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15 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :- Very interesting early Bergman movie, 7 October 2005 Author: gelasma from France
True, the movie has got a few flaws, mostly in the construction; the structure lacks necessity and the flashbacks appear a bit randomly, it seems. However, the essential Bergman is already present (it's 1949): a few absolutely superb close-ups on the main characters' faces, the way people suddenly appear on camera, from unexpected angles, etc. And Bergman is already displaying some of the themes he will use constantly : the train travel, war and ruins as a background for difficult relationships, plus of course the impossibility and at the same time the inevitability of the relationship between man and woman : it's doomed, but there's no other way... In fact, the French title is "La fontaine d'Aréthuse", which points to this very idea. Precisely, I'd like to discuss another point : the original title is "Thirst". And in fact, people in the movie drink a lot : wine, beer, milk, or fail to drink : in a dramatic moment, one character refuses to drink coffee, tea is prepared, but doesn't taste good. I believe people never drink water, but water (the sea) is the backdrop for the happiest moment of the movie and the most desperate (with the suggestion of a suicide). For Bergman, I believe, Man is essentially thirsty, is desperately thirsty for something to calm and comfort him. But the world is hostile, relationships can offer only brief moments of satisfaction on a backdrop of tension and pain. Other comments on this title ? Very interesting movie overall.
12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :- Interesting, but not the best, 7 January 2003 Author: ian_harris from London, England
Interesting film, but this is clearly not the very best of the great Bergman. Several relationships are examined under the microscope (so far, so Bergman). The film jumps around between the relationships in a slightly distracting way, but eventually you get to the bottom of who used to be with whom etc.Gosh it's bleak out there, Bergman seems to share Strindberg's views on marriage and relationships at this time - the references to Strindberg stress that point. There's adultery, bitter rows between partners, lesbianism (inexplicit) and suicide. It ought to have me at the edge of my seat, but somehow doesn't quite do the business for me in the way that most Bergman films do. Perhaps this one hasn't aged well.Worth seeing for the dedicated Bergman fan - it's pretty short and has its moments. If you are looking for an initial view of Bergman, look elsewhere.
5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :- Bergman perfects his direction of photography and actors, 5 August 2007 Author: rick-848 from France
I thought I had seen every Bergman film ever made, so I was thrilled to stumble onto this one the week after he died. I had no trouble following the intertwining stories because I kept track of the characters' names and their relationships. So what confused many viewers seemed totally justified, especially compared to films in our post-Altmam era where more and more we see "stories" where seemingly unconnected people's lives crisscross and are junxtaposed ("Magnolia," and "Babel" to name a few).The filming is fantastic for the time and prefigures the use of close ups in "Through a Glass Darkly." Very different from "Port of Call" just before and "To Joy" just afterwards. I found the film less bleak than "Prison," its lyrical moments prefiguring "Summer Interlude," one of my favorite early Bergmans.The lesbianism was blatant enough for me, much more obvious than in "Young Man With A Horn," made around the same time in the US. Curiously, this section of the film helped illuminate Bergman's use of the theme in "The Silence," and this makes me want to view that film again. The fact that this is a film Bergman didn't write is intriguing, because he harmonizes his visual language to the rhythms of the screenwriter's oral one. The dialog was rather light for the seriousness of the situations. Perhaps Bergman himself would have been heavier-handed.Lastly, there are the actresses, and here Bergman's direction of actors seems to solidify, as I find his previous films much more uneven on this score. Here the women, especially the young dancer, show real depth.Keep in mind that this is not his first film, but still an early work, a seed that will grow into later masterpieces. Then you won't be disappointed, even after the mediocre last minutes of a work that definitely showed promise.
8 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :- My brief review of the film, 7 October 2005 Author: sol- from Perth, Australia
My least favourite of the twelve Ingmar Bergman films that I have watched so far, this is nevertheless an okay film in itself. I could not bring myself to care for any of the characters, and the plot is rather awkward, to say the least. Interestingly, this Bergman film has the unusual quality of not been written by the Swedish great himself, so Bergman cannot receive much blame for the storyline, which consists of different events with different characters in different time periods, all put together in an unclear fashion. The story is hard to decipher, but what I could work out, I did not find very exciting at that. Even so, this is satisfactory viewing, as the camera follows around the characters very well and Bergman shows some skill for setting up shots, even if not as greatly as in some of his later efforts. And, if not much else, the music choices are fitting. I am not sure whether I would recommend this to other Bergman fans, but I would definitely advise non-fans to proceed with caution.
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :- Long Live the Marriage!, 2 July 2008 Author: zolaaar from Berlin, GER
Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, men looking for dominance, acted out on a small scale: Here, Bergman serves up some technical and contentual elements which can be found throughout his later career. Several short stories written by Birgit Tengroth, who is playing Viola here, are melded, with the main plot involving Rut (Eva Henning) and Bertil (Birger Malmsten). But as soon as the couple arrives the train which will take them on a journey through Europe, Bergman somehow loses all side threads. One can sense how the director exerts to stage his idea of a marital- and love drama, though, it soon appears as a pretty faint attempt and at the end all plot lines remain fragmentarily. The characters and the images, however, linger. They tell the underlying story of Törst and convey this certain feeling of freedom, self-determination, and desire for love presented in a "steely, self-assured, stripped-down directorial style" which is Bergman's very own. That is why with this film one can expect something in the subsequent films of this yet young talent: a great subtlety in cinematic character psychology and lasting, poignant images.
3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :- Well written and acted early Bergman, 12 August 2007 Author: zetes from Saint Paul, MN
While Ode to Joy is undoubtedly the gem of Eclipse's Early Bergman box set, Thirst is a close second, at least in my mind. It's kind of a precursor to Scenes of a Marriage, where the story follows a married couple (played by Eva Henning and Birger Malmsten) on a train trip through war-torn Europe. The tumult of the film comes not from the mostly ignored outside world, but from the rocky marriage itself. We also get glimpses of the couple's former lovers. The film is at its best when sticking to the couple. When it strays to the stories of side characters, it's weaker. Since the film is so short (just over 80 minutes), you have to wonder if some of the tangential stories were added as padding. But even the scenes that don't add much are well written, acted and directed. Henning gives a masterful performance, and Bergman was really coming into his own by this point.
2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- early Bergman film, very confident in the direction, storyline not as much, 10 August 2007 Author: MisterWhiplash from United States
It's interesting to see that the late Ingmar Bergman only directed Thirst and didn't write it. Even with its flaws, like the Virgin Spring it seems authentic to the filmmaker's intentions with the characters and the dialog especially. Bergman, through the writer Birgit Tengroth, makes it his own even as he's still trying to get together completely the rhythm of the storytelling. It's strange to see him effortlessly direct within the realm of getting the camera moving around and still going at a realistic tempo (most of the time anyway). It's a story of lovers and lovers gone to pot, with the life of one, the woman in the relationship (Eva Henning as Rut), revealed in flashbacks to a past rotten relationship and other friendship, while the husband (Birger Malmsten as Bertil) has only his ex shown in dire straits after the fall-out.The latter part was the only scene that didn't quite work for me; despite Bertil's 'dream' later on in the film- which is rather great within the experimentation of his mood expressed violently- we never see much behind his past life with the person. Viola, played by Tenegroth herself, is better than expected in the part as a fragile soul who breaks away from being committed and runs into also old school friend (and the ballet friend of Rut's, at least I think it was) Valborg, though her better, more dramatic work comes later on in the film.Still, it's a very good drama, with Bergman leading it along in a sort of quagmire for the audience (likely also to be found in Strindberg, one of Bergman's biggest influences) about how people who meet for the reason of comfort end up feeling torn away by that same reason. Rut's relationship with Raoul winds up cruel and a mark on her psyche, though she's also got her own quirks and obnoxious side, yet she'll stay with him, or try to, at the very end. It's quite bleak despite the happy ending however (i.e. the fate of Viola), and the ideal of happiness in this world is always out of reach; discoveries when stuck together, as on a train, only bring about more pondering. In 83 minutes time it can't be nearly as probing about how men distance women, or vice versa, sometimes unintentionally or through vicious deeds or thoughts, as other Bergman films.But for a short while there are some tense moments, and even a couple of surprising light ones: the scene showing Rut and the dancers having fun on stage with some folk music is one of Bergman's most joyous scenes of any movie he's done.
Törst, 2 January 2008 Author: anton_hartl from Ried im Innkreis, Austria
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
I think Stefan Höltgen managed to aptly sum up the essence of „Törst" in his review first published in the magazine "Schnitt", "In the end the story lines stay fragmentary. However, the characters and the images are continuing to have an effect." Bergman already dealt with topics that he came back to frequently in his later pictures, but it seems as if Bergman wasn't able in this film (which was his third feature) to find the right form for providing the different stories, written by Birgit Tengroth (screenplay by Herbert Grevenius), with a coherent narrative structure. A lot of sequences left a strong impression with me, for example when Bertil thinks he killed Rut, or when the train crosses a railway station in Germany where they give bread to the people struck by war. And I also found the episode about Viola to be very interesting, although it was a bit confusing at first. The problem with "Törst" is that all those episodes don't form an impressing whole, but rather a puzzle with lost pieces.
2 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- Thirst will leave you parched., 24 February 2008 Author: st-shot from United States
Thirst is an early and forgettable Ingmar Bergman wrought with overheated melodrama, abrasive performances and a subplot that fits like a square peg in a round hole.Ballet dancer Rut and husband Bertil are on holiday making their way across war torn Europe and back to Sweden. Rut like nearly all Bergman protagonists is experiencing a dark night of the soul and doubt about her artistic abilities. Some explanation is given in flash back; an affair with an arrogant military officer, a confrontation with his wife, a sadistic and predatory lesbian dance instructor and a possible abortion. Very loosely tied in is a subplot of old ballet school chum Viola whose fragile psyche is being exploited by a psychiatrist and another classmate.Bergman covers a lot of ground in under ninety minutes, very little of it coherently. There's visual commentary about the war in which Sweden was a spectator. Rut feels for the starving refugees at train stops and gives them food while others simply pull down the shades. She has a series of outbursts that become cloying after the first and her husband like the other male characters seems unable to cope or connect due to either their aggressive or passive chauvinism. Evening the playing field lesbians also get worked over with a little Bermanesque gay bashing. There are brief flashes of the visual brilliance that Bergman masterfully employed in his later, greater works especially on the train and with close-ups and reflections. But it is only a brief glimpse of what was to be, making Thirst little more than a glum, hysterical soap opera in a state of confusion.
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