The influence can be seen on the plot, structure, and character of the The Last House on the Left. This is an incredibly beautiful film to watch. There are so many black and white images that will stick with you. I haven't seen many period pieces that make me feel like I'm watching the movie at a different time in time. This is one of them. While this movie is about the destruction of innocence by the cruelty of man it is also about two conflicting religions. One, catholicism represents forgiveness, commitment, and guilt, while paganism and norse mythology represents vengeance, jealousy, and temptation.
The film starts by introducing us to Ingeri (Gunnel Lindblom) the servant, and maybe adopted daughter of the Tore family. We see her praying to Odin and it is made clear she is jealous of her sister and the blood daughter of the Tore family, Karin (Birgitta Pettersson). Her parents Christian (Max Von Sydow) and Mareta (Birgitta Valberg) spoil her in some way and try to keep her closed off to the rest of the world. There is a ritual where a virgin has to take candles to a church and the family sends Karin, along with Ingeri, to do it.
While on the path to the church Ingeri stays with the bridge keeper for a while, leaving Karin alone. Karin is raped by two men, who also have a boy with them. Ingeri catches up and watches while this happens. They kill Karin by beating her upside the head with a club. Later the three men come across the Christian's house while looking for a place to stay. They have dinner and eventually one of the the men presents Karin's garments to Mareta as a gift. This is when they realize that Karin is dead. Christian interrogates Ingeri about what happened and she tells him about her jealousy toward Karin. Christian goes and kills all three men. The family then goes to find her body and when they remove her head from the sand a spring flows out of it. Christian pledges to build a church on the place where the body was found.
There is some amazing cinematography in this movie. The shot of Max Von Sydow shaking the tree with the woods, mountains, and clouds in the background is great. I love that shot of the white snow falling over Karin's body with the white and bright clothes she wears possibly representing her innocence. Everything from the houses with only one story and one big room looks like the period as well as the clothes. I love all of the woodland locations as well. It may just be that black and white cinematography but when I watch this I feel immersed in the setting.
The great shot of Max Von Sydow with the tree. Good for any black metal album cover.
The great shot of Karin's body lying in the middle of the ground
There is some great foreshadowing to things that happen early on. The beggar in the movie says a poetic quote, "flying birds find something, sitting birds only find death. I have found both women and churches." This seems to be a prediction for Ingeri just watching as Karin is assaulted as well as finding her body and Tore pledging to build a church. In the woods Karin and Ingeri have a conversation about men. Ingeri even mentions what if one tries to force themself upon you and Karin says she would fight them off.
Karin's character throughout the film represents an innocence, clearly connected to virginity. Once that is taken she is killed right after. What is interesting though is the almost fairy tale feel to her character. The journey she goes on, the the men she encounters, the clothes she wears, all feels like some kind of fairy tale. I don't want to blame her for what happens to her, though her parents deserve some blame. I know people probably had intentions bad then, but just sending her with a servant? It makes no sense to me. The parents clearly haven't educated her about how not everyone has good intentions. That hits her full force right as she is about to be raped. As soon as she is willing to go anywhere with those men and gives her food she has all ready lost because they interpret that as some kind of invitation. The mute man even says the same things that Ingeri was saying corrupted men will say.
A lot is made about the contrast between Paganism and catholicism in this movie. The bridge keeper in what he says about hearing the whispers of men and how he recognized Ingeri, and his blindness in one eye is a representation of Odin. Ingeri is tempted to stay with him and then rejects him when he makes advances on her. Similar to Don't Torture a Duckling she later blames herself for Karin's death after praying to Odin and feels that guilt. The weapon used by Tore to kill the men has a got with horns as the handle. Ingeri puts a frog inside one of Karin's loaves of bread. The men don't pray with Karin when she gives them food in the forest, but later they do when at dinner with Tore's family. At the end of the film, Tore gives a passionate monologue about how God let him even do the act of vengeance in the first place, but also he will dedicate his life to penance and build a church in the spot where she died. This is all how those different religions are represented differently. I also love the quote the beggar says to the boy about guilt,"See the smoke trembling under the roof as if with fright? Yet when it gets out in the air, it has the whole sky to swirl about in. But it doesn't know that, so it huddles and trembles in the soot under the roof. It's the same with people. They quiver like a leaf in the storm, afraid of what they know and what they don't know."
The vengeance scene itself, while not bloody is still brutal. When Tore throws the boy across the room to kill him that is when you realize that all men have cruelty inside them. A point of the movie. Similar to the Last House on the Left I love how the men sit around looking guilty while Karin starts to walk away after the rape happens. While this wasn't an amazing movie entertainment wise I enjoyed the different things to talk about and many of the individual camera shots. As my first Bergman movie, I can see the hype and it is nicer to see a younger Max Von Sydow absolutely killing it with his performance.
Rating: 8/10
Trivia: The film is inspired by Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. This movie in turn inspired the Last House on the Left. Bergman later called it a poor imitation of Kurosawa, despite that fact it won an Oscar for best foreign language film.
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