His Early Films

While Frenzy was a great success for its director and scriptwriter, when Bergman turned to his first directorial assignment (at the age of 27), he did not write his own screenplay but adopted a Danish play. Thus film Kris (Crisis) was made in 1945, and was followed closely by Det Regnar Pa Var Karlek (It Rains on Our Love) in 1946, and Skepp Till Indialand (Ship to India) with Musik i Morker (Music In The Dark) in 1947. All these films had similar elements—young lovers and social interaction, but as to be expected of early attempts, they were often clumsy and unreal, exaggeration of emotions leading to melodrama.

Then in 1948 he made Hamnstad (Port Of Call) in which he used a documentary influenced style to tell the story of a sailor and the girl he meets—a girl who has a past of delinquency, institutions and probation—and the strength they derive from each other. This was realistically handled, set against the harbours and wharves of Goteberg and enabled Bergman to make some sharp comments about the social milieu. This was the first film he made for Svensk Film industri and he had the services of Gunnar Fischer as cameraman for what was to be the first in a very long series of films in partnership. A craftsman himself, Fischer photographed the docks of the harbour in a harshly beautiful but unromanticised style.

Fangelse (Prison), made in the same year, is in a completely different style. Here, Bergman started his experiments in expressionism and allegory that were to become so familiar in his later work. He was developing also that analytical style in which he loves to probe among the sources of suffering. Guilt, fear, humiliation, horror, sadism; the elements are shortly to emerge which can be recognised as hallmarks of his method in later films.