Frau ohne Gesicht (1947)

Frau ohne Gesicht: Directed by Gustaf Molander. With Alf Kjellin, Gunn Wållgren, Anita Björk, Stig Olin. Ragnar and Frida married solely because she was pregnant. Later he would have a passionate side-affair with Rut. Rut’s sexual feelings were highly neurotic because she had been sexually abused by her stepfather. When the chimney sweep came, she seduced him and afterward felt dirty and desperate. She found and seduced Ragnar. From the beginning she interspersed mean attacks. During the war he was drafted, but deserted. He and Rut hired a room by the chimney sweep. Soon Rut seriously stabbed Ragnar’s hand with a fork and they were thrown out. But whatever Rut did, she could always “make it undone” by one word. Eventually they lived at the loft of an empty storehouse. On New Year’s Eve Rut went to her mother and stepfather and demanded all cash the latter had. He gave her what was equal to four months salary for an unskilled worker. Ragnar believed she had got the money by prostitution. He left her and reported himself to the police. Rut promised to revenge herself. Ragnar was acquitted because a friend testified that he was mentally ill when he deserted. He and Rut reconciled, but she did not forget her promise. She left him when it would hurt most. He tried to kill himself, but was saved.

“The main thing here is the excellent script by Ingmar Bergman, which concentrates entirely on the woman played by Gun Wållgren, a very special and brilliant Swedish actress, who excelled in dubious parts like this – one of her films is called u0026quot;The Girl and the Devilu0026quot; in which she plays a double role, an innocent girl and an heinous witch. Here she excels in rendering a very complex female character real, and she is convincing in every moment of it, superior, experienced, handling her men as puppets, playing with them perhaps a bit cruelly sometimes, but always in perfect control; while Alf Kjellin as the leading man is a very poor character, weak and coward and really totally without character as probably a very spoilt child. The supporting characters are excellent as well, and the direction honours the script. Ingmar Bergman was an outstanding script writer, especially in his early films, like in Alf Sjöbergu0026#39;s u0026quot;Tormentu0026quot; (u0026quot;Hetsu0026quot;) 1944, one of the greatest of Swedish classics. This film shows many similarities and associations to the great masterpiece but rather as a shadow, while the characterizations are the more outstanding.”