Serpent's Egg, The (1977)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
If it's true that every great director makes a bad movie then this here is Bergman's bad movie. David Carradine stars as a circus performer in 1923 Berlin who moves in with his sister-in-law (Liv Ullmann) after his brother's suicide. The two make what money they can to survive but they both find it difficult being Jewish and things take an even worse turn when Carradine's character takes a job for a strange scientist. I've read several negative reviews of this film and it appears the movie was originally attacked for being disgusting or hard to watch because of the subject matter. I didn't find anything, even the ending, to be disturbing but I did find the movie hard to watch because it was really, really boring me to death. I really couldn't believe I was watching a Bergman movie because everything in this movie came off as being flat to me. There wasn't a bit of life in this thing and I realized by the ten-minute mark that I was going to be in trouble. One big problem is the entire story structure, which just seems invisible to me. I'm not sure what Bergman was trying to do here and I've heard many say this film has more "story" than most of the director's films but I'd disagree. I didn't find any story here and to make matters worse is that Carradine really seems out of place. Not once did I buy him in this role and I don't think he delivered the power the movie needed especially in the more emotional scenes. I also found Ullmann to be rather bland, which is the first time I've said that about her. The one saving grace is a major one and that's the cinematography by Sven Nykvist. I'd almost recommend this movie because of his work alone and that opening sequence where Carradine discovers his brother's body is certainly a beauty to look at.
* 1/2 (out of 4)
If it's true that every great director makes a bad movie then this here is Bergman's bad movie. David Carradine stars as a circus performer in 1923 Berlin who moves in with his sister-in-law (Liv Ullmann) after his brother's suicide. The two make what money they can to survive but they both find it difficult being Jewish and things take an even worse turn when Carradine's character takes a job for a strange scientist. I've read several negative reviews of this film and it appears the movie was originally attacked for being disgusting or hard to watch because of the subject matter. I didn't find anything, even the ending, to be disturbing but I did find the movie hard to watch because it was really, really boring me to death. I really couldn't believe I was watching a Bergman movie because everything in this movie came off as being flat to me. There wasn't a bit of life in this thing and I realized by the ten-minute mark that I was going to be in trouble. One big problem is the entire story structure, which just seems invisible to me. I'm not sure what Bergman was trying to do here and I've heard many say this film has more "story" than most of the director's films but I'd disagree. I didn't find any story here and to make matters worse is that Carradine really seems out of place. Not once did I buy him in this role and I don't think he delivered the power the movie needed especially in the more emotional scenes. I also found Ullmann to be rather bland, which is the first time I've said that about her. The one saving grace is a major one and that's the cinematography by Sven Nykvist. I'd almost recommend this movie because of his work alone and that opening sequence where Carradine discovers his brother's body is certainly a beauty to look at.