Crisis (1946)

☆ ☆ ☆

Crisis (1946) – I. Bergman

Ingmar Bergman’s first feature is a melodrama about women’s relationships (foreshadowing some of his later concerns).  In particular, we meet an older woman, Ingeborg (Dagny Lind), who has been foster mother for a young girl, Nelly (Inga Landgré), now 18 and ready for adulthood. They live in a country town, away from the pleasures and perils of the big city.  However, at the start of the film, Nelly’s birth mother arrives from Stockholm to take her back, now that she has established herself with her own beauty salon and slick boy toy (Stig Olin).  Of course, this creates conflict, as the strangers bring their different (rougher) sensibilities to the town, threatening Nelly’s relationship with older suitor Ulf (Allan Bohlin) and Ingeborg’s health and well-being (because Nelly is her only companion).  When Nelly does choose to leave in defiance, she finds that the city is not exactly what she wants.  So, a rather straightforward melodrama marked by some ordinary and variable acting, a few stock types and situations, but the occasional glimpse of something more interesting.  Olin, as the most interesting character, manages his part well and Bergman gives him a well-staged end. Even maestros start somewhere...