O for Six

A brilliant cellist called Felix invites a biographer to his estate packed with beautiful women in 1964's All These Women. Roger Ebert called it Ingmar Bergman's worst film and, yeah, I guess I can buy that. Though he shouldn't shoulder all the blame since the screenplay was co-written by actor Erland Josephson, who does not appear in the film. Unlike Bergman's other comedies, the humour in All These Women relies on postmodernist, fourth wall breaking. Yeah, it was tired decades before everyone thought Deadpool invented it.

I'm not having good luck picking movies lately. I really want to see something good I'd never seen before. Normally, I can always rely on Bergman but the only part of this movie that made me laugh was when I misread the credit for makeup assistant Britt Falkemo as "Butt Volcano". That's what you get for putting your credits in decorative script.

It is Bergman's first colour film and it is beautiful. I just wish these images were in service of something besides dumb slapstick.

Look how eerie that image is. Let's pretend it's not for a scene with a tone akin to Yosemite Sam chasing a varmint.

There are several beautiful women--Bibi Andersson, Harriet Anderson, Eva Dahlbeck, and Mona Malm all look great. Sadly, most of the movie follows Jarl Kulle as the biographer, mugging for the camera and knocking over statues.

All These Women is available on The Criterion Channel.

Twitter Sonnet #1533

The phantom mail was waiting hours late.
The cheesy shield was weak against a witch.
To bring a wrench would change the screwy fate.
We called the hazard trench a quaky ditch.
The pixels died beneath the waves of light.
A play of green and black and gold commenced.
Against the boat, the surface picked a fight.
You'll never squash what foam and wash foments.
The cherry syrup masks the legal dream.
Escaping stars convened to map the gold.
Approaching trees are what they always seem.
The wooden posts a chilly ceiling hold.
A perfect cake cannot conceal the pie.
Another buzzing pixel swelled the lie.