Recently I read with much sadness about the demolition of the iconic Badami House in Bengaluru. It is a venue that used to screen classics of world cinema. One such masterpiece I watched there, back in the day in glorious black and white, was Ingmar Bergman’s Port of Call (1948). The winds of neo-realism were sweeping across Italy those days and prime examples of the genre include Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione (1943), Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948), and Vittorio De Sica’s Shoeshine (1946) and Bicycle Thieves (1948).
Port of Call is Bergman’s only neo-realist film. It follows a depressive, suicidal young woman with a troubled past who develops a relationship with a sailor who saves her from drowning. All appears to be going well, until her saviour discovers some unsavoury details from her past. The narrative is dense and layered with Bergman choosing to reveal vital points gradually, in bits and pieces. The film is a window into the conservative Swedish society of that time, including illegal abortion and repression. It also marked the birth of Bergman’s signature visual style, absent in the four features he directed earlier. This is thanks to his collaboration with the great cinematographer Gunnar Fischer with whom he would create amazing worlds in films such as Summer with Monica (1953), Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), The Seventh Seal (1957) and my personal Bergman all-time favourite Wild Strawberries (1957).
Completely unrelated, but with another great cinematographer involved, is Philip Yung’s magisterial Hong Kong set Port of Call (2015), shot by Christopher Doyle (all the great Wong Kar-Wai films have cinematography by him). Yung’s previous features Glamorous Youth (2009) and May We Chat (2014) look at alienation, but Port of Call takes the theme to new heights, or depths if you will. Centring on the gruesome murder of a young woman, the film, like its Swedish namesake, reveals its secrets gradually. It evolves from being a whodunit to a whydunit to being an examination of human nature. I look forward to Yung’s next film, Theory of Ambitions , due out later this year, which unites Port of Call lead actor Aaron Kwok with the peerless Tony Chiu-Wai Leung ( In The Mood For Love, Infernal Affairs ).
Meanwhile, the good folks at the Criterion Collection continue to hasten aficionados’ collective slide into penury. Out in November is a lavish homage to Bergman to celebrate his 100th birthday. Simply titled Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema , the box set includes 39 films, a 248-page book of essays and over 30 hours of supplemental material. It is styled as a film festival, complete with opening and closing films, centrepiece galas and double features. It includes all the aforementioned Bergman films, and also has The Virgin Spring (1960), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Persona (1966), Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes from a Marriage (1973), Autumn Sonata (1978) and Fanny and Alexander (1982) in newly restored versions. Cannot. Wait.
