Port of Call (1948)

A Masterpiece!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is really a film about an unhappy woman,the people around her and her journey to find happiness. The other characters are props but props devised with imagination and played quite well. She has been sent to reformatory time and again and her attempts to find sexual love frustrated at every attempt. We feel for her and sense that she is a good human being who has simply not seen a break. In flashback we see the reason for her unhappiness - an abusive, unsympathetic mother, people willing to exploit her...There is little of anything we have come to associate with the older Bergman. The camera movements are in Hollywood-style and the editing invisible. The girl's desolation is mainly private, even from the viewer, but the film is one about her and not the other characters. This is one of Bergman's central points throughout his career. I'm glad I saw this but now it's time to move on.Curtis Stotlar

Port of Call (1948)** 1/2 (out of 4)Early Bergman film has a young woman, Berit (Nine-Christine Jonsson) throwing herself into the ocean in a suicide attempt but being pulled out by a man named Gosta (Bengt Eklund). Sometime after the two meet up at a party when they go back to her house for sex, which soon leads up to a relationship. The relationship starts off on a bad note as Berit is haunted by her past as well as secrets she doesn't want revealed. This is a very dark and bleak love story from Bergman that hits on a few familiar themes of his later films but for the most part you really can't look at this and say this is one of his better movies. There are certainly some very good touches here and there and the performances are great but I think the movie would have benefited from some editing and a better pacing. A lot of the middle parts of the film seemed to have just been repeating itself and I didn't care for the flashback scenes at all. When Berit starts telling her backstory to Gosta, I think strong dialogue would have been a lot better than actually watching the stuff play out. Another thing I didn't care too much for was the ending, which really seemed to be taped on from another film. It didn't really match up with anything that came before it and it played out too simply. For a film from 1948 this really hits on some touchy subjects including all the sex, an aborition and there's even some brief nudity. I'm sure this movie would have been very shocking when originally released but today it comes off rather tame and even the drama isn't as tight as one would expect from the director. With that said, there's still a lot to enjoy here and that includes the terrific performances with Jonsson stealing the show as the troubled youth. She's very believable in her role and her opening shot, the look of her eyes, is quite priceless and tells us all we need to know before she even says anything or we're told anything. Eklund is also very strong in his role as is Mimi Nelson as the mother. Bergman handles the material quite well even though, as I said, the pacing could have been a little better.

"Hamnstad" is one of the rare Swedish films focusing on family life.Its uniqueness is due to the fact that it has an eclectic mix of serious themes. These themes include bitter, harsh realities like abortion,broken home, correctional house etc. Bergman has deftly portrayed the dreary lives of its two lonely protagonists : Gosta and Berit. For this purpose, he has chosen a small provincial port town where nothing much happens. This film is a good record of how gloomy the life in Sweden (Europe) during 1940s was. Bergman has also shown us how all emotional problems are solved if lovers decide to remain true to each other. This is precisely the case of Gosta and Berit.Gosta has always led a hard life. He is a moody soul too. As a sailor, he has been out on sea for many years. For this reason he is unable to believe that some girl can enter his life in order to love him.There are doubts in Berit's mind too. As a loner, she tries hard to leave her past behind. As a young lass, Berit witnessed numerous fights involving her father and mother. This is one of the reasons why there is enormous distance between Berit and her mother. It is during one of these turbulent emotional phases that Berit meets Gosta. Even though Gosta is a tough nut to crack, his love for Berit is real. On one occasion, Gosta fights some young rascals to prove his intensity of emotional attachment for Berit. Gosta even proves that he is the ideal man for Berit as he solemnly ignores Berit's revelation that in the past, she was sent to a correction house. He urges Berit to make an earnest effort to leave her past behind. Berit has no hesitation at all in following this humble piece of advice. It is precisely in this manner that both Berit and Gosta embark on a successful journey to lead a happy, joyful life as companions for life. All of Bergman's film have a message to offer to audiences. Through "Hamnstad", he wishes to tell us all that being alone is a terrible feeling.

While Gosta, a seaman, arrives in Gothenburg, a young girl, Berit, makes a suicide attempt in the city harbour. After saving her, a rather promising relationship seems to begin but much work needs to be done from both of them in order to be together. In 1948, Ingmar Bergman seems already familiar with the themes that he will never stop examining throughout his career. He observes and studies human behavior in everyday circumstances, in an effort to get a glimpse of its roots. Berit is depressed, but her situation has a long story, starting from her childhood. Growing up with a mother that never cared for anything and anyone but herself and a father that had a problem hiding his temper, she ended up in a reform school and the implications are therefore predictable. Gosta has just finished working in the ships and he finds himself working in the docks of Gothenburg, despite his ambition for something bigger. They are both in the need of a clean start in their lives, carrying their burdens from the past on the left and their dreams for the future on the right. When they first meet, they can't possibly imagine how similar they are. In fact, they seem incapable of realizing anything because of the wall they have built around them in order to protect themselves. But she desperately needs to free herself from her mother (who impersonates all of her past) and he desperately needs to find someone to relief him from his loneliness. So, they will fight through all the difficulties for these goals. Eventually, she will learn to have some faith in other people, he will learn to forgive and they will both learn to face the past. This film also works on a political level as the story takes place among the dock workers struggling everyday just for the essentials. Bergman himself admits the influence that the Italian Neo-Realists had on him in his first films and Port of Call is a characteristic example. It is mostly shot on location and the work in cinematography is really admirable, the black and white photography and the camera movement is stunning and Bergman proves how talented he is when it comes to framing. The leading actors give notable performances, especially Nine-Christine Jonsson. Overall, Port of Call is an interesting film, a typical example of the first period in Bergman's filmography that will reach its climax with "Summer with Monika". The story may sound clichéd and naïve at times, but it is its honesty that engages its viewers, as well as the masterful shots of the great Swedish director.