A Ship Bound for India (1947)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
The spirit of Carné's Quai des Brumes presides over this rather obvious dockside melodrama, adapted from Martin Söderhjelm's play. Tugboat captain Löwenadler dominates the proceedings as the volatile paterfamilias who's alienated his long-suffering wife (Lindahl) and son (Malmsten), but whose abrasive exterior also masks his thwarted dreams of escape. The news that he's going blind sharpens tensions, as his illicit relationship with chorus girl Fridh comes into the open, though Malmsten might better satisfy her hopes for the future. The collision of claustrophobia and yearning in both domestic and geographical terms is vivid enough, though at this stage the emotive and thematic weight of Bergman's ambitions prove a bit too much for his decidedly functional plotting and characterisation. The captain's secret room, filled with model boats and exotic knick-knacks, shows an isolated spark of inspiration in its visual rendering of psychological ferment.Author: TJ
Cast & crew
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Producer: Lorens Marmstedt
Cast: Holger Löwenadler, Birger Malmsten, Gertrud Fridh, Anna Lindahl, Lasse Krantz, Jan Molander full cast
Duration: 102 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.



What do you think?
Post your review now