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Mozart in one hand and Goethe in the other, "a rondo capriccioso by Ingmar Bergman." Satan (Stig Järrel) sits in the bureaucratic office from Lubitsch's Heaven Can Wait, a stye in his eye courtesy of a maiden's chastity. Trapped in Hell, Don Juan (Jarl Kulle) experiences damnation as a perpetually thwarted seduction, he endures it like a boring toothache. A deduction from his eternal plight is the reward for an insidious corruption, back to earth then for one day and one night with his servant (Sture Lagerwall) plus a chaperone-demon (Ragnar Arvedson). The vicar (Nils Poppe), cheerfully blindfolded by faith, invites them into his home, where the neglected wife (Gertrud Fridh) captivates the sidekick satyr and the engaged daughter (Bibi Andersson) turns out to be Don Juan's target. "Cynicism based on a wounded idealism is to be considered, even recommended." Tragedy treated as comedy or vice versa perhaps, with each of the three acts introduced by the sardonic pedant (Gunnar Björnstrand) in the screening room. Lothario and tomboy meet in an unfurnished room, he kisses her softly to show his facility, she kisses him fiercely to prove her disinterest—numbed by debauchery, the interloper suddenly finds himself connected to her emotions and quietly quakes. Carné's Les Visiteurs du Soir is Bergman's marked antecedent, the signature passage has the sinner recounting his own comeuppance as an aria with a silent scream. "No punishment is severe enough for those who love." The imp in the cupboard, the preservation of virtue that's also the end of innocence. Fellini in Casanova picks up the scathing line of thought. With Georg Funkquist, Gunnar Sjöberg, Torsten Winge, Axel Düberg, and Allan Edwall. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |