar Fischer, leading to a rift which prevented the two
men from working together until
The Touch a decade
later. As it turned out
The Devil's Eye
was not a great commercial success and it received some quite scathing reviews
on its first release.
The Devil's Eye may not rank among Ingmar Bergman's
greatest films, but its distinctive style and unbridled sense of fun give
it a charm which will appeal to any aficionado of the great director.
Bergman's exploration of the relationship between God, Satan and Mankind makes
for an interesting, albeit very tongue-in-cheek, piece of theo-philosophical
conjecture. Like
The Virgin Spring, the film
touches on some important theological themes, such as the relationship between
sin and redemption. And there are echoes of Bergman's earlier film,
Prison (1949), which
also posited the view that the Devil is far more 'hand's on' than God when
it came to mucking about with life on Earth. One of the most fascinating
aspects of
The Devil's Eye is that Bergman manages
to find so much humour in subjects which he treats with deadly seriousness
in many of his other films.
© James Travers 2007
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Next Ingmar Bergman film:
The Virgin Spring (1960)
Film Synopsis
Few things annoy the Devil more than a woman's chastity - it always brings on a painful
stye in his eye. Irked by this affliction, he summons Don Juan, who is still serving
his 300 year sentence in Hell, and sends him back to Earth on a vital mission - to divest
a pastor's 20-year old daughter, Britt-Marie, of her virginity. Accompanied by his
trusty servant Pablo, Don Juan has no difficulty inveigling his way into the pastor's
household. However, Britt-Marie proves to be strangely resilient to the great seducer's
charms. She remains faithful to the man she is soon to marry, whilst Don Juan discovers
true love for the first time...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.