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The lyrical opening montage of Gothenburg at the break of dawn is interrupted by the young heroine, who, lost in despairing thought, numbly ambles off the edge of the pier. "We all have our ups and downs, don’t we?" Adolescent anguish is the gig here, disillusioned sailor (Bengt Eklund) and "goddamned reformatory tart" (Nine-Christine Jönsson) meet at a crowded dance hall and struggle with the older generation’s cynicism and their own mixed-up impulses. It’s a bleak world of hard-faced dock workers and stringy authority figures, where adults are no longer interested in romance or books and even a night out at the movies is just a prelude to a street brawl: "Now that I know what happiness is, it will only be worse later." Ingmar Bergman in his hectic sorcerer’s-apprentice studio days, trying on styles like Buster Keaton with hats before a mirror. Jennings, Rossellini and Sternberg for the waterfront scenes, Mädchen in Uniform for the school for wayward girls. Ray’s They Live by Night is concurrent. Embryonic Bergmanisms include the girl facing the camera with her tale (Winter Light) and the black Yank by the flophouse piano (The Serpent’s Egg), plus the recurring image of the tormented protagonist, like the filmmaker, thrashing around in the dark. With Mimi Nelson, Bert Hall, Birgitta Valberg, and Britta Billsten. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |