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Second in the 'Faro Island trilogy' (between 'Hour of the Wolf' and 'The Passion of Anna') directed by the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Set in a near-future civil conflict, the film documents the struggle of a young married couple, Jan (Max von Sydow) and Eva Rosenberg (Liv Ullmann) to remain apolitical and keep out of the war that rages around them. Retreating to a remote island, they manage to scrape together a living growing berries on their farm. But their tranquil existence is shattered when soldiers from both sides of the conflict arrive on their island and fighting breaks out. Their neighbour, Colonel Jacobi (Gunnar Björnstrand), who is in charge of the army defending the island, agrees to protect the couple if Eva will sleep with him, which in desperation she does. Jan finds out about Eva's betrayal just as the rebel forces gain the upper ground, and willingly complies with the rebels' orders to execute Jacobi. These two acts leave the couple estranged from each other, devoid of hope and morally bankrupt. In a scene critics have described as one of the most powerful in cinema history, the couple leave the island on a boat moving through a sea filled with corpses, and Eva tries in vain to think of something - anything - that is warm, kind or human to comfort her.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I saw this film only once, 33 years ago. I have been waiting ever since for a second opportunity – and now at last Shame is becoming available on DVD (in August 2004). Even if, as the previous reviewer warns may be the case, the film is presented in the wrong aspect ratio, I urge you to watch Shame. It is a most haunting, moving and unsettling portrayal of individuals caught up in the inexplicable terrors of the modern world (specifically a civil war in an unnamed country). I have never forgotten this film and doubt that you will either.
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By "good__god"
Format:DVD
Shame, just like Hour of The Wolf, that's going to be released on DVD in Europe on August 2, are Ingmar Bergman classics that should not be missed by anyone who has enjoyed others of his films. Shame, or "The Shame" as the Swedish title suggests, was filmed in the fall of 1967, featuring Bergman's long time partisans Liv Ullmann (her third Bergman film,) Max Von Sydow, and Gunnar Björnstrand. Shame tells the story of two artists - Eva (LU) and Jan (MVS) - a married couple who lives in fear on an island during War. The movie is unforgettable, incomparable, and should be very accessible to any admirer of director Bergman, cinematographer Nykvist, or actors Ullmann, Von Sydow, and Björnstrand. For those familiar with the cast and crew from before this movie will be a great treat, UNLESS...unless the movie, just like MGM's American DVD edition of the film, will be presented in the wrong aspect ratio; MGM's region 1 releases of Shame, Hour of the Wolf, and Persona were all released on DVD in AR 1.33:1, NOT 1:37:1, which are the correct AR's for these movies. This technical mumbo jumbo means that, on the region 1 releases, 11.5 percentage of the image is missing throughout the film (a slap in the face especially for Sven Nykvist, one would imagine.) Keep your fingers crossed for the European releases of Shame and Hour of the Wolf, just like Persona, to be presented in 1.37:1.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Philoctetes
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've seen three Bergman's from the MGM stable and this is by far the best. Jan and Eva are living a happy married life on an island; former musicians from a philharmonic orchestra, they've turned to farming and left behind their former life on the now war-torn mainland. When the conflict spreads to the island, they fall into the clutches of first one and then the other side. The terror puts an immense strain on their marrriage: the world as they know it burnt out.
Shame doesn't go to great extremes, not seeking to glamourise the fighting or sensationalize the suffering. There is an impressive recreation of the noise, explosions and frenzy you'd anticipate. The abrupt change from peace to war kickstarts a gradual transformation of the couple and of Jan in particular; terrified by the violence and browbeaten by his wife, finally he becomes a new but primal kind of male - ruthless and hard. Eva's resentments boil up to the surface as she's buffeted by soldiers on either side and eventally exploited by an old friend made powerful by the chaos.
Can their love survive the horror, even if they don't? The film is under two hours but by the end you'll feel part of an amazing journey. The DVD's menu is spartan but functional.
Shame doesn't go to great extremes, not seeking to glamourise the fighting or sensationalize the suffering. There is an impressive recreation of the noise, explosions and frenzy you'd anticipate. The abrupt change from peace to war kickstarts a gradual transformation of the couple and of Jan in particular; terrified by the violence and browbeaten by his wife, finally he becomes a new but primal kind of male - ruthless and hard. Eva's resentments boil up to the surface as she's buffeted by soldiers on either side and eventally exploited by an old friend made powerful by the chaos.
Can their love survive the horror, even if they don't? The film is under two hours but by the end you'll feel part of an amazing journey. The DVD's menu is spartan but functional.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bergman, the Depressive in the face of the Cold War...
CONTAINS SPOILER:
This is the second time that I've watched my DVD of 'Shame', which is part of the 4 disc The Ingmar Bergman Collection, which features his later work... Read more
This is the second time that I've watched my DVD of 'Shame', which is part of the 4 disc The Ingmar Bergman Collection, which features his later work... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Tim Kidner
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worked well for me, but not for the reasons most people cite.
Dubbed a masterpiece by almost every critic I respect. I certainly thought this was a brilliantly
well made film, but one that didn't quite give me the kind of devastating... Read more
well made film, but one that didn't quite give me the kind of devastating... Read more
Published 12 months ago by K. Gordon
1.0 out of 5 stars
Shame
This item is probably OK if you like reading the Sub -titles while watching the film. Personally I find this quite distracting. Read more
Published 15 months ago by N. L. Roberts Qpm
5.0 out of 5 stars
Un classico!
Perchè nella descrizione non scrivete che il dvd ha anche la traccia audio italiana?
Grazie alla MGM inglese per aver pubblicato questi titoli di Bergman (L'ORA DEL... Read more
Grazie alla MGM inglese per aver pubblicato questi titoli di Bergman (L'ORA DEL... Read more
Published on 26 May 2009 by Noir
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tested to destruction
This fairly early Bergman is satisfyingly intense and traumatic and unforgettable. yet it is very rarely spoken of or advertised in the list of Bergman best films. Read more
Published on 22 May 2009 by technoguy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyably bleak
We find ourselves on an anonymous island belonging to an anonymous country which is at war with an unknown enemy. Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2007 by Dr. R. G. Bullock
5.0 out of 5 stars
Skammen (1968)
'Shame', due to the production, is not one of those many Bergman classics that have been put out by Tartan on VHS and DVD in the 90s and zeroes, and as such has become a bit... Read more
Published on 14 April 2007 by Jason Parkes
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