Shame

“Set a tiny step into the future, the film has the inevitability of a common dream. . . . One of Bergman’s greatest films, [and] one of the least known” (Pauline Kael). Fleeing a civil war in their country, a couple (Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann), both musicians, retreat to a remote island to grow fruit and cultivate their mutual love. But war overtakes them, exacting its total surrender of pride, privacy, and finally, principle. An oblique response to the escalating war in Vietnam, Shame expands Bergman’s frame from interpersonal conflicts to political ones.

“Set a tiny step into the future, the film has the inevitability of a common dream. . . . One of Bergman’s greatest films, [and] one of the least known” (Pauline Kael). Fleeing a civil war in their country, a couple (Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann), both musicians, retreat to a remote island to grow fruit and cultivate their mutual love. But war overtakes them, exacting its total surrender of pride, privacy, and finally, principle. An oblique response to the escalating war in Vietnam, Shame expands Bergman’s frame from interpersonal conflicts to political ones.