Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

To Joy (1950)

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Although veteran film-maker Sjöström's performance in Wild Strawberries is well known, he first appeared before Bergman's camera as the wise old conductor of the Helsingborg symphony orchestra. Taking its title from Schiller's Ode to Joy (as used in the choral finale to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony), the film follows the fortunes of orchestral players Nilsson and Olin, as they take the rough with the smooth in setting up home together. The framing of the story lets us know very early that she will lose her life in a tragic fire, leaving the question how her widowed husband will draw on his experiences to find the will to continue. Frankly, it's a crude device, barely worthy of the film's wise portrait of domesticity in all its facets, but it does play effectively against Sjöström's resonant description of Beethoven expressing 'a joy beyond all understanding'. As the couple's young son listens intently to the symphony rehearsal which closes the proceedings, Bergman's investment in a lesson to be learned is self-evident.

Author: TJ 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Producer: Allan Ekelund

Cast: Stig Olin, Maj-Britt Nilsson, Victor Sjöström, Birger Malmsten, John Ekman, Margit Carlqvist full cast

Duration: 98 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

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.