Cries and Whispers (1972)

Ingmar Bergman, why haven't I given up on you yet? Your works are prized in intellectual circles, but I've seen plenty by now and even my favorite feels hit and miss to me. I knew going into this that my chance of enjoying the viewing, or even feeling that I didn't waste my time, was less than 50%. Still, if I had to try it, immediately after two uplifting features was the right time.

Like in Autumn Sonata, the focus is on the interactions among mostly related women, with only occasional male input and very little plot progression. Basically everything happens inside the mansion where three sisters grew up, to which they have returned because one of them, Agnes (Harriet Andersson), has uterine cancer, in an era when not much could be done about it. Maid Anna (Kari Sylwan) can't be the only caretaker anymore. As they wait for the dying to end, Maria (Liv Ullmann) and Karin (Ingrid Thulin) also reminisce.

Autumn Sonata (1978)

This is only the second Ingmar Bergman film I've seen in color, as well as the first with dubbing rather than subtitles, because that's what the DVD offered. The dub dialog is finely chosen, but the accents are so heavy that I didn't immediately realize it was English. Regardless, I could appreciate the advantage of not having to read the whole time, even if I had to remind myself not to get distracted by the slight disconnect between the words and the lip movements.

Famed pianist Charlotte (Ingrid Bergman, with the similarly named but unrelated director for once) visits her eldest daughter, Eva (Liv Ullmann), for the first time in ages. She is unpleasantly surprised to find her other daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), living there too. Helena has limited mobility and apparently some sort of brain damage, her speech rarely intelligible to anyone but Eva. Eva's husband, Viktor (Halvar Björk), is also present but mostly keeps to himself, especially when Charlotte and Eva are conversing, since these two have considerable issues with each other.

Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes (2013)

The entire Department Q trilogy was on a list of favorite Netflix screening options. I took care to start with the first, not The Absent One (2014) or A Conspiracy of Faith (2016). They all have similar IMDb scores. Perhaps I should have noted that their Rotten Tomatoes scores get progressively much higher.

Somewhere in Denmark, impulsive policeman Carl has botched a raid, leaving his partners out of commission and himself needing months of recovery. Afterward, no one else on the force wants to work with him, so the chief invents a Department Q, populated by Carl and assistant Assad, for sorting files of closed cases. But before long, Carl gets suspicious about a woman's reported suicide: Why do that on a cruise with her heavily brain-damaged brother? He and Assad investigate further, taking a trip to Sweden, despite the chief's consternation. As you've no doubt predicted, they're right.

Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)

When I think of Ingmar Bergman, I think of bleak brooding. Sometimes his artistry makes it worth my while, and sometimes I wish I hadn't bothered. I chose this viewing at the time for the word "summer," but I put it on my queue in the first place because I had to see what a Bergman romantic comedy would be like. Especially one that inspired a Woody Allen comedy.

Circa 1900, a group of adults gets together for a typical Swedish solstice celebration. What makes it unusual is that the hostess, Desiree, invited them specifically to sort out their relationship troubles. They include Fredrik, who used to have an affair with her; his much younger virgin wife, Anne; his adult son, Henrik, who wants to be a minister but has mutual feelings for Anne; servant Petra, who wants Henrik; Count Carl-Magnus, who currently has an affair with Desiree and the military might to intimidate romantic rivals; and Countess Charlotte, who loves Carl-Magnus regardless.

My Life as a Dog (1985)

Although the Netflix summary mentions only summer, I recalled from what little I had already seen of this movie that it gets snowy -- not a surprise for Sweden. It turns out that we hear the characters preparing for Christmas near the end, so I was not remiss in my timing of this viewing.

Not that the mood is especially upbeat. A slice of life based loosely on the writer's real life, it follows preteen Ingemar during his mother's severe illness and beyond, which he first understands as a nervous breakdown from having to deal with him and his older brother fighting. Each brother is sent away to extended family; their dog Sickan (no pun intended, I presume) is said to go to a kennel, but Ingemar grows increasingly suspicious of her fate. At his most frustrated, he has his own sort of breakdown, exhibiting canine behaviors that explain the title, albeit not for much screen time.

The Phantom Carriage (1921)

I don't believe I'd ever seen a silent Swedish film before. Fittingly, it was Ingmar Bergman's favorite from an early age, though I couldn't have independently identified any sign of influence besides Grim Reaper imagery. Interestingly, TPC doesn't have a Grim Reaper in the sense we usually think of: The task of collecting dead souls (merely carrying them, not using the purely ceremonial scythe) falls to a new dead soul each year, namely whoever dies last in the year. Apparently, the legend makes no allowance for time zone differences.

As you can guess, this story includes the stroke of midnight, with chimes dutifully supplied in addition to a haunting score. Protagonist David, a homeless drunk, has been wary of the legend but injudiciously provokes his companions into a serious fight. Then he meets the titular carriage's retiring driver, Georges, whom he happened to have met shortly before his death. David reeeeally doesn't want to take over (is it that terrible a way to spend a year in the afterlife?), and we actually never see him take the reins or a soul in his hands. Georges forces him only to come along for information....

Play (2011)

A Meetup group on international cinema invited me to this entry in a Ruben Östlund festival. I would not have come otherwise, and not just because of the bland title (which works a little on a few levels). Force Majeure looked more promising but had a less convenient showtime. Still, director Östlund himself recommends Play most strongly -- as his most provocative.

In the Swedish tradition set by Ingmar Bergman, this is not an entertainment film. It will irritate you if you ever faced bullies or thieves, so I hope you don't mind anger at fiction. Mostly it's five teenage boys harassing three sixth-grade boys (mostly just intimidation with feigned innocence and mockery) for hours until the latter surrender their valuables, far from home. I knew better than to expect justice. What I didn't readily know was the point -- or the several points.

Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (1922)

Yup, another foreign film right after the last, this one involving an allegedly more genuine brand of magic. Last Halloweeny pic I'll watch for some time, I warrant; Netflix just had a long wait on it.

It's only the second silent so-called "documentary" I've seen, after the reportedly dishonest Nanook of the North. (You can watch the William S. Burroughs-dubbed version from 1968 on the same disc if you hate reading intertitles or want to save time, but I prefer the powerful classical score to the quirky jazz. I don't think the later one uses helpful tinting either.) In truth, while this Swedish-Danish collaboration does start out looking like a presentation along the lines of An Inconvenient Truth, complete with rare first-person narration by the researcher, it soon goes on to reenactment with license a la "America's Most Wanted" and feels more like historical fiction. Which makes it no less enjoyable.