00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:11,993
- I am an artist!
- An artist?
Yes, Princess!
An artist of the purest kind.
A poet with no poems,
a painter with no paintings...
- Musician.
- A musician with no tones.
I scorn the completed work of art,
the banal result of vulgar efforts.
My life is my work,
and it is devoted to my love for you!
========== =
162
00:15:55,640 --> 00:16:01,317
A light sacrifice, my Princess.
For what is life to a true artist?
Thus you complete your work of art
and crown your love.
Thus you ennoble your life and show
the sceptics the power of a true artist.
Farewell, my friend.
Do not fail me.
=====
180
00:17:26,320 --> 00:17:29,551
I could of course write a poem
about the princess.
Paint a picture or compose an opera -
- although the ending
would be more heroic.
I enter oblivion.
Only Death shall love me.
========
275
00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:33,311
"Her illness is incurable..."
"...with temporary improvement."
"I have long suspected it, the certainty
is none the less almost unbearable."
"I'm horrified by my curiosity."
"By my urge to record its course."
"To make an accurate description
of her gradual disintegration."
"To use her."
========
414
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:44,753
This isn't easy to say...
- What's that?
- I turn away from Martin.
He calls out after me,
but I can't help him.
It becomes play-acting.
- Does he notice anything?
- I'm not sure.
I must choose between him
and the others.
I've made up my mind...
I have sacrificed Martin.
- Is all this for real?
- I don't know.
I don't know! I'm caught in the middle,
and sometimes I'm uncertain.
423
00: 48:14,320 --> 00:48:18,074
I know I've been ill
and that the illness was like a dream.
But these are not dreams, they're real.
They have to be real!
----
To me they're not real,
not in the least.
564
01:06:31,400 - -> 01:06:34,198
I've done worse than that.
Much worse.
I tried to resist,
but I couldn't get away.
I was forced to do it.
571
01:07:10,000 --> 01:07 :12,912
I just don't understand!
Try to stay calm, Karin.
And then the room
with the waiting people...
The good, light people
waiting for the door to open -
- for God to come to them.
But then the voices appear...
I have to do what the voices tell me.
I can't make sense of it all.
Is it really only my illness?
Dad...
It's so horrible to see one's own
confusion, and to understand it!
----
I want to apologise to you.
I've always had a guilty conscience
about you, so I've turned away.
It makes me sick to think of all the life
I've sacrificed for my so-called art.
585
01:08:29,560 --> 01:08:34,680
When your mother died, my making it
as a writer meant more to me.
Kind of like me, every bergman movie, a different surprise, fresh
591
01:08:56,880 --> 01:08:59,189
You see, Karin ...
One draws a magic circle
around oneself -
- to keep everything out
that doesn't fit one's secret games.
Each time life breaks the circle, the
games become puny and ridiculous.
So one draws a new circle
and builds new defences.
Poor little dad.
597
01:09:24,960 --> 01:09 :28,999
Poor little dad,
who has to live in the real world.
-==============
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:16,039
You're so quiet, almost hostile.
---
464
00:51:58,640 --> 00:52:01,871
It's always about you and yours.
465
00:52:04,120 --> 00:52:07,112
Your callousness is perverse.
466
00:52: 07,240 --> 00:52:10,596
"Record its course."
That's so typical...!
467
00:52:13,000 --> 00:52:17,312
- You don't understand.
- No, I don't.
=======================
462
00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:51,715
And that I felt a strong urge
to record its course.
463
00:51:53,280 --> 00:51:57,717
I can't put the blame anywhere else.
There is no excuse.
464
00:51:58,640 --> 00:52:01,871
It's always about you and yours.
Your callousness is perverse.
"Record its course."
That's so typical...!
- You don't understand .
- No, I don't.
But one thing I do understand
- you're hunting for themes.
Your own daughter's mental illness.
What a great bloody idea!
- I love her, Martin.
- You "Iove"?
There's no room for emotion in your
void. And you lack common decency.
You know how to express yourself,
you always have the right words.
There's only one phenomenon you
haven't the slightest clue about - Iife!
You're a craven coward!
But in one particular you're a genius:
evasions and excuses.
- What do you want me to do?
- Write your book!
It might give you your heart's desire:
your artistic breakthrough.
Then you won't have sacrificed
your daughter in vain. And...
Go ahead, say it!
In your novels
you're always flirting with a god.
Let me tell you:Your faith and
your doubts are very unconvincing.
What is most conspicuous
is your inventiveness.
- Don't you think I know that?
- Why do you go on?
- Do something respectable instead.
- Such as?
Have you written one word of truth
in your life as an author?
- I don't know.
- See?
Your half-lies are so refined
that they look like the truth.
- I try.
- Maybe you do.
But you never quite get there.
I know.
You' re empty but capable.
And now you're trying to fill your void
with Karin's extinction.
But how will God fit into that? It must
make him more inscrutable than ever!
Let me ask you something... Can you
control your innermost thoughts?
Fortunately I'm not very complicated.
My world is very simple.
Quite clear and human.
- Still you've wished Karin would die?
- Absolutely not!
Only you could think that.
Can you swear that you've never
thought it? It would be logical...
You know her case is hopeless. And
you know your suffering is pointless.
- She might just as well be dead.
- You are grotesque .
That depends entirely
on your point of view.
503
00:54:56,440 --> 00:54:59,034
I love her.
I'm powerless.
I can only stand and watch -
- as she is transformed into
a poor, tormented creature.
507
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:14,759
Let me tell you something.
When I was in Switzerland
I decided to kill myself.
I hired a car and found a precipice.
I calmly set out. It was afternoon,
the valley was already in darkness.
I was empty.
No fear, no regrets or expectations.
I set out for the precipice, stepping on
the gas - and stalled, stopping dead.
The gearbox went, you see.
The car slid on the gravel and came
to a halt, front wheels over the edge.
I crawled out of the car, trembling.
I leaned against the rock face
across the road.
I sat yawning for hours
from being short of breath.
Why are you telling me this?
I want to tell you that I no longer have
any front to protect.
The truth won't bring a catastrophe.
- This has nothing to do with Karin .
- I think it does.
00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:22,195
I don't understand that.
00:56:22,320 --> 00:56:27,269
Out of my void something was born,
something I can't touch or name.
00:56:30,200 --> 00:56:32,350
A love...
00:56:32,480 --> 00:56:34,835
...for Karin... and Minus.
00 :56:36,800 --> 00:56:38,711
And you.
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:43,913
One day I may tell you about it.
00:56:44,040 --> 00:56:47,032
I daren't do it now. But...
00:56:47,960 --> 00:56:51,589
If it is the way I'm hoping...
00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:57,196
Let's leave it for now.
The rain is coming now.
00:57:20,600 --> 00:57:21,874
No.
00:57:24,720 --> 00: 57:26,517
Yes...
00:57:27,560 --> 00:57:29,312 The rain 's
coming!
================================================================================================================================================================================ :44:25,320 --> 00:44:27,390 Let me show you something. 385 00:45:08,640 --> 00:45:11,029 I walk through walls, you see. Early every morning I'm woken by someone calling me in a firm voice.I rise and come to this room.
One day someone called me
from behind the wallpaper.
I looked in the closet,
but there was no one there.
But the voice went on calling me -
- so I pressed myself against the wall,
and it gave, like foliage -
- and then I was inside.
You think I'm making it up, don't you?
I come into a big room.
395
00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:02,119
It's all light and peaceful.
People are moving up and down.
Some of them talk to me,
so I'll understand.
It's so nice, and I'm safe.
In some of the faces
there's like a shining light.
Everyone is waiting for him to come -
- but no one is anxious .
They say that I can be there too
when it happens!
403
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:37,516
Why are you crying?
404
00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:41,110
It's nothing.
Nothing to worry about.
But... sometimes I have this
intense yearning.
I yearn for that moment...
...when the door will open...
- ...and all the faces will turn to him.
- Who is he ?
No one has said for certain.
But I think it's God
who shall reveal himself to us.
That it will be him coming into
the room, through that door.
413
00:47:37,360 --> 00:47:39,476
Minus. ..
This isn't easy to say...
- What's that?
- I turn away from Martin.
He calls out after me,
but I can't help him.
It becomes play-acting.
- Does he notice anything?
- I'm not sure.
I must choose between him
and the others.
I've made up my mind...
I have sacrificed Martin.
- Is all this for real?
- I don't know.
I don't know! I'm caught in the middle,
and sometimes I' m uncertain.
I know I've been ill
and that the illness was like a dream.
But these are not dreams, they're real.
They have to be real!
425
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:27,154
To me they're not real,
not in the least.
Karin...
- It's not real for me.
- Oh yes...!
A god steps down from the mountain.
He walks through the dark forest...
Everywhere the wild beasts,
in the silence and the darkness.
It has to be real.
I 'm not dreaming,
and I'm telling the truth.
Now I'm in one world,
now in the other.
434
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:07,279
I can't stop it!
435
00: 49:17,480 --> 00:49:19,994
Shall we go for a swim?
I'll go on my own then.
I feel sleepy.
===========
Another voice
439
00:49: 32,160 --> 00:49:34,754
Close the door when you leave.
440
00:49:43,720 --> 00:49:46,632
Don't do that! Get out! Get out!
441
00:50:00,720 --> 00:50:03,518
What the hell can I do?
This sensitive place is sensitive? This sentence doesn't make sense.
Girls like boys' insensitivity,
insensitivity, and roughness.
How can masculinity have any depth.
It's not that bad, but it's not that good
, and it's more like it's not that good. The first conversation
was endless because of the infinite possibilities. Instead,
we became good friends without taking a scoop. "There must be a turning point. place, event"
stanley, the most sincere expression, waving on the porch stage, laughing
I want something greater, art, film, depth, connotation
but love, isn't it really great, isn't
it conflict?
Strange,
in that group, you are already very dazzling.
why don't you go to work
1:22 dark room
light is very important sweden
700
01:25:07,800 --> 01:25:13,033
- then Karin is surrounded by God,
since we love her.
701
01:25:13,160 --> 01:25:15,594
Could that help her?
702
01:25:17,720 --> 01:25:19,676
I believe so. Dad
703
01:25:21,920 --> 01:25:23,672
Dad?
704
01:25:23,800 --> 01:25:28,351
- Would you mind if I go for a run?
- Run off. I'll make dinner.
705
01:25:28,480 --> 01:25:30,994
See you in an hour.
706
01:25:37,720 --> 01: 25:40,473
Dad talked to me.
===============
Es ist Zeit für Rache!"Wir müssen die Juden ausrotten!"
In Through a Glass Darkly, the character Karin conceives of God as a monstrous spider that emerges in her madness and attempts to rape her. In contrast, for her father David "God and love are one and the same phenomenon" (61).
679
01:23:50,720 --> 01:23:53,154
Give me a proof of God!
- You can't.
- Yes, I can.
But you have to listen carefully.
Yes... I need to listen.
I can only give you an indication
of my own hope.
It's knowing that love exists for real
in the human world.
- A special kind of love, I suppose?
- All kinds, Minus.
The highest and the lowest, the most
ridiculous and the most sublime.
All kinds.
- The longing for love?
- Longing and denial.
Doubt and faith.
So love is the proof?
I don't know whether love is proof of
God's existence, or if love is God.
For you, love and God are the same?
I rest my emptiness and dirty
hopelessness in that thought.
Tell me more, Dad!
Suddenly the emptiness
turns into abundance -
- and hopelessness into life.
It's like a reprieve, Minus...
...from a sentence of death.
Dad. .. if it is as you say -
- then Karin is surrounded by God,
since we love her.
=====================
In Through a Glass Darkly, the character Karin conceives of God as a monstrous spider that emerges in her madness and attempts to rape her. In contrast, for her father David "God and love are one and the same phenomenon" (61). Both perspectives appear to be intimately associated with the characters' relationships with family. Karin lives in alienation: her brother Minus is repulsed by her sexuality, and her father David writes in his diary of a fascination with her madness and is prepared to exploit it for the Furthermore, Karin's husband Martin finds himself unable to reach her. She describes her relationship with him as "just a game" (43) and is willing to sacrifice him to her image of the god. David even accuses Martin of wishing for Karin's death as a convenient means of escaping the situation. Family relations that could have been a source of comfort for Karin only serve as monstrous and alienating. At the end of the film, Karin is left to struggle in her madness and is taken away by a helicopter first seen as a menacing silhouette in the window. In his screenplay, Bergman describes the helicopter as "a gigantic dark insect" (57), an incarnation of the Spider God coming to claim Karin.an incarnation of the Spider God coming to claim Karin.an incarnation of the Spider God coming to claim Karin.
the Spider God manifests as a "dark forest" inhabited by "wild beasts" (43) and reflects Tomas's alienation and fears just as it mirrored Karin's isolation and terror of reality. The consolation achieved by David in Through a Glass Darkly is not possible for Tomas because Tomas is aware of his failings. In his reflections on the film, Bergman himself notes that "His [Tomas's] hell, because he truly believes in hell, is that he recognizes his situation" (265).
She is in darkness; the scene dissolves to Tomas in a matching composition bathed in the glow of an electric lamp. Tomas is her only chance for faith; he is the light in the winter, an interpretation prefigured in the film's opening shots as Tomas at the pulpit is juxtaposed with images of a wintry landscape
David's vision of God is the opposite of Karin's. His life's journey is a difficult one that climaxes in a suicide attempt. The experience results in an ego release and a void subsequently filled with a love for his family. Through this love David develops a conception of God as Love. He relates his belief to his son Minus and explains that it can be used as something to hold on to and that can aid Karin in her torment. Minus is impressed; "Daddy spoke to me!" (61) he says. He feels connected to his father, apprehending the familial and divine love David spoke to him about. Given its weight as the last line of the film, Minus' proclamation seems to stand as a metaphor for a personal connection with God. It is easy to interpret the formulation of God as Love as the message of the film. However,such a message appears rather disingenuous. David and Minus are eased by their vision of love, but Karin has still been left in the jaws of the Spider God, and David's claims of love for his family have done nothing to keep her from this demise. Indeed, Martin had earlier accused David of an insincere faith: "You've got a god you flirt with in your novels, but I can tell you, both your faith and your doubt are equally unconvincing" (45-6). Appropriately, Martin is absent for David's final discourse on love; his presence could have hampered the declaration of faith. We can think of David's God of Love conception as a possibility, a certain view of the world set in opposition to the Spider God thesis. The next film in the trilogy continues examining the struggle between the two views.David and Minus are eased by their vision of love, but Karin has still been left in the jaws of the Spider God, and David's claims of love for his family have done nothing to keep her from this demise. Indeed, Martin had earlier accused David of an insincere faith: "You've got a god you flirt with in your novels, but I can tell you, both your faith and your doubt are equally unconvincing" (45-6). Appropriately, Martin is absent for David's final discourse on love; his presence could have hampered the declaration of faith. We can think of David's God of Love conception as a possibility, a certain view of the world set in opposition to the Spider God thesis. The next film in the trilogy continues examining the struggle between the two views.David and Minus are eased by their vision of love, but Karin has still been left in the jaws of the Spider God, and David's claims of love for his family have done nothing to keep her from this demise. Indeed, Martin had earlier accused David of an insincere faith: "You've got a god you flirt with in your novels, but I can tell you, both your faith and your doubt are equally unconvincing" (45-6). Appropriately, Martin is absent for David's final discourse on love; his presence could have hampered the declaration of faith. We can think of David's God of Love conception as a possibility, a certain view of the world set in opposition to the Spider God thesis. The next film in the trilogy continues examining the struggle between the two views.but Karin has still been left in the jaws of the Spider God, and David's claims of love for his family have done nothing to keep her from this demise. Indeed, Martin had earlier accused David of an insincere faith: "You've got a god you flirt with in your novels, but I can tell you, both your faith and your doubt are equally unconvincing" (45-6). Appropriately, Martin is absent for David's final discourse on love; his presence could have hampered the declaration of faith. We can think of David's God of Love conception as a possibility, a certain view of the world set in opposition to the Spider God thesis. The next film in the trilogy continues examining the struggle between the two views.but Karin has still been left in the jaws of the Spider God, and David's claims of love for his family have done nothing to keep her from this demise. Indeed, Martin had earlier accused David of an insincere faith: "You've got a god you flirt with in your novels, but I can tell you, both your faith and your doubt are equally unconvincing" (45-6). Appropriately, Martin is absent for David's final discourse on love; his presence could have hampered the declaration of faith. We can think of David's God of Love conception as a possibility, a certain view of the world set in opposition to the Spider God thesis. The next film in the trilogy continues examining the struggle between the two views.Martin had earlier accused David of an insincere faith: "You've got a god you flirt with in your novels, but I can tell you, both your faith and your doubt are equally unconvincing" (45-6). Appropriately, Martin is absent for David's final discourse on love; his presence could have hampered the declaration of faith. We can think of David's God of Love conception as a possibility, a certain view of the world set in opposition to the Spider God thesis. The next film in the trilogy continues examining the struggle between the two views.Martin had earlier accused David of an insincere faith: "You've got a god you flirt with in your novels, but I can tell you, both your faith and your doubt are equally unconvincing" (45-6). Appropriately, Martin is absent for David's final discourse on love; his presence could have hampered the declaration of faith. We can think of David's God of Love conception as a possibility, a certain view of the world set in opposition to the Spider God thesis. The next film in the trilogy continues examining the struggle between the two views.his presence could have hampered the declaration of faith. We can think of David's God of Love conception as a possibility, a certain view of the world set in opposition to the Spider God thesis. The next film in the trilogy continues examining the struggle between the two views.his presence could have hampered the declaration of faith. We can think of David's God of Love conception as a possibility, a certain view of the world set in opposition to the Spider God thesis. The next film in the trilogy continues examining the struggle between the two views.
should have been sanctified by an Oscar for best foreign film. The movie wouldn't stand the ghost of a chance these days, thanks to the ubiquity of the shopping-mall demographic and its corollary, snappy postmodern irony. We in the west no longer feel guilt over our affluent lifestyle and neither the emptiness of the void nor the need to fill it with a second-hand spirituality. As for art, it' a game like everything else, and what we mainly ask of it are prankish, self-referential surfaces that admit the fact. Yet, to a previous generation, Bergman was the real deal—a stringently ascetic artist who didn't just use the film medium as an instrument of personal catharsis, but seemed to suffer Christ-like on the viewer's behalf .
As with Bergman's other stripped-down liturgies, the movie requires a sustained act of faith from the audience. A single wisecrack, a flickering doubt, and the high-flown edifice of metaphysical gloom instantly crumbles to dust. Yet, only believe, and you have the whole human civilized condition in a tightly impacted nutshell.
Indeed, its portentousness, banked intensity, and recondite symbolism come near to embodying the popular stereotype of the Bergmanesque. Art-house veterans will be seized with nostalgia at the opening credits and white letters against a funereal black background, while a lonely violoncello drones Bach 'Suite No. 2 in D Minor. These barren signifiers (which became de rigueur for such later Bergman clones as Woody Allen's Interiors and Robert Redford's Ordinary People) herald the kind of journey awaiting us. There won't be much pleasing scenery on display, because this Lutheran minister's son aims to peel off the carnal husk and plumb the unfathomable dark night of the soul.
"I was born under the constellation Aries," Strindberg wrote to a friend in Paris on July 20, 1849. "This constellation represents sacrifice. People like me who have worked hard all their lives are rewarded. But it is: to be killed. Every success brings pain; every trace of happiness is swept away by malicious slander; every encouragement is a mockery; every good deed is carried out with torture Punishment. But it also means: the arrival of spring, the emergence of something new. Who knows?" In fact, this is a horoscope that Strindberg made up about himself.
Here I shall meet her, my bride-elect.
The strange patterns of the wallpaper appear mysterious and hollow in the refraction of the sea (the use of the refraction of the sea also appears four times in the film: could it be the parallel movement of Bach's cello?). I led David to an extremely dubious conclusion: in torturing his own death, he discovered a reborn love for children. My own horrific experience in Switzerland was inconclusive. It's just a dead end. The film ends with a puzzling conversation between Minos and his father, in which Minos' final monologue is: "My father spoke to me!" Bergman explains in his memoirs , this may be because he has a taste of preaching. Adding these words is meant to say something that the film has not yet said. This seems to imply that, out of love for the youth, Bergman had to comfort Minos, who was on the verge of collapse. This is probably also the reason for Bergman's self-criticism that "there is an imperceptible false tone in this film". At the time, he had a serious discussion with photographer Swan Nickwest about light and lighting. These discussions led to a conception of a completely different cinematic technique; the result can be seen in the later "Winter Light" and "Silence"... There is a magical "Saraband" in this suite, Probably the saddest piece of all the suites. It has a special sincerity and candor, a musical fragility, like an engrossed prayer. You're not playing this music for the audience, you're playing it for yourself - the audience is just eavesdropping, peeking at the white-hot loneliness and the figure of an artist completely immersed in the music. I often play this "Saraband" for those who are sad.
Translated from: Rostropovich Interpretation of Bach, EMI Classics CD (5 55363 2) Bergman recorded the idea of the work in extremely precise language in his working notes: a god spoke to her. She humbly submits to the god she worships. God is both darkness and light. Sometimes he gave her incomprehensible instructions, instigated her to drink sea water, kill animals, etc. But sometimes he is full of love and gives her the most important experience, even in terms of sex. He came in the form of Minos, her brother. At the same time, God forced her to abstain from marriage. She is a bride waiting for a groom; she must not be defiled by others. She dragged Minos into her world. And he followed her willingly and eagerly, as he was still living on the verge of adolescence. God did not trust Martin and David, and in order to warn her, he gave people the wrong impression of them.
= Shen Yubing
Bach "Suite for Unaccompanied Cello" No. 2 in D minor, Op. 1008. This is the theme music for "Through the Mirror in the Dark", the greatest film of Bergman's black and white era. The fourth part of the suite, "Saraband", appears four times in the film: the opening title appears as an introduction; in the second part, the heroine peeks into her father's diary and finds out that she has an incurable disease, while her father can Calmly note down the development of his illness; the last part is also the climax of the whole film, when the heroine and her brother cross the border tragedy on the stranded broken ship, heading for sinking and destruction; and the reappearance at the end of the whole film as the epilogue. 669
01:23:13,080 --> 01:23:15,435
I'm scared, Dad!
I sat in the wreck, holding Karin,
when reality cracked.
- Do you understand what I mean?
- I understand.
Reality... cracked, and I fell out.
It's like in dreams...
Anything can happen.
Anything!
- I know.
- I can't live in this new world.
==================
The title derives from a Biblical passage (1 Corinthians 13 ) in which seeing through a glass darkly refers to our understanding of God when we are alive; the view will only be clear when we die. The Swedish title literally reads as in a mirror quoted from 1917 års bibelöversättning (the 1917 Swedish translation of the Bible).
Karin's illness leads her to have visions ("through a glass darkly") which she believes will culminate in her seeing God, but she is terrified when "God" turns out to be a giant spider (an allusion to Dostoevsky's character Svidrigailov in Crime and Punishment who wonders of the afterlife, "But what if there are only spiders there, or something like that?").
View more about Through a Glass Darkly reviews
