100 More Things I Love About the Movies

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When I passed the 100,000 hit marker in November, I honored the event with what became one of my most popular entries- 100 Things I Love About the Movies. As it turns out, my odometer recently rolled over another milestone- the 200,000 hit marker. As logic follows, I’m due for another stroll down 100 Things Avenue. So without further ado, here are 100 More Things I Love About the Movies:

A Very Bergman Christmas

Who better to send Christmas wishes to my readers for me this year than Ingmar Bergman, an atheist whose films were the antithesis of holiday merriment? In other words, here are a bunch of images from Bergman films where people are wearing Santa hats. And in the one case where there’s nudity, I’ve found a way to cover her shame. Her beautiful, beautiful shame.

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Five flavors of Ingmar Bergman

Summer has officially arrived in St. Louis, which means I’m either going to be grouchy or angry or depressed until September. You see, summer in St. Louis is like living inside of a dog’s mouth. In short, it’s oppressive. It zaps the energy right out of me. And as such, what better time to visit my old pal, Doctor Doom- Ingmar Bergman? After all, Bergman seemed to understand the concept of sunlight and intense heat as oppressive. Two scenes come to mind- the cannibal child on the cliff in Hour of the Wolf and the sexually symbolic/ripe with frustration clown-and-soldier scene in Sawdust and Tinsel. Both of these scenes were made more terrifying by the sun-bleached shots, the intense heat, the additional distortion of a washed out environment.

Several themes recur throughout the Bergman catalogue. Here are five, along with a must-see film from Bergman that puts a specific theme on display.