Day 50: I’ve Seen Greatness 2017

I’ve Seen Greatness 2017

I’m calculating what I have yet to see and working out my Darwinian list of film scheduling. I’m also trying to polish another essay.

I’ve realised that I need to

look  reach  pull  clear

as I plummet to earth with 20 films in my brain. Those four words that you need to have foremost in your head when skydiving – that they go over and over, again and again, in the preparatory training, before your first jump -were good words to bring to mind seven days ago and consider while free-falling through the world of great films, dominated by – gravity – Ingmar Bergman.

During the last ten days I’ve been lucky enough to have time to watch the other three Ingmar Bergman films I found by accident in Lane Cove library: Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963), The Silence (1963).

Winter Light is like preparation for Fanny and Alexander and The Silence is like preparation for Cries and Whispers.

But I saw them out of order and didn’t get to experience the developing artist. Now, I see where the regard for Fanny and Alexander comes from by directors and now I rate Cries and Whispers even more highly than a few weeks ago when I already thought it was ground-breaking and brilliant.

I started an essay three or four days ago, called Ingmar Bergman – Extraordinary Artist which I will add to over the weeks as my understanding of his films becomes more finely tuned. I think watching these twelve films in seven weeks would be like reading twelve of Shakespeare’s greatest plays in seven weeks, or hearing twelve of Mozart’s greatest works in quick succession.