Hour of the Wolf

Hour of the Wolf is like a cluster bomb of confusing scenes, weird non sequiturs and general mayhem. And that is exactly the point. The film follows Johan (Max von Sydow) and his pregnant wife Alma (Liv Ullmann) who are living on a remote island. Which is about all the set up you get before the insanity starts.

I honestly don't know if the things haunting Johan and also his wife for she sees them as well are supposed to be ghosts or demons or whether they are supposed to be descent in to madness. At first I thought "this is crazy" which slowly transformed into "this is fantastic because its crazy."

Bergman does wonders again with black and white film and the way shadows move across surfaces and veil figures. Sydow is surprisingly low key but brilliant as the artist who is slowly going crazy. This film strikes me as the cinematic equivalent of going insane, here's hoping I never do.