The Girls
(1968)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film:
B-
Actress
Mai Zetterling continued her directing career with The Girls in 1968, a few years and films after her interesting
debut film Loving Couples (1964,
reviewed elsewhere on this site) based this time on the Aristophanes’ Lysistrata
which is a satire about war and women.
The cliché is that women would have less wars if they ran the world, but
it turns out war is much more about human nature than human sexuality.
The film
is more accessible than Loving Couples,
and though she improved as a director by this point, that does not make it a
better or worse film. An added layer of
amusement from the screenplay by Zetterling and David Hughes is that the play
actually triggers more insanity as it drives the title characters crazy,
induces more conflict, causes several Freudian slips and they being to take
some aspects too seriously even to the point of conflict roaring out on
stage. Think All About Eve for intellectuals.
The film
owes something to the Bette Davis/Joseph L. Mankiewicz classic, but is still
squarely in the Bergman/Swedish Cinema mold, if not as spiritual, mystical and
obtuse. Unlike the rag-tag cycle of
recent films we have seen with loose connections to everything from Shakespeare
to Peter Pan, there is definitely more cohesion and chemistry between Bibi
Anderson, Gunnel Lindblom and Harriet Andersson than in those mostly neurotic,
indie productions. Sure, this has
neurosis, but it is not totally a pastiche of them, the BIG mistake those
current films often make. It could even
be more balanced like Scorsese’s After
Hours, but the route it takes mixed the side characters in nicely and there
are passages that are quieter and about connections to nature that make the
film more ambitious. It may fall short
when all is said and done, but its ambition and female point of view make it
worth your time.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 pillarboxed is from a brand new digital HD
transfer and has its moments, but sometimes, detail is limited and there are
slight moments of things almost washing out, though they are minor. Cinematographer Rune Ericson succeeds Sven
Nykvist as Zetterling’s cameraman and delivers equally compelling monochrome
images, if not with the signature brilliance only Nykvist can deliver. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is fine for its
age and between clear dialogue and Michael Hurd’s score, complements the
picture well.
Extras
include a text foldout inside the DVD case with all the films cast &
credits, text filmographies of the lead and a 73-minutes 1996 tribute feature
to the director and this film called Lines
From the Heart that is fun to watch and shows the lasting bond the creators
made with each other and with cinema.
- Nicholas Sheffo
