Dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1952 , Sweden , 107 mins, subtitles
Cast: Anita Bjork, Eva Dahlbeck, Maj-Britt Nilsson
Review by Karen Krizanovich
These days, more people probably know Ingmar Bergman’s works through Woody Allen‘s parodies than of Bergman’s works themselves. Happily, Bergman-directed classics such as Waiting Women are becoming readily available on DVD. And when people such as Robert McKee, the fabled screenwriting guru, mentions Bergman as a source of inspiration, it is good to have them on a crisp format rather than old tired VHS. Waiting Women is an overlooked gem from 1952. In topic this smooth-running black and white drama is somewhat reminiscent of the American comedy classic The Women but with far less mirth. Despite what some may think, Bergman’s films are not humour-free: what is funny within a Bergman film is what would be funny if you were a student of human nature. For example, within Waiting Women , a group of women await their men to come home. One by one, they tell stories of the mistakes and adventures they’ve had in their lives. One memorable tale – and it is a measure of the quality of this feature that they are ALL memorable – centres on a women who falls in love with a no-good artist. But before she falls for him, she spurns her diligent soldier boyfriend at a very sexy nightclub (with topless ladies and an erotic dance duo). She pushes him further from her by accepting a dare to hold a coin between her thighs on stage – in front of drooling male patrons – for a magnum of champagne. Any woman who has disobeyed her man will recognise the wilful glee in that act, even if the man only finds it frustrating. But that is the talent of Bergman: to show us the interiors of life and in that distinctly Bergmanesque way. Famous for its ‘trapped lift’ scene, this feature film lures us in to characters whose motives may not be wise but make perfect sense – something that many burgeoning scriptwriters seem to forget. Beautifully told with, maybe, a bit too much visual imagery for more modern tastes, this drama will inform anyone who is interested in making a deeply emotional film that is far from being a dirge. If you haven’t seen Waiting Women , then you don’t really know Bergman.
