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The Serpent's Egg [DVD] [1977]
 
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The Serpent's Egg [DVD] [1977]

DVD ~ David Carradine
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.48 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Customers buy this item with Hour Of The Wolf [DVD] [1968] DVD ~ Max von Sydow

The Serpent's Egg [DVD] [1977] + Hour Of The Wolf [DVD] [1968]
Price For Both: £7.46

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Serpent's Egg [DVD] [1977]
67% buy the item featured on this page:
The Serpent's Egg [DVD] [1977] 4.0 out of 5 stars (2)
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Product details

  • Actors: David Carradine, Liv Ullmann, Heinz Bennent, Isolde Barth, Toni Berger
  • Directors: Ingmar Bergman
  • Writers: Ingmar Bergman
  • Producers: Dino De Laurentiis, Horst Wendlandt
  • Format: PAL
  • Language English, German
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 18
  • Studio: MGM Entertainment
  • DVD Release Date: 2 Aug 2004
  • Run Time: 114 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0002ADWU8
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 25,770 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Synopsis

This unusual political drama by Ingmar Bergman was filmed at Bavaria Film Studios in Munich during the director's exile from Sweden after encountering problems with tax officials back home. THE SERPENT'S EGG, a big-budget German-American coproduction, was Bergman's second work in English after THE TOUCH and is set in 1920's Berlin, shortly before Hitler's rise to power. Abel (David Carradine), a Jewish trapeze artist, and his late brother's wife, Manuela (Liv Ullmann), a cabaret performer and part-time prostitute, are forced to seek employment at a medical clinic run by Dr. Vergerus (Heinz Bennent), because other work is hard to come by in the poverty-stricken and inflation-prone city. But Abel and Manuela's financial problems are overshadowed by a gruesome discovery: The mad-scientist-like Vergerus is secretly conducting human experiments--foreshadowing the horrors of the concentration camps. Carradine was considered miscast by many critics who didn't know quite what to make of this film. Nightmarish and gripping, it depicts the political turmoil, ever-increasing Nazi brutality, and general moral decay of the time period in vivid, graphic images. Bergman has admitted to being a follower of Hitler's in his youth, and some have speculated that this film, deviating from the director's usual subject matter, represented an act of repentance of sorts.

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A minor Bergman film., 18 Nov 2002
By Jason Parkes "We're all Frankies'" (Worcester, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Serpent's Egg [VHS] [1977] (VHS Tape)
The Serpent's Egg (1977) is a relatively minor piece in Bergman's classic canon, this may have been due to the conditions of its production- Bergman having tax problems with the Swedish authorities and like many European auteurs (Wenders, Herzog, Kieslowski) made this film outside of his own country.

The film is set in pre-World War II/Weimar Berlin (the films was actually co-production between Germany and the US) and is set around a circus- recalling two later films influenced by Bergman: Woody Allen's Shadows & Fog and Wim Wenders's Wings of Desire/Sky Over Berlin.

The setting and themes have also been repeated subsequently, perhaps as retribution and comprehension of the Third Reich- this followed Cabaret and the exploitative Salon Kitty, but also fits in the same thematic/historical contiuum as films like The Marriage of Maria Braun,Mephisto, Invincible and Faraway, So Close!.

However, this is far from Bergman's most coherent work- lapsing into nastiness as perhaps he had only done previously on The Hour of the Wolf. David Carradine is miscast, though Bergman regular Liv Ullmann is present. As ever, the photography by Sven Nkyvist is brilliant- reason alone to buy this film.

The Serpent's Egg is good value at this budget price, I would be more reticent buying it if it were conventionally art-housed price (£15 plus). It is rarely seen and an oddity in Bergman's canon as films like Torment (which he didn't direct) or The Hour of the Wolf. This is far from his best work of the 1970's, Scenes of a Marriage- which is a much sounder purchase if you haven't seen it.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An exercise in paranoia, 11 Aug 2006
By Mrs. S. K. Goffin - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Serpent's Egg [DVD] [1977] (DVD)
This film epitomised the sense of menace and paranoia which must have preceded the Nazi regime. The way Bergman portrayed the central character, Abel Rosenberg, was unexpected. Initially, he was a sympathetic figure - a Jew who was detached from the corruption around him. However, there was a sickening scene in which he attacked overtly Jewish people. There was also a horrific scene in which the starving inhabitants appeared to eat meat from a horse which was still alive.
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